Let’s set the stage. It’s 2003, you wake up in a prison cell at the Abu Ghraib Prison Complex. You do not know why you are there. Strange figures from across the ocean showed up at your doorstep, deemed that you possibly had connections to Al-Qaeda, and have sent you to an overcrowded prison facility 20 miles west of Baghdad. Around you, your fellow inmates (who, despite the wars efforts to spread “American Values” abroad have been declared guilty before any proof of innocence) are beaten, abused, violated, waterboarded, sexually asaulted, raped, and in some cases: killed (Bell, 2018). You might think that this is an isolated incident of abuse, the worst of the war being concentrated in this facility. You might think that the abusers who were sent to guard you are mere outliers, that they were in no way sponsored by the Legal “Powers That Be”. You are wrong.
In the years preceding the US Invasion of Iraq, shortly after the September 11th Attacks on the United States,. The United States Government was determined to re-establish their place on the world stage after the attacks that left 2,996 dead across New York, Washington D.C, and Pennsylvania had shown, what was at the time, the world’s only genuine Superpower, one subject to attack from forces unknown. A year after these attacks, we declare war on Iraq to investigate the potentiality of the Iraqi Government both harboring Weapons of Mass Destruction and holding connections to Al Qaeda. Of course, we never found either Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) or any connection between the Iraqi Government and Al-Qaeda (Schor, 2008).
As a part of this investigation into Iraqi WMDs and connections between Al Qaeda and the Iraqi Government,. Soldiers acting on behalf of the United States Government beat, kidnapped, tortured, raped, and murdered those they believed could hold some connection to Al-Qaeda at facilities like Abu Ghraib. Of course, this was not done with any regard as to whether the individuals tortured by the United States did hold any connection to Al-Qaeda, which many of those tortured didn’t. The reason these soldiers did this, besides their own personal mental issues, was because they believed this torture was completely legal under international law. In the months after 9/11 the Bush/Cheney administration, commissioned their legal department to create legal documents that served as a complex legal defense for those accused of incessant torture (Gonzales, 2002). These documents (known now as the Torture Memos), are 80 straight pages of complex legal jargon meant to justify illegal torture (Yoo, 2003).
Alberto Gonzales at his 2005 Congressional hearing to become Attorney General for the Bush administration, at this hearing he defended the defenses made for soldiers accused of torturing Iraqi Civilians, by stating that the geneva conventions did not apply to these people. (Photo from History Channel: Dated 2005)
You might ask yourself exactly why we invaded the nation of Iraq, put its citizens in a situation not dissimilar to Dante Alighieri’s version of Hell, and involved ourselves in a decades long Foreign Policy Quagmire that cost US Citizens over $2 Trillion Dollars (Trotta, 2013)? Well the answer lies in the job history of then Vice President, Dick Cheney. Before taking the oath of office in Early 2001, Cheney served as the CEO of Halliburton during most of the 1990s, retiring as CEO in 1999 after accepting George W. Bush’s invitation to serve as the Vice President, should he be elected. Cheney still held Stocks in the company, which coincidentally after the September 11th Attacks were awarded several Multi Billion dollar contracts to be the sole provider of infrastructure and aid to US Troops in Iraq, which despite being a nation the size of Paraguay are one of the biggest oil producers in the world who at the time held a fully nationalized oil industry (Juhasz, 2013), meaning private firms, like Halliburton, were not allowed any access to this wealth of oil. These stocks, classified as a Lingering Financial Interest by a Bi-Partisan congressional committee (Rosenbaum, 2008), grew to a then record high for the company over the course of the Bush/Cheney administration.
Halliburton profits and stock price positively correlating with Soldiers Killed abroad after Halliburton were given Multi Billion dollar contracts to be the sole providers of aid to military efforts in Iraq. (Photo from: Halliburton Watch, Dated: 2005)
In recent weeks, The former Vice President has endorsed Kamala Harris in the 2024 presidential election (Lebowitz, 2024), alongside the mastermind for the endorsement of the torturing of foreign civilians by the US Military, Alberto Gonzales (Hubbard, 2024). The Harris campaign is seemingly using these endorsements, alongside the endorsements of other republicans from former administrations as an olive branch to ¨Country Club Republicans¨ dissatisfied with Donald Trump. Harris herself touted Cheney’s endorsement in the presidential debate taking place on September 10th 2024 (Hoffman, 2024). The problem with this olive branch is that it is a slap in the face to the millions of Americans nationwide who care about America’s involvement in the Middle East, with a key issue in this election revolving around America’s involvement in the funding of the Israeli Invasion of the Gaza Strip. Under the Bush/Cheney admin, the US Government had sent aid to a separate invasion of Gaza by Israel (Judis, 2006) while hate crimes against Muslim Americans rose to unprecedented levels (Beirich, 2010).
Dick Cheney on the Campaign Trail for the 2000 Election, Cheney retired as CEO of the Halliburton Company in 1999 to campaign with George W. Bush as his VP Selection. (Photo from: Salon, Dated 2000)
In an election where the Harris campaign promises a campaign of Unity and Love, they have begun to use one of the most divisive, greedy, hateful figures of the 21st century as a component of their campaign to appeal to moderates instead of reaching out to the large community of voters who are planning to vote in solidarity with Palestinians being invaded by the Israeli Government who using weaponry funded by the US taxpayer. A key part of the campaign season leading up to the 2000 Presidential election was Al Gore being a part of the administration that made the controversial decision to deport Elian Gonzalez in 2000 costing him key votes among those who the situation affected and struck out to the most in the deciding state of Florida (Schneider, 2001), which led to the infinitely worse George W. Bush winning the state and becoming President. The lead up to the 2024 election is not dissimilar to the lead up of the 2000 election for this reason (among many others), both geared up to be extremely close, and in this case will come down to those that Kamala Harris has seemingly turned her back on by accepting an endorsement from Dick Cheney with open arms.
Bibliography:
Bell, J (2018) “Forfeiting Morality: Systemic Evil Underlying the Abu Ghraib Scandal” The Morningside Review, Volume #14. https://journals.library.columbia.edu/index.php/TMR/article/view/3461
Beirich, H (2010) ¨WAVE OF HATE CRIMES DIRECTED AT MUSLIMS BREAK OUT” Southern Poverty Law Center, https://www.splcenter.org/hatewatch/2010/08/26/wave-hate-crimes-directed-muslims-breaks-out
Hubbard, K (2024) ¨Alberto Gonzales, Bush’s attorney general, endorses Kamala Harris, warning of Donald Trump’s “threat to the rule of law” ¨ CBS News, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/alberto-gonzales-kamala-harris-endorsement/
Judis, J (2006) ¨Apocalypse Now: Bush´s Failed Israel Strategy¨ Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, https://carnegieendowment.org/posts/2006/08/apocalypse-now-bushs-failed-israel-strategy?lang=en
Juhasz, A (2013) “Why the war in Iraq was fought for Big Oil” CNN, https://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz/index.html
Gonzales, A (2002) ¨DECISION RE APPLICATION FOR THE GENEVA CONVENTION OF PRISONERS OF WAR TO THE CONFLICT WITH AL QAEDA AND THE TALIBAN¨ New York Times, https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB127/02.01.25.pdf
Hoffman, R (2024) ¨READ: Harris-Trump presidential debate transcript¨ ABC News, https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/harris-trump-presidential-debate-transcript/story?id=113560542
Lebowitz, M (2024) ¨Former Vice President Dick Cheney says he will vote for Harris¨ NBC news, https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2024-election/dick-cheney-kamala-harris-liz-cheney-rcna169979
Rosenbaum, D (2004) “A Closer Look at Cheney and Halliburton” New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2004/09/28/us/a-closer-look-at-cheney-and-halliburton.html
Schneider, W (2001) ¨Elián González Defeated Al Gore¨ The Atlantic, https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2001/05/elian-gonzalez-defeated-al-gore/377714/
Schor, E (2008) ¨Saddam Hussein had no direct ties to al-Qaida, says Pentagon study¨ The Guardian, https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/mar/13/iraq.usa
Trotta, D (2013) “Iraq war costs U.S. more than $2 trillion: study” Reuters, https://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/14/us-iraq-war-anniversary-idUSBRE92D0PG20130314/
Woo, J (2003) ¨Memorandum for William J. Haynes IT, General Counsel of the Department of Defense¨ ACLU, p. 75. https://www.aclu.org/sites/default/files/pdfs/safefree/yoo_army_torture_memo.pdf
PHOTO LINKS:
Abu Ghraib, NBC 2006: https://media-cldnry.s-nbcnews.com/image/upload/t_fit-1000w,f_auto,q_auto:best/msnbc/Components/Photos/060314/060314_hooded_prisoner_vlrg_7a.jpg
Alberto Gonzales, History Channel 2005: https://assets.editorial.aetnd.com/uploads/2012/05/this-day-in-history-02-03-2005-gonzales-becomes-first-hispanic-u-s-attorney-general.jpg
Halliburton Stocks & Iraq War, Halliburton Watch 2005: https://www.halliburtonwatch.org/images/chart0306.gif
Cheney on Campaign Trail, Salon 2000: https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQpAFI06BO8qMgbRcc8X5mlFR59qIdruH_Eeg&s
