On Sunday night, far-left MSNBC host Mehdi Hasan joined far-left propagandist Michael Moore in lamenting that members of the George W. Bush administration were not convicted of war crimes. Moore also declared that the "defense" budget of the U.S. should be aimed at fighting "climate change" instead of military projects like the Iron Dome missile defense system that protects Israeli citizens from being the victims of war crimes by terrorists.
Moore slammed helping Israel defend itself, touting the "good things" America could be doing in the world, humanitarian things:
What if we enlarged our Army Corps of Engineers and did the good things and then put a plaque on those wells in those villages where children and babies died because they didn't have clean water, and the plaque said, "Brought to you from your friends in the United States of America"? That's what I want to be known for around the world -- not this stuff -- not giving a billion dollars for the Iron Dome in Israel -- not to be, you know, the overall military bill that was passed last week was so astounding to me...
Michael Moore -- who last year argued that actually cutting energy consumption and reducing standard of living is the only way to stop global warming -- declared that the U.S. should replace military spending with environmental initiatives: "A Defense bill -- when we think 'defense,' we should be thinking, 'defending ourselves against the climate catastrophe that's creating an extinction event on this planet.' That's what 'defense' should mean."
As the interview was coming to a close, Hasan recalled: "Twenty years on -- war on terror, Iraq -- no one's ever really been held to account. Paul Wolfowitz is busy writing op-eds giving out advice --"
Moore -- who has a dishonest history of attacking Republicans over the 9/11 attacks -- jumped in to interject: "War criminal!" He then jumped in two more times to throw the same label at President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney:
HASAN: Former President George W. Bush just got heckled last week by an Iraq War veteran, and, you know, he's painting his paintings. Dick Cheney's daughter --
MOORE: Well, war criminal.
HASAN: Liz Cheney's a hero to many liberals.
MOORE: Cheney, war criminal, yeah,
HASAN: No consequences,
Moore then summed up:
And there should be. These are war criminals. We were not attacked by the nation of Iraq -- we lost lives -- they lost lives for no reason. It was wrong -- they knew it was wrong. They threw all this money and all the companies like Halliburton that Cheney used to be the CEO of. All of this -- President Eisenhower warned us that people like them will take us right down to the gutter by spending all of this money on so-called defense when we don't even take care of our own people.
This episode of The Mehdi Hasan Show was sponsored in part by T Mobile. Their contact information is linked.
Transcript follows:
MSNBC's The Mehdi Hasan Show
September 26, 2021
8:35 p.m. Eastern
MEHDI HASAN: What if we enlarged our Army Corps of Engineers and did the good things and then put a plaque on those wells in those villages where children and babies died because they didn't have clean water, and the plaque said, "Brought to you from your friends in the United States of America"? That's what I want to be known for around the world -- not this stuff -- not giving a billion dollars for the Iron Dome in Israel -- not to be, you know, the overall military bill that was passed last week was so astounding to me because so much, if we just pare this down a bit --
MEHDI HASAN: I'm so glad you mentioned the -- I'm so glad you mentioned the Defense budget because people keep saying, "We lost the war on terror" -- which we did in many ways -- but you know who didn't lose? Defense contractors. A new study from the National Priorities Project at the Progressive Institute for Policy Studies calculated that at least $7.2 trillion went to military contracts since 9/11. And, as you mentioned, the House just passed a $768 billion Defense spending bill, but apparently we can't afford money for child care or universal pre-K or expanding Medicaid.
MOORE: Right. A Defense bill -- when we think "defense," we should be thinking, "defending ourselves against the climate catastrophe that's creating an extinction event on this planet." That's what "defense" should mean.
(...)
HASAN: Twenty years on -- war on terror, Iraq -- no one's ever really been held to account. Paul Wolfowitz is busy writing op-eds giving out advice --
MOORE: War criminal.
HASAN: Former President George W. Bush just got heckled last week by an Iraq War veteran, and, you know, he's painting his paintings. Dick Cheney's daughter --
MOORE: Well, war criminal.
HASAN: Liz Cheney's a hero to many liberals.
MOORE: Cheney, war criminal, yeah,
HASAN: No consequences,
MOORE: None. And there should be. These are war criminals. We were not attacked by the nation of Iraq -- we lost lives -- they lost lives for no reason. It was wrong -- they knew it was wrong. They threw all this money and all the companies like Halliburton that Cheney used to be the CEO of. All of this -- President Eisenhower warned us that people like them will take us right down to the gutter by spending all of this money on so-called defense when we don't even take care of our own people.
