Mutiny in the Party? Prominent Democratic Intellectual Calls Obama a “War Criminal”

Dr. Cornel West, a prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America, used to be an Obama supporter. Lately, though, the tide has turned, and he has been publicly referring to the president as a “war criminal”. West joins a growing number of former fans who no longer support the president due to his dubious ethics.

During a recent discussion on Real Time, Bill Maher questioned Dr. West about his labeling of Obama as a “war criminal”.  West stated that he is “telling the truth about Obama” and expressed that while he doesn’t hate the president (and added that he prays for him and his family), he finds it outrageous that innocent children and civilians are being killed in drone strikes authorized by Obama.

“I called Bush a criminal,”  he said, “and he only had 45 drones.”

Dr. West also specifically criticized Democrats who attack Bush for his war record but say nothing about Obama when he continues it, calling them “morally bankrupt.”

During a February 2013 discussion on the Tavis Smiley show, West said, “The chickens are coming home to roost.  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 also criticized Obama when the president won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2009, saying that it would be difficult for Obama to be “a war president with a peace prize.”  In an April 2011 interview,  Dr. West said that Obama is “a black mascot of Wall Street oligarchs and a black puppet of plutocrats.  And now he has become head of the American killing machine and is proud of it.”

Dr. West has also blasted Obama for his “perceived willingness to use shady, possibly illegal tools in the war on terror.”  In January, West said that Obama’s approval of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) was reminiscent of FBI surveillance of civil rights activist Martin Luther King Jr., stating that provisions in that law would allow authorities to lock away agitators like King without “due process or judicial process.”

He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetrate it. He who accepts evil without protesting against it is really cooperating with it.
~ Martin Luther King, Jr.