Iraq’s fate was finally sealed in February 2003 when then-US secretary of state, Colin Powell, appeared before the UN Security Council to bolster the case for war, reciting another litany of lies, otherwise known as “intelligence failures.” For theatrical effect, he even produced a vial of fake anthrax, warning that “Hussein has not. (Not until 2016 with the publication of the Chilcot Report was it revealed what many had suspected all along: Saddam Hussein “posed no imminent threat” to the UK). In September 2002, the then-UK prime minister, Tony Blair, in an effort to build the case for a military invasion of Iraq, cited an intelligence dossier that said Saddam Hussein could launch chemical weapons at the UK in just 45 minutes, a remark that the British tabloids happily devoured. Here, the US must share some of its ‘evil’ accolades with its foremost ally, the United Kingdom. Although Washington opened up a military offensive against the Taliban in Afghanistan for harboring Al Qaeda mastermind Osama Bin Laden, it quickly lost the support of the global community when it inexplicably turned its gun sights on Iraq, which had nothing to do with 9/11. Following 9/11, the Bush neocons would go hunting for those responsible for that outrage, right? Well, yes and no. If not, then what was hoped to be gained from such cruel behavior, visible for the entire world to see, aside from the further radicalization of the enemy? At this point, the US looked every bit as sadistic, barbaric and, yes, ‘evil’, as the people who attacked us on 9/11.īut Uncle Sam was just warming up. Was the US military afraid that one of their prized prisoners – many of whom were never found guilty in court – might escape their island paradise and swim to freedom in shark-infested waters? The images left an impression that is hard to shake: a group of detainees kneeling inside a barbed-wire enclosure and wearing the standard orange jumpsuits, are seen handcuffed and outfitted in the latest ‘sensory deprivation’ gear – earmuffs, darkened goggles, face masks, even heavy mittens – with US soldiers hovering immediately behind them. Personally speaking, the moment when I sensed something had snapped inside the American mind came after photographs emerged of detainees inside Camp X-Ray at Gitmo. Read more Twenty years on Guantanamo and the War on Terror remain a stain on the US Thus, Republicans and Democrats were unanimous in their belief that these ‘evil regimes’ were worthy of annihilation, and who better to wage such a battle than the ‘exceptional’ nation? (Incidentally, just four months before Bush mentioned the ‘axis of evil’, the self-proclaimed ‘war president’ spoke about a “ crusade on terrorism.” Predictably, that poor choice of words set off alarm bells across Europe, which is no stranger to wars of religion).īut was the Bush administration merely projecting its own ‘evilness’ onto other governments? Just days before Bush delivered his infamous ‘axis of evil’ speech, the US opened the doors to hell on earth known as Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp (Gitmo), or, as Amnesty International dubbed it, “the Gulag of our time.” Built on the southernmost tip of Cuba at the US Guantanamo Naval Base, a slither of land the US gained following the Spanish-America War (1898), Gitmo has become synonymous with brutality, torture, and the perversion of justice.
The use of the good-bad dichotomy by Reagan and Bush worked as a simple yet highly effective propaganda tool since nobody wants to be seen defending ‘evil’, a word with strong biblical connotations practically synonymous with the devil himself.
Bush echoed Reagan’s fiery sermon in his State of the Union message when he described North Korea, Iran, and Iraq as rogue states belonging to an “ axis of evil.” These were no accidental slips of the tongue. On March 8, 1983, then-President Ronald Reagan branded the Soviet Union, America’s Cold War adversary, as an “evil empire” that was the “focus of evil in the modern world.” Fast forward nearly two decades later to Januand George W. Judging by the way past US leaders have described their rivals, you’d think Washington has been fighting against the likes of Darth Vader.