March
19th, 2013, marked ten years since the U.S. and its allies, especially Britain under Prime Minister Tony Blair, who continues to justify the war as necessary and right, illegally attacked, invaded and
occupied Iraq - a nation that had not attacked the USA or Britain or posed any threat to their
security.
It has
also been ten years since the world rose up to proclaim its opposition to a
threatened war in Iraq, as tens of millions of people poured into the streets
of dozens of cities across the globe in what was the largest
political demonstration in recorded history.
Bush and
his co-conspirators did not heed the will of the people because they were
listening to other voices - of oil and other corporate executives, generals,
arms manufacturers, their lobbyists, and their wealthy patrons, political
cronies and privileged friends.
Greed,
hubris, arrogance and empire spoke louder than millions of people in the streets.
Nearly
5000 American, British and other allied troops were killed in "Operation
Iraqi Freedom." Tens of thousands were wounded and tens of thousands more
bear the unseen pyschological scars of war as evidenced by the epidemic of
suicides among veterans and active service members. The war cost the
American taxpayers more than $812 billion in direct costs and another four to
six trillion dollars when indirect and future costs are tallied up.
Whitehall (UK) figures released in June 2010 put the cost of British funding
of the Iraq conflict at £9.24bn ($14.32bn), the vast majority of which
was for the military but which also included £557m ($861m) in aid.
But the
cost to the people of Iraq has been far greater. Estimates of Iraqi
dead range from several hundred thousand to in excess of a million,
overwhelmingly civilians. Civilian infrastructure - water treatment and
power plants, hospitals, schools - were destroyed, and ten years later have yet
to be rebuilt. Millions were turned into refugees, most of whom still
have not been returned to their homes.
Because
of the extensive use of depleted uranium weapons, the war continues to
take its toll on those born years after most of the armed conflict ended.
Not only those immediately exposed but a new generation suffers with the
consequences of radiation poisoning. And among those victims are also
thousands of U.S. troops and their children.
Iraq's
economy has been turned into a giant yard sale, as multinational corporations
move in to privatize every enterprise in which they see the potential for
profit. It's public heritage, resouces and sovereignty have been put up
for sale to the highest bidder. Corruption is epidemic.
The
psychological wounds of war will haunt Iraqis for decades to come, but so too
will they afflict U.S. and British troops who participated in and witnessed the horrors of
battle, the barbarity of war. War claims innocent civilians and
combatants alike as its victims.
Iraqis
too live with the political and social legacy of U.S. policy that divided the
nation along religious, sectarian, tribal and ethnic lines and spawned violence
that continues to claim victims more than a year after U.S. troops departed.
Iraqi
trade unionists still don't have the legal right to organize and are targeted
for discipline and repression when they act collectively in defense of their
interests. Some, like Federation of Oil Union President Hassan Juma'a,
have been criminally charged for allegedly organizing strikes, and
face stiff fines and possible incarceration.
Meanwhile Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz and
Rice (to name but a few) enjoy the luxuries and privileges that their class and
wealth provide while those who sought to expose their crimes, like Bradley
Manning, are persecuted, prosecuted and incarcerated.
