going to war with Iraq

            In Counter Jihad, the “state of exception” plays a huge role in the chapter. Since there was a war and there was a threat of weapons of mass destruction, CIA agents had the excuse to torture prisoners without the concern of getting in trouble in their own countries for it later. I thought it was interesting how Bush convinced the American people that Saddam Hussein had nuclear weapons and was ready to use them against us. This “proof” was extremely manipulated and most of it was not confirmed. Then, they combined Saddam Hussein’s name with Osama Bin Laden’s name to show that they were both dangerous. I think when the American people heard this phrase, it made them assume that Saddam Hussein could potentially do what Osama Bin Laden did. This also relates to the “state of exception.” We technically did not have enough proof to prove that Iraq was making these weapons of mass destruction, but because we are going to war with them, it’s okay to assume these things- and make us look like the good guys. “It is a demolition of false intelligence that led the United States into an invasion of another country and an attempt to shed an expository light on what is one of the biggest lies in American history.” This quote shows that the American people would support any evidence that made us look like the good guys. Even though this evidence was not strong at all, Bush still talked about how Hussein had weapons of mass destruction in his speeches in the Iraq Papers. Bush also used fear to persuade the American people support the war. He talked about weapons of mass destruction so often that it became a fear in the back of people’s heads- that this dangerous country had weapons that could possibly kill millions of our people- even worse than the devastation of 9/11. This was used to help justify going to war with Iraq. A year after 9/11 happened, there was still no evidence that Iraq had made weapons of mass destruction after Resolution 687, which called for Iraq to destroy the weapons they had, and to stop manufacturing them overall. After all these claims, Bush confirmed in an interview on ABC that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction. I think this is why so many Americans thought it was a mistake to go to war with Iraq- because most of the evidence was false or unconfirmed.