WASHINGTON, 13 July 2003 — “There’s nothing more serious than deception and prevarication on national security matters,” former Green Party presidential candidate Ralph Nader told journalists this week.
The invasion of Iraq was illegal, unconstitutional and an impeachable offense, he said.
Indifferent to which party he offended, Nader said President George W. Bush is impeachable now and beatable in 2004, then criticized the Democrats for failing to exploit the “corporate crimes” perpetrated in the last three years by Bush the administration.
The alleged weapons of mass destruction, connection of Saddam Hussein to Sept. 11 and the depiction of Saddam as a threat to United States were all part of that deception, he said.
He urged the nine Democratic presidential hopefuls to attack Bush on these points, adding Democrats are showing an “unwillingness and inability to go after the principal vulnerability of Bush, which are the corporate crimes, fraud and abuse that has swept the country.”
In many ways, this was light criticism of Bush by Nader. He has said the war in Iraq developed from “a messianic militaristic determination turned by a closed mind, facilitated by a cowering Congress and opposition Democrat Party and undeterred by a probing press.”
Bush is acting “in effect as a selected dictator,” Nader told journalists before the war the on Iraq. He has also attacked the president for “not listening to any of the many retired admirals, generals and foreign-policy experts who have warned against the war.”
“For a cheap political advantage, the administration will destroy freedoms and civil rights, undermine our economy and destroy the position of the United States in the world.”
Nader says the real reason for the invasion of Iraq is based on greed. “Despite well-known ties to Big Oil, Bush Administration officials have managed to keep a straight face as they insist that the drive to war against Iraq is motivated only by an effort to eliminate weapons of mass destruction and establish democracy.”
Two politicians have earned Nader’s approval, and he endorses Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, and Howard Dean, who has surprised many observers with his fund-raising abilities, “has an excellent speech, but needs to move further away from the centrist Democratic Leadership Council. But even today, his speech does not touch on corporate abuse.”
