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Liberals today are trying to rehabilitate the image of George W. Bush. Don’t let them — his monstrous invasion of Iraq, based on lies, led to mass death in Iraq and untold damage to democracy in the US.

by Sara Haghdoosti, Jacobin

Twenty years ago, the Bush administration claimed that Saddam Hussein, a brutal dictator, had “weapons of mass destruction” that justified an invasion not just to keep people in the United States, but the whole world, safe.

They lied. There were no weapons of mass destruction. Bush administration officials misrepresented intelligence again and again to justify an unnecessary invasion. It was a decision that cost thousands of US service members and countless Iraqis their lives.

George W. Bush smiling at some event

Today George W. Bush is the target of a perverse rehabilitation campaign, rooted in the idea that his criticism of Donald Trump’s election lies makes him some kind of savior of our democracy. Yet Bush and Trump and more alike than not — two presidents who used their power to inflict horrible harm around the world, often in contravention of domestic and international laws, and who faced no meaningful repercussions for their actions. Their similarity lays bare the ways that our governing system fails to deliver accountability for leaders who make destructive choices with the violent means at their disposal.

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Militarism and Foreign Policy