Six years ago, the United States, along with smaller military contingents from a handful of other nations, invaded Iraq. The invasion was justified through the employment of numerous falsehoods – including the possession of weapons of mass destruction and links to al-Qaeda, the latter being a myth that survives to this day.
In truth, the invasion of Iraq was a foregone conclusion, an undertaking that became the central focus of a cabal within the Bush Administration in the days immediately following 9/11. It was not something born out of fears regarding real threats posed to the national security of the United States. It was an undertaking that was elaborately orchestrated at every turn to justify what those newly in power had been seeking prior to assuming positions within government in 2000. 9/11 provided context, the rest was pure propaganda.
There was no 11th hour with regards to Iraq, President Bush’s ultimatum being nothing more than a televised charade. While the United States wouldn’t officially invade the country until March of 2003, and while it was still going through the motions at the UN, paramilitary teams from the CIA’s Special Activities Division were already on the ground in Iraq in July of 2002 working with the Kurdish Peshmerga. In February of 2003, SAD operatives and members of the 10th Special Forces Group fought with the Peshmerga against members of the Ansar Al Islam, pushing them out of their positions around the village of Biyara. While defeated, surviving members of the Ansar Al Islam would later reform and become the Ansar al-Sunnah, a militant Salafi group that would go on fight US and coalition troops in northern and central Iraq.
Iraqi military resistance collapsed within three weeks of US operations. Baghdad fell, President Bush landed hypocritically on the USS Abraham Lincoln and declared the war won, and much of America pumped its collective fist in celebration of their military dominance. Of course, the reality was that while US forces sat idly in the capital without clear orders, much of Baghdad was sacked. And then, because Donald Rumsfeld and his cronies completely failed to seriously address post-invasion possibilities prior to it, a series of confused decisions were made that would have devastating consequences – the foremost of which helped inspire and motivate what would become the insurgency.
To this day, why the Iraqi army was disbanded remains an utter mystery. But one thing is for certain, many within its disenfranchised ranks, angry at losing their jobs, melted into the country side – taking their weapons with them – and began organizing or joining resistance groups. And then there was the country’s Shia majority, which, despite completely unfounded and uneducated assumptions, responded to the occupation negatively. In the north, Iraqi Kurds, long the victims of Baghdad’s scorn, flirted with the possibility of autonomy. Under the skirts of these three ethnic groups, with tensions growing between them in the post-invasion environment, came groups of foreign fighters, the majority of them from neighbouring Saudi Arabia and Syria, drawn to the conflict as their predecessors had been drawn to the Afghan conflict more than a decade before.
Within nine months of President Bush’s declaration of victory, Iraq was transformed into a highly complex asymmetric nightmare in which numerous conflicts were being fought simultaneously – a civil war within a war against occupation framed by operations by foreign jihadists looking to exploit both.
It was the perfect mess, one that would forever alter the lives of the Iraqi people, ultimately displacing more than 4 million of them both within and without the country out of a population of approximately 26.7 million. The resulting humanitarian crisis, which is little discussed, was significant, the true scope of civilian casualties remaining shrouded in mystery, with many unable to even consider the possibility that the death toll is criminally substantial.
US forces have operated with impunity in Iraq, their actions protected from the same laws that led Saddam Hussein to the gallows. Even foreign contractors enjoyed immunity, leading to a variety of criminal incidents that Iraqi authorities were unable to address under their own laws. And yet the rule of law has been touted as one of the invasion’s many gifts.
There is a reason why the majority of Iraqis want occupational forces to leave their country. It’s the same reason why thousands of them celebrated today in Zawra Park to commemorate what is being called “National Sovereignty Day”. It’s June 30th, which means that the Status of Forces Agreement has taken effect. Of course, SOFA isn’t without its problems, and the referendum that is to take place at the end of next month will be key, but for the time being, and despite a wave of violence perpetrated by those looking to exploit the situation that has rocked the country over the last two weeks, Iraqis can at least have this briefest of moments to believe that there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
What is important to remember is that the United States has not provided them that light. If you believe that they have, ask an average Iraqi if the price they’ve paid has been worth it. Because, in the end, it comes down to that, not American perceptions of victory or defeat.
