Nihilist Exclusive: James Brown Disapproved of Iraq War

R&B Singer James Brown questioned the Bush administration's rationale for the U.S. invasion and war in interviews he granted on condition they not be released until after his death, according to claims made by the blogger Nihilist In Golf Pants.

The hardest working man in show business "very strongly" disagreed with the current president's justifications for invading Iraq and said he would have pushed alternatives, such as sanctions, much more vigorously. "Say it loud: I don't think I would have gone to war," Brown told the Nihilist a little more than a year after President Bush launched the invasion.

In the made-up interview, the Godfather of Soul was critical not only of Bush but also of Vice President Cheney and then-Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who are each rumored to own several Brown albums.

"Heh! Rumsfeld and Cheney and the president made a big mistake in justifying going into the war in Iraq. Jump back! They put the emphasis on weapons of mass destruction," Brown said. "Yeah! And now, I've never publicly said I thought they made a mistake, but I felt very strongly it was an error in how they should justify what they were going to do."

In the same interview Brown, who became the Godfather of Soul despite never being elected by the American People, said he thought Bush had erred by staking the invasion on claims Saddam had weapons of mass destruction.

"Baby baby! Saddam Hussein was an evil person and there was justification to get rid of him," he observed to the Nihilist . "Whoa! But we shouldn't have put the basis on weapons of destruction. I break out - in a cold sweat! That was a bad mistake. Ho! Uh! Ho! Where does (Bush) get his advice?"

The singer did not like Bush's domestic surveillance program. "Awww! It may be a necessary evil," Brown conceded. "I just gotta gotta! I don't think it's a terrible transgression, but I would never do it. Mercy on me! I was dumbfounded when I heard they were doing it."

Brown died of heart failure on Christmas Day after being admitted to Emory Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta the previous evening. He was 73 years old.