The Invasion and Destruction of Iraq in Retrospect

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by Mooneye

Everywhere in the media there is discussion of the “ten year anniversary” of the invasion of Iraq. The clown academy portion of the mainstream media has wondered: “ten years later, was the invasion of Iraq the right thing to do?” The cheerful, forever optimist side of America searches for a glimmer of hope, a silver lining in the vivisection of the Iraqi corpse, which we are told is not a corpse at all but a standing, even thriving by some accounts, democracy–or it possibly will be in a few more years.

“It led to the Arab spring!” proponents of the invasion such as the late Christopher Hitchens and Kanan Makiya howl, as if such an evil seed could ever give rise to a blooming tree in the region bearing fruits of freedom and independence. Not to mention that such claims run counter to what the “natives” who participated in the “Arab Spring” actually say and what they cite as inspiration for their protests against the oppressive regimes that ruled/rule them.

The new Imperialism, like the old Imperialism can only envision democracy, representative government and freedom being delivered and bestowed on the infantile masses of the Muslim world through the grace of the beneficent White Man, it is after all, his burden.

The chickenhawks must still be shocked, shocked I tell you that their prophecies about a statue to honor George W. Bush being erected in the middle of Baghdad’s Firdous Square have not come to pass. There is however a statue in Iraq honoring the man who threw his shoes at Bush, and yes, most Iraqis, the ones we so graciously blessed with “democracy” believe their country is worse offbecause of the war.

The architects, liars and cheerleaders of war, the technocrats and the chattering classes of the empire who pissed in the minds of Americans about Iraq’s so-called AlQaeda links, WMD’s, 9/11 connection–and that still favorite word “imminent threat”–largely celebrate the invasion.

Islamophobe and hideous warmongering freak John Bolton, the former US ambassador to the UN for instance writes,

[I]n any event, the issue was never about making life better for Iraqis, but about ensuring a safer world for America and its allies.”

A rare moment of truth that sums up the matter. This war was never about WMD’s, destroying Iraq was all about US, and assorted allies’ “interests.”

In this world of inverted morality, the innocent who have been murdered are just forgotten statistics while the war criminals are fly fishing on the Snake river.

It must be pointed out that there were many citizens in the US who opposed the war, warning us that we were being lied to and that the consequences of this war would be catastrophic.

Initially, most Americans supported the war in Iraq by substantial margins, 76% agreed with the decision to invade Iraq. Today a majority of Americans, 53% believe the invasion of Iraq was a mistake. My question is: what the hell is wrong with the other 47%?

The mainstream media is a bit more reflective, realizing it rubber stamped government propaganda and fed into the hysteria of invasion with patriotic fervor. Questions regarding blowback, repercussions, ramifications from this war however have not really been analyzed in-depth.

The question remains, have we learned from our folly or will we forget–again?

http://www.islamophobiatoday.com/2013/03/18/the-invasion-and-destruction-of-iraq-in-retrospect/