Why Bugliosi Wrote “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder” [View All]

[Time for change]

Vincent Bugliosi is a very interesting character. Most important for the purposes of this post, he is the most high profile and reputable person in our country to call for the prosecution of George W. Bush for murder – or anything else for that matter.

Alan Dershowitz has called him “as good a prosecutor as there ever was”. In his career at the LA County District Attorney’s office, he successfully prosecuted 105 of 106 felony jury trials, including 21 murder convictions, including that of mass murderer Charles Manson. So, if Bugliosi thinks that there exists a good case for murder against a sitting U.S. President, it would behoove people to listen to him.

Yet, his new book, “The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder”, has received woefully little attention in this country. No wonder. Our status quo loving corporate news media doesn’t want to rock the boat. And what could cause Americans to feel more nervous about the status of their country than the prosecution for murder of a sitting President – or even a convincing argument that a sitting President ought to be prosecuted for murder?

Vincent Bugliosi is no flaming liberal. Referring to the crimes for which the U.S. House Judiciary Committee drew up articles of impeachment against Richard Nixon in 1974, Bugliosi calls those acts “infinitely less serious crimes than what George Bush has done”.

In chapter 1 of his book, Bugliosi explains simply that most people fail to see what is directly in front of them and staring them in the face, simply because they either don’t expect to see it or because they don’t want to see it. What would the American people expect and want to see less than the case for murder against their sitting President?

In chapter 2, Bugliosi makes a superficial case (expanded upon in great detail later in the book) that George Bush took his country to war solely for reasons other than those he claimed before his country and Congress.

In chapter 3, Bugliosi explains his motivations for writing the book. He begins that chapter by describing the personal details of several Americans and Iraqis who died in George Bush’s war. He also discusses a good deal of evidence to the effect that George Bush does not take seriously the tremendous amount of death and destruction caused by the war that he dishonestly led us into. To the contrary, he doesn’t seem to be the least bit affected by it.

Bugliosi certainly doesn’t pull any punches when he gets onto a subject that he feels emotional about. I review here his main motivations for writing his book. I do that for much the same reason that Bugliosi wrote it: the hope that it will motivate some people to open their eyes wider and be more flexible in the way that they view our President:


Failure to protect the troops

After noting that most of the thousands of American soldiers who died in the war thought that they were dying to protect their country against terrorists, Bugliosi continues:

The additional fact that these soldiers were sent into a war zone without the equipment necessary to protect them… shows how little regard Bush and his administration have for those who have been willing to risk their lives fighting Bush’s war…

The situation was so bad that American soldiers in Iraq were literally writing home and having their loved ones send requested body and armor parts for the Humvees to them…

A Pentagon study in 2006 found that some 80% of the marines who were killed in Iraq between 2003 and 2005 from upper body wounds could have survived if they had extra body armor there… As of late 2005… less than 10% of upper armor plates on order had reached our marines in Iraq.

Why so little support for our troops? Bugliosi compares the meager amounts of money spent on protecting our troops to Bush’s $1.3 trillion tax giveaway for the ultra-rich:

The flag waving super patriots in the Bush administration, who want us to believe they love our troops so much more than Democrats do, actually wanted to partially fund the tax giveaway on the backs of these poor soldiers dying for them and their wealthy corporate friends in Iraq…

Democrats voiced their strong opposition to the Bush administration decision to cut the combat pay of American soldiers fighting in Iraq… Democratic senator John Edwards said, “Our Military deserves every dollar they earn and more. The Bush administration should reverse itself immediately”, which is exactly what Bush and his people did, withdrawing their call for a cut in combat pay the moment they saw their proposal being met with so much opposition.

George Bush doesn’t love his country

In support of his contention that George Bush doesn’t love his country, Bugliosi discusses several related issues. First, on his incredible ignorance and lack of determination to learn anything:

It is obvious that Bush’s knowledge of information and events is shockingly low… He prefers to run the most important country on earth not by reading up on what he needs to know, but by lazily relying on what his gut tells him and on what communication he can manage with God… His sense of responsibility to his country is so remarkably poor that not only doesn’t he read any reports from those in his administration… but he frequently doesn’t even read the summaries… He doesn’t even read newspapers…

On the subject of cronyism:

Another good example showing that Bush has no love or respect for his country is the blatant cronyism he has practiced in his federal appointments… Bush couldn’t care less if they’re qualified… He places loyalty above everything else.

And on the issue of the Iraq War:

The ultimate act by Bush showing a lack of respect and love for this country is leading this nation into a deadly war in Iraq for no justifiable reason at all… Bush’s lying to the people of America to lead them into war shows an absolute, utter contempt for the American people.

The tragedy and irony of a draft dodging “war president”

Bugliosi does a lot of ranting about Bush’s successful attempt to avoid fighting in the Vietnam War. To some extent, I was tempted to feel that he overplayed this issue. After all, there are millions of Americans who choose not to fight in their country’s wars who don’t deserve to be criticized for that.

But in George Bush’s case we are talking about someone who used his father’s connections to avoid fighting in a war that he voiced support for AND – and this is the important part that I believe makes Bugliosi’s criticism of Bush on this issue valid – shows no hesitation whatsoever in sending our young men and women off to fight in a needless war that has resulted in the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people.

And that leads into the next issue:


Enthusiasm for war

Bush not only went to war with a swagger, he wanted war, was looking forward to it… Helen Thomas, who has been covering the White House since 1960, said of all the presidents she has known, Bush was the only one who “wanted to go to war”… “I’m a War President” Bush told Tim Russert.

Bugliosi spends some time arguing that no other U.S. President in our history has ever actually wanted to go to war, and those who did take us to war spent a great amount of time agonizing over it. Then he describes Bush’s actions just prior to the start of the Iraq War:

Here’s how our current president felt about the “agony” of war around 10:00 p.m. on the evening of March 19, 2003, minutes before he would address the nation to inform it the Iraq war had begun… As aides were applying makeup before his televised speech, he pumped his fist and told an aide: “Feel good.” In other words, Bush, “on top of the world”, felt just wonderful about launching a high-tech war of destruction and death which his people obscenely titled “shock and awe.”

“Bring ‘em on”

Bugliosi recounts Bush’s bombastic comments of July 2, 2003:

There are some who feel the conditions are such that they can attack us there (in Iraq). My answer is bring ‘em on.

Bugliosi had this to say about that little speech:

What instantly angered me was that this punk who hid out during the Vietnam War… dared to issue a challenge to the enemy to attack American soldiers… How dare this wimpish punk invite the enemy to kill American soldiers?

The last straw

It was the events of August 8th through August 19th, 2005, that apparently compelled Bugliosi to make the decision to write his book. He describes a several day period of terrible carnage, resulting in at least 43 American and 124 Iraqi deaths. Then he notes:

On august 13, 2005, right in the midst of all this violent death, and with hundreds of Iraqis and Americans crying out uncontrollably over the deaths of their children, parents, brothers, and sisters… and finding no way to cope with the unspeakable horror of it all, Bush, after a hearty breakfast, mapped out for reporters what his schedule was for the rest of the day… (ending with the statement) “So its’ a perfect day”.

Bugliosi continues:

When I read those last words, I said to myself. “No, you son of a bitch – if I may call you that, Mr. President – you’re not going to have a perfect day. Or, I should say, you’re not going to have another perfect day as long as you live if I have anything to say about it. Because I’m going to put a thought in your mind that you’re going to take with you to your grave. It’s the least I can do for the young American boys who came back from your war in a box… and for the thousands of innocent Iraqi men, women, children, and babies who died horrible deaths because of your war. That’s the least I can do.”…

Imagine reading in the newspaper that the man who caused your son’s death, taking him to war under false pretenses, told reporters, smiling, that he was going to have “a perfect day.” I don’t know about you, but if I ever killed just one person, even accidentally, like in a car accident, I’d never have another perfect day as long as I lived…

When we add to this the fact that not only was this not a righteous war, but that Bush took this nation to it under false pretenses, and over 100,000 people died directly because of it, for him to be happy and have plans to have “a perfect day” goes so far beyond acceptable human conduct… Wouldn’t you expect just a little remorse from Bush?...

He’s turned almost the entire civilized world against us; he’s cost this nation over $1 trillion with no end in sight; he’s literally destroyed the nation of Iraq; and most important by far, he is directly responsible for over 100,000 precious human beings having died violent, horrible deaths, yet he says he is feeling “pretty good about life.”…

Can anything be done to bring George Bush to justice? That is what the next chapter is all about.

A final thought

Perhaps some of Bugliosi’s comments in his book are more emotional than they need to be. Or perhaps not. What should be considered too emotional when talking about an issue like this?

If our nation’s Congress were to muster just a small fraction of the emotion and outrage that Bugliosi has over this issue, perhaps they might do something about it. They don’t have the authority to try Bush or Cheney for murder. But they certainly do have the authority – and many of us would argue the responsibility as well – to hold them accountable in other ways.

The American people may or may not some day get through these dark times, restore the rule of law in their country and regain the respect of the international community. But whether we do or not, the failure of our Congress to hold the Bush administration accountable for its many crimes will be regarded by history as disgrace.