20 years ago today, 20. March, 2023

look at today! same thing … starting in 2014 and shelling the donbass for 8 years. now it’ll be russia/china with germany in the middle. financed by a broke usa!

I believe Blair and Alister Campbell constructed the “evidence”, and Bush jumped on the train. The fact Wiki agrees or that there is a movie about it carries very little water.

War is a business. Learned that 50 years ago in Vietnam. It is not about “democracy” communism or “freedom” it is about making the contractors rich. The government supports this. It’s also about making the generals and admirals rich because they go to work for the contractors asap when they retire… At the end of the day it’s all about the money

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Marine General Smedley Butler:

Let the officers and the directors and the high-powered executives of our armament factories and our steel companies and our munitions makers and our ship-builders and our airplane builders and the manufacturers of all other things that provide profit in war time as well as the bankers and the speculators, be conscripted — to get $30 a month, the same wage as the lads in the trenches get.

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But there have to be wars, or at least some “credible enemies”, to justify the need for all those those weapons, right?

Enough to supply the enemy as well in some cases

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“PS> Arrest order only applies in ICC member countries, so visits to any other major power is no problem for accused war criminals.”

Adolf Eichmann might have disagreed with you.

I guess Afghanistan became a target because the gang was holed up there and the local sheriff wasn’t really ibterested in law enforcement.

He was NOT tried in the ICC, or any other International Court:

Yes, Osama bin Laden and some of the leadership were in Afghanistan, where they had been trained, armed and fought with the US backed Mujahidin against the Soviet invaders.
Al-Qaida DID have training camps there, under the protection of their Sunni brothers, the Taliban. (Saddam was a nominal Shia and an enemy of Al-Qaida)

The “gang” that did the deed was actually studying and getting pilot training in USA before they hijacked the planes. None of them were Afghans, or Iraqis.

BTW; The attack on Afghanistan in 2001 was backed by NATO (US imposed Art. 5) and approved by UN. The attack on Iraq in 2003 was NOT.

PS> Sorry if this sounds like a lecture in basic recent history, but it appears that memories are short. (Or the facts doesn’t fit the agenda for some?)

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maybe a movie does hold water as if you sue for demamation ( trying to say its fake facts, slander etc) then there is discovery and nobody hiding the truth wants that. The result of the case is public knowledge.

Mc Donalds found that out in the UK when they sued a couple of greenpeace activists, they won…got awarded 1 Pound, had to admit the cardboard box the burger comes in is as nutritional as the burger according to their idea on nutrition, cost them millions, greenpeace defend by QC’s pro bono.

“He was NOT tried in the ICC, or any other International Court”

Quite so, because there was no such entity. However, my comment infers that a pronounced war criminal need not necessarily feel entirely secure should they depart their own border for a supposedly ‘friendly’ state. It’s going to be interesting to see what happens when the new Czar visits South Africa.

“PS> Sorry if this sounds like a lecture in basic recent history, but it appears that memories are short. (Or the facts doesn’t fit the agenda for some?)”

All true. Thanks for the overview, no apology necessary. Nevertheless, my very generalised contribution has not lost any legitimacy.

There were international courts before the ICC, but he was tried in Israel.
The Nurnberg Court was set up to try Nazi war criminals after WWII.
He escaped before he could be tried there.

My remark about “being safe in other major power” was kind of tongue in cheek and hinting at the hypocrisy that major powers isn’t members of the ICC or ICJ to protect their own citizens from being hauled up before the courts, while supporting the actions when their “enemies” are.

PS> The same applies to other international organizations and treaties, where major powers “cherry pick” the parts they wants to follow and ignore those which they don’t like.
Small states on the other hand are held to account if they stray from the straight and narrow interpretation applied by the powerful.(for others)

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touché

The USA did not recognize in 1998 the Rome statutes of the International Criminal Court along with China, Iraqi, Yemen, Israel,Libya and Qatar. These nations decided to exempt themselves from war crime charges by the ICC. However 123 countries signed the agreement.

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Smedley Butler said that four decades earlier and caught hell for it but… when you’re right, you’re right.

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General Butler is a hero of mine. Ever hear of when the time when he was asked to over throw democracy?

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China, Russia and USA are non-members of ICC, but for different reasons:

PS> Russia was a member, but withdrew in 2016

Here are some good reasons why nobody should (or would?) challenge USA to a fight.
At least not try to attack US mainland:

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lol, forget about the military there are more private guns in the USA than people so they have spares…

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Yep. My competition .22 pistol; competition .22rifle; competition .45; competition .38spl; hunting 30-06; competition service rifle; etc[you get the picture]. :innocent: :rofl: :+1:

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