THE history as it should be remembered

(8 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

There are plenty of good diaries, essays and articles about the timeline of torture.  Let’s remember this history, THE history, as it should be remembered.

More after the fold…

Yes, this is a history lesson.  Yes, there is a running test.

In the 2000 election, George W. Bush was on the brink of the losing the election when something unprecedented occurred; the Supreme Court steps in and gives the election to George W. Bush.

One of the very first things George W. Bush did after taking office, in fact, within mere WEEKS of taking office, was to establish Cheney’s secret energy task force.  We know that during those meetings Cheney was looking at maps of Iraq’s oil fields and reserves.  Why start a Presidency with your eyes on a prize you haven’t been able to get in 5 decades?

During the summer of 2001, “intelligence chatter” is heard, chatter that leads our government to believe there is to be an attack by Al-Qaeda on American soil.  This “chatter” was so convincing that then Attorney General Ashcroft stopped flying on commercial airlines.  In August, 2001, then President George Bush is given a memo about Bin Laden attacking the United States, which, he ignores.  Then, the coincidences begin mounting.

Jeb Bush, then Governor of Florida, signs an executive order four days before 9/11 giving himself the authority to mobilize his Guard and Reserves in case of terrorist attack.  George W. Bush is at a photo op on Sept. 11 at an elementary school that is literally mere miles away from where the terrorists were living and training for 9/11.  Neil Bush is in charge of security at the World Trade Center towers.  The military on 9/11 is running wargames that simulate the exact scenario that is about to happen, which, confuses any response.  

Then, right after 9/11, we get the anthrax attacks.  The FBI slow walks the investigation for years.  Ultimately, there is no clear resolution to the case.  But, the attacks scare Congress into passing all kinds of draconian laws, ie, the Patriot Act.  

Before we even attack Afghanistan, Bush is trying to gin up a case for attacking Iraq.  We attack Afghanistan, but, Bin Laden scoots away.  He is all but forgotten by George Bush from there ever after as he turns his eyes to Iraq and Cheney eyes the oil fields.

That is the history of first year of George W. Bush as President of the United States, and, it is a history that is best remembered.  Why it is best remembered is best shown with what comes next.

In the summer of 2002, before we invaded Iraq, torture was already being discussed by the Bush administration.  But, we also learn, that the overriding reason they were contemplating torture was to garner an Al-Qaeda/Iraq connection, which, by default, means by confession.  A confession given under torture.  What is the primary purpose throughout history for using torture?

The second year of the Bush administration was spent trying to get any justification to attack Iraq, even if that meant authorizing the torture of Al-Qaeda detainees.  It was also spent making sure that his administration couldn’t face war crimes prosecution.

In August 2002, months after his administration started discussing using torture, Bush unsigned the treaty that put America under the International Criminal Court.  He then began blackmailing countries into signing Bi-Lateral Immunity Agreements.  By the start of 2003, an attack on Iraq is all but a foregone conclusion.

America attacked Iraq.  Saddam Hussein was hanged.  An American-run provisional government was imposed.  Iraq’s oil fields are now within reach.  The most sought after “benchmark” is an Iraqi Oil Law that opens its untapped reserves to private western oil companies.  But, the genie is out of the bottle and torture is now being used on a rampant basis by the CIA and the U.S. military.  Iraq turns into the quagmire that Cheney himself said it would become back in 1994.  Iraq resists passing the oil law.

We get the Military Commissions Act.  We get the new FISA laws.  We get the NSA wiretapping everyone.  We get abuse after abuse by the FBI.  America’s constitutional rights are in tatters.  Congress remains a lapdog and even after 2006, the Democrats give Bush everything he wants.  

Iraq turns into a never-ending war, the oil law is never passed, and now torture allegations are coming out.  Bush and Cheney decide to leave the mess to the next President, but, not before they allow our economy to dissolve into a disaster just as bad as the Iraq War.

In this time, 9/11, with all of the official inconsistencies is forgotten except for using it as justification to torture people.  In this time, the secret energy task force that was salivating over Iraq’s oil is forgotten.  Bush finishes his Presidency a failure, just as he failed at everything else.

But, let’s remember ALL of the history of George Bush and his torture regime.  His administration was stocked full of inept, incompetent hacks, but, they almost pulled off their goal; opening Iraq’s oil reserves to Big Oil.