WATCH: John Bolton Repeatedly Dodges as Mehdi Hasan Grills Him on Disastrous Fallout from the Iraq War
TV anchor Mehdi Hasan relentlessly grilled former Bush White House national security adviser John Bolton over whether the latter had any remorse or regrets over the 100,000-plus dead Iraqis and thousands of coalition casualties that resulted from the Iraq War.
Appearing on Hasan’s new show on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock, to promote his book, The Room Where It Happened, Bolton repeatedly dodged, filibustered, and tried to redirect away from Hasan’s blunt, yes-or-no question. (The relevant portion begins at the 6:00 mark.)
“All those thousands of people who died in Iraq, all of those innocent Iraqi civilians, men, women, children, killed by U.S. airstrikes, some of them in massacres at Haditha, Mahmudiyah, Balad,” Hasan said, boring right in. “None of those weigh on your conscience? None of those deaths ever keep you up at night?”
Bolton, who had already begun to wave his hands in frustration before Hassan had even finished his question, quickly shifted into condescension mode
“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Bolton declared, prompting a skeptical eyebrow raise from Hasan. The former Bush and Trump national security official then tried to decouple the of Iraq “war,” which he deemed a “brilliant military victory” from the occupation, which he called a “mistake” while still endorsing the idea of keeping U.S. troops stationed in that country.
“People talk about the Iraq War as though it started in 2003 and lasted until 2011 when [President Barack] Obama withdrew everybody,” Bolton said, which, coincidentally, is precisely how the official, two-volume U.S. Army War College history of the conflict describes it. “As if every single decision in that eight-year period followed inevitably, unalterably, from that single decision to invade in 2003, and that’s simply not right.”
Hasan, however, forcefully rebutted Bolton’s claims, again citing the vast human toll of the war. “That did follow from the decision by George Bush, Dick Cheney and others in the administration like yourself to decision to invade Iraq,” he noted, before circling back to his original question. “Do those deaths never weigh on your conscience was my question, which you didn’t answer.”
“No, I did answer it,” Bolton claimed, having not answered Hasan’s question. “And I’ll answer it again since you didn’t listen to it.”
After Botlon again tried to distinguish between the judiciousness of the invasion and folly of the occupation, Hasan fired back.
“With respect, John Bolton, you weren’t a pundit on Fox News then,” Hasan shot back. “You were in government and I don’t remember you quitting in objection to the occupation.”
“What you’re saying is completely ludicrous,” Bolton responded moments later, after Hasan had noted some of the war crimes committed during the Iraqi occupation. The former Bush advisor then gave a long explication of how he had been largely excluded from having input on “actual decision making” about the deadly occupation.
“I’m not trying to duck the issue,” Bolton insisted, clearly trying ducking the issue. “But you’re making a grievous, factual error when you attribute everything that came after the overthrow of Saddam to the U.S. to do that.”
Hasan then tried one more time to get Bolton to answer his original question as to whether he had any regrets over the thousands of war dead. “They never bother you?”
“I didn’t say that at all,” Bolton pushed back, before launching into yet another intentional tangent that parsed the invasion from the eight years of sectarian violence and trillions of dollars spent.
“So they don’t?” Hasan finally concluded, interrupting as Bolton rambled on.
“You’re, you’re, you’re, you’re making assumptions, uh, about things…” Bolton began.
“I’m asking a very simple question,” Hasan pointed out. “You don’t seem to want to answer it.”
“You’re not letting me, so I can’t explain it,” Bolton protested, nearly five minutes after he’d first been asked it.
Watch the video above, via YouTube.
