Remembering Second Iraq War Part2

(This is an old blog that found itself unfinished in my drafts. This morbid event of our modern history was worth a write up again so here it goes..)

President George W Bush (Junior) was formally elected a President of the United States of America on 20 January 2001 in controversial circumstance with few thousand greater votes in the State of Florida in which his brother, John Ellis ‘Jeb’ Bush was Governor.  It is a testimony to the credit and statesmanship of Vice President Al Gore not to press the matter and challenge to the legitimacy of the vote to finality through the Supreme Court.

In 1990, with the collapse of the Berlin Wall and dismembering of the Soviet Union George H W Bush went to war in Iraq to liberate Kuwait from the Iraqi occupation. The relatively short war labeled Desert Storm saw American tanks and advancing army stop a short distance from Baghdad.  Despite the atrocities and other heinous acts committed by Saddam Hussein, including using chemical weapons against the Kurdish population, George H W Bush knew better than going all the way to toppling Saddam Hussein at that time. Thirteen years later, his son, George W Bush and his conservative ‘Neocon’ advisors set to abolish the new world order and went all the way-topping Saddam Hussein and hanging the other members of his cabinet. This, I believe was an unforgivable mistake. A strategic blunder, one that America and its allies, NATO should have handled more carefully. History will write this mistake in bold with the header “Neocons’ Misadventure in Hammurabi’s Babylon”. 

President George W Bush Junior, Tony Blair, their advisors and all those collaborators in the second Iraq war should, in my opinion, face War Crime Tribunal regardless of when that Tribunal is held. Its a bold statement- one which I hope to rationalise below.

Weapon of Mass Destruction (WMD)

The pretext for going to war in Iraq was Bush Junior's indisputable evidence of a "Weapon of Mass Destruction" (WMD). Britain's popular Labor Prime Minister, Tony Blair, provided the necessary support for Bush.  The man who was officially commissioned and entrusted by the United Nation with finding the WMD in Iraq was the Swedish politician and diplomat, Hans Martin Blix. He undertook number of missions and was assisted by a solid team of hand picked experts. They went and searched every corner of Iraq and reported to the UN, Bush Junior, and Blair in no uncertain language that there is no WMD in Iraq!  Neither Bush, his Neocon advisors, or Blair wanted to hear what Hans Martin Blix had to say.  Bush’s answer to Blix’s report was to send the Secretary of Defence to the UN to give implausible and far fetched theories as to how Saddam could move chemicals into rockets mounted on truck and possibly scud missiles and fire them into neighbouring countries including Israel.  This desperate act was nothing more than an attempt to find excuse for in my opinion, the already formed decision to destroy Iraq and topple Saddam.  Despite Blix’s plea on a nominated hour on 20 March 2003, the United Nation mandate and resolution over Iraq was pushed aside. On this day, wave after wave, the Americans blasted bombs from carriers in the Mediterranean and Saudi Arabia dropped their first payload over Baghdad nearly missing Saddam by a whisker.  This was supposed to be a short war. 

The last American combat soldiers left Iraq in 2012 some 10 years from the official start of the Second Iraq War. Many American troops died in this battle.  Eleven years on, Iraq is a tinderbox of internecine strife, with hardly any functioning infra structure. Not to mention a melting pot of terrorists and groups with various ideologies including radical Islam. The future of minorities, such as the eldest Christian civilization, Yazidi, and little known sects still remain. It is interesting to note it is these groups who felt safe and secure under Saddam. The future for these minorities to live unharmed now remains uncertain if not hopelessly grim. 

Casualties

The most conservative estimate of casualties of the second Iraq War put the death toll to over 300,000 with possibly an equal number of injured Iraqi’s.  Minorities, particularly the eldest Christian sects that date their presence in Iraq to the cradle of Christianity fled Iraq and became refugees in other countries. With the number of Iraqi's killed, there are a countless number of orphaned children, a large number of whom on the eleventh anniversary of the war, are being looked after by surviving relatives, including grandparents. I cannot imagine the mental state of this young generation and if they have been given the proper care. It would take a wonderland of resources and time to repair and improve their cognitive behavioural development, broken spirit and hearts as they enter young adulthood. The same can also be said for the American soliders' children who remain fatherless and wives who have become widows as a result. 

  

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