Professor Cornel West: Obama Is A ‘War Criminal’ Like Nixon And Bush

February 14th, 2013 Princeton University Professor Cornel West severely criticized President Barack Obama on Thursday while he co-hosted the Tavis Smiley radio show. West said that Obama’s recently uncovered legal justification for attacks on American citizens in league with Al Qaeda amounted to war crimes. Obama is, like his Republican predecessors Richard Nixon and George W. Bush, a war criminal, West said. “Your thoughts on this so-called license to kill?” Smiley asked West. “The chickens are coming home to roost,” West replied. “We’ve been talking about this for a good while, the immorality of drones, dropping bombs on innocent people, it’s been over 200 children so far. These are war crimes.” “I think we have to be very honest, let us not be deceived — Nixon, Bush, Obama, they’re war criminals,” West continued. “They have killed innocent people in the name of the struggle for freedom, but they’re suspending the law, very much like Wall Street criminals. The law is suspended for them, but the law applies for the rest of us.” West highlighted a double standard in conclusion by saying that, if he or Smiley were to conduct themselves as Obama has, they would be sent to prison. Listen to the segment below via The Tavis Smiley Show:

http%3A//www.mediaite.com/online/professor-cornel-west-obama-is-a-war-criminal-like-nixon-and-bush/



• Obama wouldn't have to do what he's doing if Bush hadn't been in office.

• r1, is a black obamabot

• Like he actually cares about those children. His ass is still butt hurt.

• I guess Dr. West is also a freeper. DL freaks call everybody who isn't an Obama fanboy a freeper.

• Obama -- the bait and switch president.

• Bill Clinton's bombing of Belgrade adds him to that list of war criminals. I don't think Obama is as bad as Bush,Clinton or Nixon but he's getting there. Especially with the use of drones which is terrible because of innocents dying. R4 Dr West is no freeper, he's just calling it as he sees it. Though I don't see Obama as bad as some of those other presidents he mentioned.

• Drones reduce the impact of war on civilians. More innocents would die with other types of weapons. The targets are people plotting to attack Americans and with the means to do so. As long as there is some reasonable process to screen the targets, I think the use of drones is justified.

• Please, Bush/Cheney take the criminal cake. Everyone else, petty crimes in comparison.

• [quote]Drones reduce the impact of war on civilians. Lol!

• Find a war where civilians weren't killed. You'd have to add every president who ever presided over a war to that list.

• Hi Tel Aviv at r7!

• How nice that the Congress Press Office aka R7 monitors DL!

• And Cornel West is a fashion criminal.

  http://manolomen.com/images/Cornel%20West.jpg

• r6 how can you argue that Bush, Clinton and Nixon are war criminals and then say Obama is not as bad. If anything, he's worse because if the reports are true, he wants the ultimate power of deciding who lives and who dies if they are deemed a threat. Hypothetically, these American citizens can be killed on foreign or domestic soil. That's not how our gov't is set up.

• How many innocent people were murdered on 9/11?

• West needs a new schtick. He uses that "Chickens coming home to roost" line constantly.

• Princeton has a rightwad bunch of morons hiding under a veil of ivy.

• R15 about less than 0.5% of the civilians that have died directly by actions of the US Army since then.

• r16's penis has spoken -- and he expects us all to listen with the same rapt attention as his mother.

• Brother Cornel is often right but in this case he goes a little bit too far.

• Love your made up 'statistic' R18. Thanks for playing.

• I think West is right. Bush got away with murdering a 100 thousand innocent people in Iraq...Obama will probably be put on trail for killing 2 or 3 hundred. Sorry but I think it's wrong...except if he wants to use a drone to kill Wayne LaPierre, I'm damn fine with that.

• Sorry R21? Playing? The wars in Irak and Afganistan? How many civilians do you think that have died there? Are you really that unhingedly stupid?

• [quote]The CIA’s drone campaign in Pakistan has killed dozens of civilians who had gone to help rescue victims or were attending funerals, an investigation by the Bureau for the Sunday Times has revealed. These are war crimes. The "double-tap" strategy is explicitly and unambiguously a war crime. Anyone who tries to defend it is twisted and disturbed.

  http://www.salon.com/2012/02/05/u_s_drones_targeting_rescuers_and_mourners/singleton/

• The US did not kill 100,000 people in Iraq. 85% of those who died were killed as the result of the sectarian civil war. I think some of you misunderstand the definition of war criminal. It does not mean anyone who commands forces in a war in which civilians die. Civilians die in all wars.

• CCornel West is an Uncle Tom house Negro who should sit the fuck down.

  Django

• [quote]West needs a new schtick. He uses that "Chickens coming home to roost" line constantly. But at least he made it up originally!

  Malcolm%20X

• Fuck you...you lying sack of shit! Remember "shock and ah"? For some reason, all you right wing idiots forget that bombs are made for killing people. Now shut the fuck up...ignorant fool.

• I've noticed that West hasn't been saying nice things about Obama for some time now, and I keep wondering why. Are African American Muslim leaders afraid they could be labeled as drone targets? Do they have any connection with West?

• lol, R27, exactly.

• West is simply talking about morality. Something most of you can't grasp. Of couse I voted for Obama but I can not excuse everything he's decided to do. I never shut up about Bush and his stupidity but I can also disagree with Obama.

• lol @ "shock and ah."

• [quote]How many innocent people were murdered on 9/11? We don't know the exact number. There was never a decent official, thorough and unbiased investigation into the events of 9/11. For some reason neither the Congress nor the Bush administration would impanel an investigation into 9/11 until after the victims' families lobbied Congress for 18 months.

• [quote]Remember "shock and ah"? Owe, dear.

• Lol, R34. We need people (with facts on their side) to call out our leaders often on a variety of issues. It's not healthy to be a happy clappy, drink the Koolaid liberal/progressive.

• West and Smiley have been doing their he-man Obama-haters routine ever since the first campaign when Obama refused to kiss Smiley's butt. Their shows are now nothing more than pseudo-intellectual Amos n Andy routines.

• Whether I spell it shock and awe or shock and ah, it's the same thing. Bombs falling on innocent people for no reason. Now, if you can accept the truth of what happened, instead of pointing out a spelling error, I believe there is something important to be learned. If President Obama continues down this path I believe he leaves himself wide open for the accusation of being a war criminal. If the USA can bomb people in other countries, as we do all the time...I can't blame other countries or "terrorist groups" from coming here and doing the exact same thing, to us.

• Smiley = smart Harvard grad Obama = cooperative Harvard grad

• R14 Did Yugoslavia attack us? No. There was a civil war there where Muslim, Croat, Albanians and Serbians were killing each other. There were marketing firms hired by Saudi Arabia to disseminate information on 'one group" being killed.Belgrade's bridges and electric systems were affected to make the civilian population as well.It would be like New Mexico declaring independence and the Chinese bomb New York City infrastructure to stop us from keeping New Mexico in the union.Can you imagine the Queensboro and GW bridges being bombed out and the electricity not working for weeks in the NYC area? We got a small taste of it on 9/11,Hurricane Sandy and the last storm(particularly on Long island and Connecticut). Bush Jr? You're kidding me. We invaded Iraq on a false pretext. Once again they didn't attack us did they? Maybe they threatened Israel BUT the US is not Israel.We had interests like oil BUT Bush and Cheney didn't even take advantage of that fact! Nixon. How long did he prolong Vietnam for? He claimed to have the secret to end it back in 1968 and what happened? In addition, the Cyprus situation was made worse by Nixon and his shill/traitor Kissinger's lack of support for the Greek dictatorship. They said one thing to their faces an another thing behind their back. And hundred of thousands of Greek and Turkish Cypriots were displaced because of Kissinger's duplicity. As for Obama,he got us in involved in Libya which was small potatoes compared to their other excursions. I don't like the drones at all BUT how many people have been killed relative to all the other wars that I've mentioned? A paltry few. That being said Obama's hands are not clean at all BUT he hasn't started a war on false premises like Iraq and unlike Bush/Cheney he didn't start a war when they hadn't finished one(Afghanistan then Iraq). It is a crime that so many people are dying in Syria BUT Obama has been told by the Russians to not get involved. The Russians learned their lesson from the Bombing Of Belgrade. It's not enough to express displeasure BUT to tell the US government when to back off.

• Between 2006 and 2009 between 750 and 1000 people were killed by drone strikes in Pakistan. Of these, about 20 people were leaders of Al Qaeda, Taliban, and associated groups. Overall, about 66 to 68 percent of the people killed were militants, and between 31 and 33 percent were civilians. Keeping in mind that in an effort to minimize reporting of civilian casualties Obama redefined "militant" to mean "any military-aged male" there have been between 727 and 980 civilian deaths. These figures don't include his illegal forays into Yemen, Libya, Somalia.

  http://www.alternet.org/world/bomber-chief-20000-airstrikes-presidents-first-term-cause-death-and-destruction-iraq-somalia

• West and Tavis Smiley despise Obama because he didn't kiss their assess sufficiently enough.

• Bullshit.

• I think many know that our military corporations actually run this country. I guess Obama is trying to play the game as well as he can...without being assasinated by our FBI or CIA. Both organizations run for the benefit of the military corporations. If you look at our history, it really becomes obvious who actually runs the country. Anyway, President Johnson played the game, because he wanted certain programs put in place. At that point in history, they let Johnson get away with a few social upgrades but Obama? Seems like they are giving him nothing.

• Does anyone care who Cornel West is or what he has to say? About anything?

  No.

• Yes.

  Morality%20and%20decency.%20

• West and Smiley need to pack up their show and gone home. Smiley said he views himself as the Booker T Washington to Abe Lincoln. Since Obama became President- they have dogged him because Obama doesn't listen to their stupidity. Blacks can't stand them.

  Anonymmous

• Professor Cornel West needs to sit his old ass down.

• Was CW this vocal during either the Clinton or Bush Presidencies? If not, why not? Is it only important to hold Black Presidents up for moral scrutiny?

• This is an example of why the Black community has been as retarded in its growth. Called the "crab barrel mentality". You see a crab making it for the top of the barrel and resentment makes you pull then back down into the rest of the crabs so they have to fight to get back up again. No one hates Black people more than other Black people.

  keepin%20it%20real

• Dissenting opinions are necessary to promote critical thinking and examination of issues. Nothing wrong with that.

• Morality and decency are too subjective, it is how we have ended up being such a shit-hole country. If we were only ethical to all people, we would have been on top.

• I only wish more academics would have the courage to create discourse in this country.