9 Reasons Not to Be Sad That War Criminal & Racist, Bush Sr. is Dead
Bush began the 1991 war with Iraq with a blatant lie that Iraqi troops were aiming to invade Saudi Arabia and cut off the U.S. oil supply and deliberating encouraging Kuwait to steal Iraqi oil. With Bush even bombing air raid shelters, 89,000 tons of bombs killed 200,000 Iraqis. He bombed the infrastructure including sewage treatment plants which led to wide spread disease. He massacred tens of thousands of Iraqi soldiers while they were retreating. By 1991, Iraq was ordering its soldiers to pull out of Kuwait through two roads. Those roads became known as the “Highway of Death” when the U.S. military bombed them “like shooting fish in a barrel,” according to one U.S. pilot.
He armed the death squads in Nicaragua that were killing anyone who opposed the Somoza dictatorship and U.S. invasion. He later pardoned all involved.
Bush was a war criminal. He violated the Geneva Convention, anti-torture convention, and War Crimes Act.
He initiated the so-called War on Drugs while allowing drugs to deliberately poison Black and other working class communities. Then threw a million people in jail where inmate slave labor is used to profit corporations.
During his presidential race against Michael Dukakis, he ran the infamous racist “Willie Horton ads”, painting young Black men as rapists and murderers. Bush Sr.’s campaign advisor would even apologize for the ad on his deathbed—Bush never did.
He sexually assaulted at least 8 women, including a 16-year-old woman by groping her when he was 79.
He let the AIDS epidemic grow to kill over 100,000 people. While mostly working class LGBT+ people were on their hospital deathbeds, Bush told them “well, change your behavior.”
As CIA director, Bush Sr. prioritized arms deals with fascist death squads in oil-rich areas, like the mujahedeen in Afghanistan (which would later become the Taliban). This was after he was on the payroll of Dresser Industries—a corporation that made a fortune off of weapons production and oil extraction.
He invaded Panama in 1989, killing 3,000 people and destroying the homes of tens of thousands more, all to keep U.S. military bases in Panama after they were scheduled to be closed by the government.
So who profited from Bush Sr.’s career? Oil corporations, private prisons, and military arms dealers (Bush’s own family!) reaped billions of dollars all throughout the criminal’s presidency. Bush Sr. was only an “American hero” to the wealthy elite that he served. He was an enemy of working class and oppressed people all over the world. It is sad that some progressives like Bernie Sanders praised him in death for his “humble and devoted service” to the country. Truth is our greatest weapon in securing a better future.