Former US President George W. Bush and his vice president, Dick Cheney, are to blame for the death of Army Captain Humayun Khan in Iraq rather than President Barack Obama and his former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, an investigative journalist says.
Wayne Madsen made the comments Wednesday in regard to remarks by GOP nominee Donald Trump who pointed the finger at the two to escape a growing criticism against his stance on the death of the Muslim soldier in 2004, when Obama was no more than a senator in Illinois.
“The timeline, of course, doesn’t work,” the American author told Press TV. “That blame should squarely fall on the shoulders of Bush and Cheney.”
He noted that the 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation of the oil-rich Muslim country were carried out “by and for the behalf of neoconservatives.”
Blaming Clinton, noted the Washington-based author, could make more sense as she was in the US Senate at the time and voted for the war; therefore, she could be blamed along with the rest of the senators who supported the invasion.
This is while Obama, said the American author, was “opposed” to the war. “One cannot blame President Obama.”
Controversy surrounding the fallen soldier began after his father, Khizr Khan, blasted Trump as unpatriotic and selfish in a speech at the Democratic National Convention over the billionaire’s statements against immigrants and Muslims.
Trump responded, in part, by suggesting that Ghazala Khan, the mother of the soldier, was silent during her husband’s speech at the DNC because she was not “allowed” to speak.
Trump’s comments attracted rebuke from both sides of the aisle and intensified calls for Republican leaders to distance themselves from the White House contender.