America has Learned
Nothing from Iraq (China Daily, People's Republic of China)
Are the United States and Britain suffering from a kind of learning disability when it comes to the waging of war? For the state-run China Daily, deputy editor Chen Weihua wonders when Washington will learn its lessons - and expresses regret that George W. Bush and Tony Blair will not likely brought to justice for war crimes.
Unrepentent over Iraq: Have former President George W. Bush and former Prime Minister Tony Blair cheated justice? Ten years after Iraq, neither has admitted to any wrongdoing in regard to a war much of the world considers not only stupid - but a crime.
Last Tuesday marked the tenth anniversary of the start of
the U.S.-led invasion and occupation of Iraq. A decade ago, along with many
others, I was against it. But strong worldwide opposition didn't prevent a war from
being waged on the pretext of stopping Saddam Hussein from obtaining weapons of
mass destruction.
The 2003-2011 war in Iraq was a tragedy, not just for Iraqis
but for Americans, and indeed, for the rest of the world.
According to figures from the U.S. Department of Defense, on
August 31, 2010, when the last America combat troops left Iraq, 4,421 U.S.
service personnel had been killed, 3,492 of which were killed in action. Almost
32,000 were wounded in action.
Many times more Iraqi civilian casualties were killed, but precise
figures have been hard to come by. Classified U.S. government cables obtained
by WikiLeaks in 2010 documented the deaths of 109,000 Iraqis, of which at least
66,081 were civilians. Other sources estimate the figure to be many times higher.
And then there are the servicemen and Iraqis who have mental health problems as
a result of the war.
Since the occupation ended, mounting sectarian violence, a
devastated society and a dysfunctional government have led many to wonder
whether Iraq under Saddam Hussein might have been better than it is today.
On Monday in the northern Iraqi town of Dibis,
a suicide attacker drove a car loaded with explosives into a police station,
killed five and wounding dozens of others, including a large number of
students.
Ten years ago, warnings that the invasion would open a
Pandora's Box of trouble went unheeded, like those of deposed Egyptian
President Hosni Mubarak, who warned that the Iraq War would result in horrific
global consequences and produce 100 Osama bin Ladens.
While America has finally killed the man who for so long topped
its most-wanted list, it has only now begun to dawn on Washington that the Iraq War
nurtured radical Islamist groups around the world.
On the other hand, the United States, too, is a war victim:
in order to pay for the war, it neglected much of its needed investment in
education and infrastructure.
Although the Iraq War was a foreign policy catastrophe for
the two countries that committed the most to the invasion - America and Britain
- neither George W. Bush nor Tony Blair has offered any kind of apology. Nor
have they been forced to face accusations that they are responsible for war
crimes.
Posted By Worldmeets.US
Furthermore, it is troubling that so few American or British
news organizations in are doing any serious soul-searching about an invasion
and occupation that inflicted so much harm on so many ordinary people.
President Barack Obama, a strong anti-war Illinois senator before
the Iraqi invasion, also seems unlikely to offer any kind of criticism of his
predecessor.
In crafting a Syria intervention to remove President Bashar al-Assad, the U.S. and Britain are once again
showing a lack of foresight. The rebels that have already received their aid
have been accused of conducting massacres and of using children not only as
soldiers but as human shields. But American and British irresponsibility and
casual disregard for the consequences are nothing new.
Last Thursday at the National Press Club in Washington,
Americans from several organizations called on their government to take Cuba
off the terrorist list. I asked the panel, which included Congressman James
McGovern, who had just returned from Cuba with a bipartisan delegation, why
they couldn't be more ambitious and call for a removal of the embargo. The United
States has continued its ridiculous and cruel embargo on Cuba, despite the approbation
of almost the entire international community.
I always think of what the $1 trillion or more that the U.S.
spent on the Iraq War could have achieved - if it had been more wisely spent. Will
the United States ever learn the bloody and costly lesson of Iraq?
*The author, Chen Weihua,
based in Washington and is deputy editor of China Daily USA.
