20-year anniversary of disastrous illegal Iraq multi-trillion-dollar war of aggression passes with Congress predictably AWOL
Members enjoy histrionics in lieu of serious oversight and legislation
March 20, 2023, marked the 20th anniversary of the United States criminal war of aggression against Iraq according to the international criminal standards championed by the United States at the post-World War II International Criminal Tribunal sitting at Nuremburg. The Nuremberg standards, endorsed by the United Nations Charter and International Criminal Court, define aggression as wars not in self-defense. The United States invaded Iraq in 2003 for regime change, not because Saddam Hussein was threatening to attack the United States. Indeed, our no-fly zone and sanctions were hamstringing the Iraqi President from invading even his neighbors.
By any yardstick, the Iraqi war proved a monumental disaster. It made Iraq a satellite of mullah-mad Iran, a charter member of the Axis of Evil and state sponsor of terrorism. It gave birth to ISIS. It de facto partitioned the nation between Shiite, Sunni, and Kurds creating a low-grade civil war like putting three scorpions in a bottle. We squandered more than $3 trillion on a fool’s errand to turn Iraqis into Canadians with political amateurs whose sole qualifications were opposition to abortion and Roe v. Wade. We created hundreds of toxic burn pits that poisoned countless Iraqis and United States soldiers. We gave a play book for Russia’s President Vladimir Putin to use to justify invading Ukraine. United States troops remain in Iraq after 20 years of futility clueless about their purpose other to survive.
As with the sister Afghanistan misadventure, no one responsible for the Iraq staggering incompetence, stupidity, and criminality has been called to account either officially or in the court of public opinion. Among other things, military leaders who refused to tell the Commander in Chief in the White House that the war was lunacy and that they would resign before deploying troops to die pointlessly like cannon fodder in the Charge of the Light Brigade in the Crimean War have escaped adverse consequences or criticism. Congress has been AWOL in holding no hearings to probe responsibility for the Iraq War’s jumbo-debacle modeled on the Fulbright hearings on the Vietnam War to prevent a reprise. The mainstream media has segued from Iraq to Ukraine forgetting that we set the precedent for Putin’s criminal war of aggression.
West German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer observed, “In view of the fact that God limited the intelligence of man, it seems unfair that He did not also limit his stupidity.” It is said of deer that they will not leap into an enclosure without first reconnoitering to ascertain whether there is a gateway out. In contrast, the military habitually jumps into an abyss with no exit strategy because they know in advance there will be no price to pay for multi-trillion-dollar calamities.
Without the thinker, the armored knight has nothing worth fighting for. Unless that wisdom seeps into the American culture and education system, criminal Iraq War disasters will repeat themselves endlessly until the American Empire sinks to the bottom of the ocean.