Iraq Invasion and Abu Ghraib

This is an image, from Britannica ImageQuest, of United States soldiers surveying the Iraqi side of the Kuwait-Iraq border in preparation for the U.S invasion of Iraq, which happened a day after this picture was taken.

Citation:

U.S. Soldiers Prepare For War. Photographer. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.

quest.eb.com/search/115_1611947/1/115_1611947/cite. Accessed 3 Jun 2021.

Background of U.S Invasion of Iraq and Abu Ghraib Prison Scandal

After the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the United States government launched the "War on Terror," a counterterrorism campaign that aimed to combat Islamic terrorist groups and form international alliances to fight against them. This objective eventually led to the invasion of Iraq. The president at the time, President George W. Bush, and his administration justified the attack by claiming the Iraqis were stockpiling weapons of mass destruction that posed a threat to the U.S. They also claimed that the Iraq government had ties to Al-Qaeda, the terrorist group responsible for 9/11 (Benson). Many opposed the invasion, seen by mass protests in early 2003, where millions of citizens worldwide gathered to show their antipathy to the actions of the current administration (Benson). Despite the opposition, the U.S. and the U.K. formed a coalition with some allies willing to participate and invaded the country on March 20, 2003 (Benson). Using aggressive tactics consisting of bombing and ground invasions, the U.S. and the rest of the coalition took control over Baghdad, Iraq's capital, within three weeks (Benson). The infiltration of Iraq led to the horrific Iraq War, which spanned eight years.

During this time, the United States military also gained control of Iraqi prisons, one of the more well-known ones being the Abu Ghraib Prison, located a few miles from Baghdad. The prisons were meant to hold enemy combatants and prisoners of war. However, innocent civilians were also found amongst the detainees. “In autumn of 2003, '... a small group of soldiers criminally abused detainees at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq...It was not until April 2004, when photographs of the abuses appeared on Sixty Minutes II, that the public became aware of what had happened.1 Seymour Hersh” (Mastroianni), according to Looking Back: Understanding Abu Ghraib. The pictures exhibited to the world were incredibly gruesome and abhorrent. Prisoners were dehumanized and treated like animals. “The CBS report included graphic photographs showing naked prisoners in humiliating positions, some piled on top of each other, some hooded and wired with electrodes, with American soldiers posing in many of the scenes” (Braziunaite). As a result, there was an overall negative and hostile response to the scandal from people within the international community. Politicians, civilians, and members of organizations alike condemned the actions of the same military who supposedly upheld human rights and advocated for freedom worldwide. Afterwards, the world began to look at the United States through a very different lens

WARNING: Pictures below are graphic

Citations for images 1, 3, and 4:

“Abuse Photos from Abu Ghraib.” CBS News, CBS, 21 May 2004, www.cbsnews.com/pictures/abuse-photos-ii/3/.

Citation for second image:

An undated videograb from Al-Arabiya tel. Photographer. Britannica ImageQuest, Encyclopædia Britannica, 25 May 2016.

quest.eb.com/search/115_2755139/1/115_2755139/cite. Accessed 3 Jun 2021.

Teacher Notes