Bush Threatened Countries Refusing To Support Iraq War

A confidential transcript of a meeting between President Bush and then-Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar has been published in the El Pais Daily, a left wing newspaper. In the transcript, dated February 22, 2003, Bush tells Aznar that nations like Mexico, Angola, Chile and Cameroon have to understand that the security of the United State is at stake. Specifically, Bush said that Angola would lose financial aid and Chile’s free-trade agreement with the U.S. would never make it out of the Senate.

Further, in the wake of an unsuccessful UN Security Council lobby by Bush to bolster support for a war with Iraq, coupled with millions of Spanish protesting in the streets of Madrid, Aznar called on Bush to help him boost Spanish public opinion of the war and said he was worried by Bush’s optimism. Bush’s response — and this is what most disturbs me — was:

“I am optimistic because I believe I am right. I am at peace with myself.”

How can any leader, including Bush, be at peace with themselves during the build-up to a war? War is one of the most horrifying atrocities human beings engage in, as the end result is always the same thing: death. It takes a truly evil and soulless man to be at peace with himself before and during wartime. Even if Bush didn’t care about all of the Iraqi lives (which he most certainly did not), how could he be at peace with sending thousands of Americans to die overseas?

This article should be a wake up call to U.S. citizens. If our President doesn’t have the moral capacity to cherish and value the lives of Americans and humans in general, then how will he know when the war and death and killing has gone too far and it’s time to end it and bring the troops home? He won’t.