• dsmk@lemmy.zip
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    1 year ago

    I wouldn’t put Afghanistan and Iraq on the same level.

    Bin Laden (and Al-Qaeda) was in Afghanistan and they refused to hand him over. That invasion had the support of NATO and even Russia and China. Why? Because Al-Qaeda existing doesn’t benefit anyone and they were behind the attacks.

    Iraq was different. It was mostly a US and British invasion, under false pretences. Iraq used to have chemical weapons and even used them against civilians back in the 80s, started a war with Iran and invaded Kuwait, but those were not the reasons given for the invasion…

    Now, why wasn’t Bush charged with any crimes? For the same reason nothing will happen to Putin in Russia. What are you going to do, invade the country to arrest the president?

    Is it fair? No. But it’s how the world works.

    • Random Dent@lemmy.ml
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      1 year ago

      Fun fact! In 2002 the US passed a law allowing themselves to invade the Hague in case any high-ranking US officials ended up on trial there.

      Which I’m sure they passed in the year between 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq just by coincidence, and they weren’t expecting any shady shit to go down at all.

    • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Iraq was different. It was mostly a US and British invasion, under false pretences

      Lil Bush didn’t even really know…

      He was just a puppet, and Cheney was part of his dad’s “old guard”. Lil Bush knew the game, so Cheney set it up so every intel agency reported to Dick Cheney, and Dick Cheney decided if that info went anywhere else, including Lil Bush.

      Cheney wanted the war, so he only passed on info that would cause the war, and it’s entirely likely he was the only member of the American government who could have seen 9/11 coming. The reason no one else could, was everything has to go thru Cheney, and he saw everything.

      I’m not saying Lil Bush is innocent, I’m saying he was a useful idiot that knew he was just a puppet and went along with

      But it pisses me off everyone acts like the puppet fall guy is who we should be upset with, not the people who were actually doing stuff and still work with the American Republican political party.

      • dsmk@lemmy.zip
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        1 year ago

        So, tl;dr: After being hammered by strikes they made an offer to hand him over to a 3rd party?

        • grte@lemmy.ca
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          1 year ago

          That’s correct. It wasn’t their first attempt, either. Instead Bush opted for the 20 years of occupation for whatever reason.

          • dsmk@lemmy.zip
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            1 year ago

            I’m not defending the occupation and whole “nation building” (which I doubt they though would take 20 years). Just pointing out that there was a difference between Afghanistan and Iraq, and that difference was reflected by the support (or lack of) from other countries.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        The United States today rejected yet another offer by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban to turn over Osama bin Laden for trial in a third country if the U.S. presents evidence against bin Laden and stops air attacks.

        It’s insane to suggest the US would ever agree to that.

        I believe it would have been the correct move, but the US as a nation would straight up never agree to that. The citizenry would have lost their fucking minds.

    • malloc@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Both countries also do not recognize the authority of International Court. High ranking officials definitely should have been hauled off to jail for authorizing, developing, and employing “enhanced interrogation” (aka torture) techniques