The full transcript of Tim Russert's Meet the Press interview with President Bush is available online: Transcript for Feb. 8 (the interview was actually taped on Saturday, Feb. 7).
If I were a Democratic Party spokesperson, this would be impolitic to mention. But I'm not, so I will. This to me was the most significant moment of the interview. Bush said this in the context of the Iraq War (my emphasis):
By the way, quoting a lot of their data in other words, this is unaccounted for stockpiles that you thought he had because I don't think America can stand by and hope for the best from a madman, and I believe it is essential. [Even in the larger context of the interview, much of his phrasing is somewhat garbled.] I believe it is essential that when we see a threat, we deal with those threats before they become imminent. It's too late if they become imminent. It's too late in this new kind of war, and so that's why I made the decision I made.
What the President is saying here is that he does not intend to abide by international law in future wars. And that he was intentionally defying international law in the Iraq War.
As I've discussed before, "imminent" threat is not just a term of art (or, in this case, of politics). It's a specific concept in international law. A preemptive war is legal if it is in response to an imminent threat. Otherwise, it is illegal.
We know now that Iraq in March 2003, when the invasion began, was in no way an imminent threat to the United States. Bush said in this interview that he didn't even believe Iraq was an imminent threat.
2 comments:
A very interesting point you've made here.
Kinda shows why the Bushies wanted no part of the International Criminal Court.
Even Richard Perle admitted, "I think in this case international law stood in the way of doing the right thing." (see http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,1089158,00.html) These people don't care about international law.
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