Was the War in Iraq Illegal?

Andy Worthington, the author of the blog “Seven Years of War in Iraq: Still Based on Cheney’s Torture and Lies,” believes the war in Iraq was illegal and that then Vice-President Dick Cheney should be held accountable for his actions. His blog discusses how Cheney condoned capturing and holding various prisoners without rights - and in an inhuman manner - and conducting various torture methods. He condoned torturing prisoners in order to establish connections between Iraq and al-Qaeda. Worthington is an author and journalist. He has written several books on Guantánamo and has a documentary film about Guantánamo. He states from interviews from various sources that Ibn al-Shaykh al-Libi, the head of the Khaldan military training camp in Afghanistan was captured and was tortured in order to confess a connection between al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein. Secretary of State Colin Powell in 2003 presented this information to the UN, to justify the war in Iraq.

Vice-President Cheney continued with his torture program supposedly to protect America from terrorists in order to promote the war on terror. Worthington goes on to quote an interview obtained by Jane Mayer of the New Yorker with Dan Coleman, a once FBI interrogator. Coleman states “Administration officials were always pushing us to come up with links, but there weren’t any. The reason they got bad information is that they beat it out of him. You never get good information from someone that way.” After reading this I was really not sure what to think. I know we had to do something after 9/11. As a former soldier myself, I know the last thing we want is to be in an illegal war. This blog leaves me with a further lack of trust in our government. Our government is supposed to stand for truth and justice. Why hasn’t someone done something about this? To send our sons and daughters into harm’s way for an illegal war is an unjustifiable and unforgivable act.