20 years after U.S. invasion, Iraq far from 'liberal democracy'

Plenty o' war crimes committed in Iraq.

*The decision after the March 20, 2003 ground invasion to dismantle Iraq's state, party and military apparatus deepened the chaos that fueled years of bloodletting, f*rom which the jihadist Islamic State group later emerged.

*The U.S. forces, backed mainly by British troops, never found the weapons of mass destruction that had been the justification for the war, and eventually left Iraq, liberated from a dictator but marred by instability and also under the sway of Washington's arch-enemy Iran.*

In other words was an illegal invasion, and has destabilized the region, which is exactly what the US military-industrial complex thrives on, same as they have continued to do with respect to the Korean peninsula.

Iran got the mine, American taxpayer got the shaft,did the bidding for Iran toppling of Saddam

An illegal and unnecessary war that killed hundreds of thousands of people for very little.

Well it was hugely profitable for Halliburton, Dick Cheney, and Bush's cronies.

As an American,I do not see why we are still in Iraq,if too counter Iranian influence,it not working

Only the naive and gullible groomed and gaslit by the propaganda of the Bush-Blair government organs would be surprised at this "news".

The U.S. forces, backed mainly by British troops, never found the weapons of mass destruction that had been the justification for the war, and eventually left Iraq, liberated from a dictator but marred by instability and also under the sway of Washington's arch-enemy Iran.

Lessons of history still relevant today: Leaders of countries in possession of nuclear weapons and who benefit from misery and death are never prosecuted for war crimes.

Once again, we're reminded that when you put a Repub in the WH, you get wars...

Putin's war in Ukraine has better reasons than Bush jr.'s operation Iraqi freedom!

Once again, we're reminded that when you put a Repub in the WH, you get wars...

yep same as those WMD they said were there, another republican lie

The 2003 invasion of Iraq, which used the false premise of seizing weapons of mass destruction, was organized by Bush junior, because Bush Senior did not go into Iraq after liberating Kuwait from the occupation by Iraq. The real purpose was regime change to end Saddam Hussein's rule.

"A combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland invaded Iraq."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq

Blaming it all on the US is incorrect, even if it was the main antagonist, as it was by no means alone. If it had been alone, the invasion may not have happened at all.

all have started with a big lie.

there were no WMD at all in Iraq.remember Mr.Powell action in UN?

S Hussain was enemy of Al Kaeda so hid country did not support terrorists USA went fight against.

many people killed,tortured,thrown out of house,family,country.

secular muslim country became country in ruins.

so much if pain,violence,blood spilled.

many years later we see no

reparations be paid by USA and UK as main aggressors

sanctions imposed on both USA and UK...

nothing

shame.all just in name of US and UK own interests.

A totally shameful episode in the histories of the US and UK (and Australia and others to lesser extents). As if they didn't have enough of them to be going on with. How Blair still shows his face is a testament to his shamelessness.

lincolnmanToday  02:29 pm JST

Once again, we're reminded that when you put a Repub in the WH, you get wars...

World War I-Democrat

World War II-Democrat

Korean War-Democrat

Vietnam War-Democrat

Iraq-Republican

Thanks for the reminder!

Peter14,the US coddle Saddam,as long as he did their business against against Iran

Putin's war in Ukraine has better reasons than Bush jr.'s operation Iraqi freedom!

Putin's war in Ukraine: based on lies, no justifiable reason at all.

Bush jr.'s operation Iraqi freedom: based on lies, no justifiable reason at all.

I don't see a 'better' in there anywhere.

Putin's war in Ukraine has better reasons than Bush jr.'s operation Iraqi freedom!

Both are entirely reprehensible. The fact that Bush 2 isn't in jail, and that no one ever went to jail for the invasion of Iraq, is America's eternal shame.

Unfortunately, sometimes the bad guys do get away with it. Let's hope Putin doesn't also get away with it.

Pakistan has weapons of mass destruction and is the breeding ground for state-sponsored terrorist groups including one that famously hit the United States. When will Pakistan be invaded?

W and his merry band of Neo-cons screwed that one up about every possible way it could be screwed up.

And a lot of well-meaning Americans, myself included, were fooled into trusting them.

The obvious starter is the reason for the war in the first place. There were no WMD. As the King of Jordan famously said "Sadam put out the 'beware of dog' sign and never bothered with the dog."

Now, one caveat here: Everyone, from France to Jordan to the Iraqi generals themselves thought that Sadam had chemical weapons. The US was not alone in that. But there never was proof because there were none. The thug fooled everyone (too well, as it turned out).

But suspicion is not enough to go to war, unless of course, that decision has already been made as it had been in this case.

But beyond that. Operationally the war was a cluster-duck.

The US decided to do the 2-wars simultaneously thing so it never had enough force in either theater to subdue any insurrgency.

The US had Sadam's army beat and surrounded and yet let it dissapear into the mist rather than capture or destroying it. It allowed an insurgency to form.

Rhumsfeld decided to do war policy experimentation on the fly over the heads of his professional warriors and sent troops trained in large-unit manuver warfare into urban operations with mine-magnet vehicles. (He then complained about being called out on it by his troops who didn't get the memo to clap and be silent.)

The US occupation was horrible. We took every competent civil servant who (because they had to be) was a member of the Bath party and black-listed them.

The US and its allies were engaged in nation building. Then we weren't. Then we were. Then we weren't.

It was just one mistake after another and the senior command staff, the guys who swore that they would never preside over another Vietnam because they couldn't tell truth to power did JUST THAT.

I personally think that there were several reasons that could have been made to go to war (his cruelty. his refusal to abide by UN restrictions, the faultering sanctions regieme.) BUT NONE OF THOSE were reasons given or approved by the public.

I also think that if you go to war, you go to win deciseively. You don't do it on the cheap as Rummy tried to do.

Well-reasoned or no, the US could have done a lot of good in Iraq. clearly the population was tired of Sadam. We could have truely liberated them and set them on a path to reconstruction and growth.

Instead, we just made a hash of things.

And at the expense of 4,400 US combat deaths and 32k wounded, many of them maimed for life both physically and emotionally.

This will be W's "legacy".......

What a complete disaster you would think that the US and friends would learn but I don't think they have. Today the population is proving just as easy to manipulate into provoking and initiating wars as it was 20 years ago. There was no investigation after the war to determine why it happened and who was responsible and that's part of the reason why history is bound to repeat itself again and again. Today our leaders are probably even more corrupt and inept that they were in 2005 so watch out.

Bush "wanted to impose 'liberal democracy'"

about sums up the attitude.....

elephant200Today 02:32 pm JST

Putin's war in Ukraine has better reasons than Bush jr.'s operation Iraqi freedom!

Unbelievable statement! Regardless of the fake reason given for the invasion of Iraq, The majority of Iraqi's wanted Saddam and his family gone for all his crimes against Iraq.

Meantime Putin wants the resource rich Donbas to be Russian, wants all of Ukraine to be Russian and is invading for permanent territorial expansion.

There is absolutely no comparison. The Iraq invasion was wrong but the regime change was very much more warranted than Putin's attempt of theft of an entire nation for ever. The equivalence would be if the US led invasion caused many times more destruction, death and ended with the US and UK annexing Iraq permanently, thus ending the very existence of that nation entirely.

Putin's invasion remains one of the worst disasters in European history, and remains completely unjustifiable and evil on every level.

Iraqi civilian death toll of 183,535 – 206,107 from 2003 to 2019.

Comparison - US military deaths in Vietnam were roughly 48,000.

But we've since swept through Libya, Syria, Afghanistan.

And now we're all cheering on weaponising East Europe.

Twenty years from now, Ukraine will be get it's side note on how its manipulation was a failure.

In the meantime, every nation and its people are open to be the next hot spot.

Just think carefully before gobbling down those "Freedom Fries".

It’s amazing that people who know and admit their government lied to them 20 years ago will need 20 more years to realize they being lied to…today.

it’s even some of the same people.

The captive in the photo with a gun to his head and his eyes and mouth taped is a war crime and obscene.

while closer to the United States

That's all you need to know, really. That's going to be a W, boys, cause it ain't an L.

I still recall Robin Cook's resignation speech in the UK House of Commons setting out his opposition to the invasion. Sadly, his view didn't prevail.

"The threshold for war should always be high."

https://edition.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/18/sprj.irq.cook.speech/

Operation Iraqi Freedomwas based on a "LIE": Weapon of Mass Destruction. Where it was now?

It’s amazing that people who know and admit their government lied to them 20 years ago will need 20 more years to realize they being lied to…today.

That's right, Blacklabel. Some of us just don't have the penetrating insight or do the right research. Of course, conversely, there were plenty of gung-ho Americans and others who would have been convinced by any pretext to go to war because here was a chance to shoot up some forriners. I remember those too. They knew it was a lie but didn't give a hoot. Maybe there are a lot like that today too. Perhaps there is one who sits in the Kremlin.

What would people have thought if they were told that 20 years after the war and so much death and expense that Saddam would be gone but replaced by a political party started by Iran's Ayatollah Khomaini?

They would not have been very supportive, that is for sure.

Once again, we're reminded that when you put a Repub in the WH, you get wars...

World War I-Democrat - War of Necessity

World War II-Democrat - War of Necessity

Korean War-Democrat - War of Necessity

Vietnam War-Democrat/Repub - WAR OF CHOICE

Iraq 1991 -Republican - WAR OF CHOICE

Iraq 2003 - Republican - WAR OF CHOICE

Thanks for the reminder!

You're welcome...

I guess this is the next one for the NEOCON/MAGA Repubs...

https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/republicans-bomb-mexico-cartels-fentanyl-rcna74177

We were fooled into a war we shouldn't have, so.....

let's just sit on our hands while a functioning democracy (unlike Iraq) that doesn't have a state supporter of terror and a thug as leader (unlike Saddam) and who's population is willing to fight on their own and only asks for our help with weapons (again, the parallels to Iraq are non-existent) gets invaded by an actual thug on a BS excuse in a situation where our actual strategic interests (NATO and the liberal democratic order in Europe) are at stake.

Yes, let's throw those people to their fate because some of us mistakenly believed our govt after a major terror attack 20 years ago.

Perfect Know-Nothing logic.

It’s amazing that people who know and admit their government lied to them 20 years ago will need 20 more years to realize they being lied to…today.

What do you mean? I'm pretty sure the vast majority of Americans know the war in Iraq wasn't justified, and few, if any, politicians would publicly support the invasion today.

But I thought the US only wanted democracy and freedom for all not just the OIL…..

But I thought the US only wanted democracy and freedom for all not just the OIL…..

Given your indifference to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it's not like you care about either. Pathetic.

Oh so everyone “knew” the Iraq War war unjust…..now.

Yes, let's throw those people to their fate because some of us mistakenly believed our govt after a major terror attack 20 years ago.

arent they” lying to you again?

im sure they are.

The republicans started the Iraq war and the Afghanistan war.

Peter14, European get a dose of their own medicine,they help facilitate Saddam behavior,just like the US

George W (Weapons of Mass Deception) Bush destabilized this part of the world and is responsible for the mess his administration created.

Iraq will never be the same. the war tore it apart to it's core, Saddam was not the perfect dictator BUT he was the BEST dictator for his time.

What ever happened to the WMD!? we all know it was a lie, but will we ever learn from it? I doubt it very much.

arent they” lying to you again?

Well no, they aren't advocating for invading the country, or overthrowing the government.

im sure they are.

Prove it. You can't. You've got nothing, because there is nothing. No lies, no nothing.

Instead of discovering nuclear, biological or chemical weapons, the assault by the U.S.-led international coalition opened a Pandora's box, traumatized Iraqis, and alienated some traditional U.S. allies.

Chilcot: Tony Blair was not 'straight with the nation' over Iraq war

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jul/06/chilcot-tony-blair-was-not-straight-with-the-nation-over-iraq-war

There is no hiding place for Blair or President George W Bush.....

20 years ago the republican administration fooled everyone with their illegal invasion of Iraq. I disagreed at the time and still do.

Yes all of you non Americans “disagree”….now.

cause it’s convenient,

In other words, Iraq is a democracy, it just isn't submissive to Washington. The population wants the US military gone from its soil NOW, and the government has requested it, but not forcefully (yet).

The population and government want good relations with their democratic neighbors (including the ones that the US insists aren't democracies, and excluding the nondemocracy the US insists is a democracy) and inclusion in the BRI/SCO alliance.

Which is why the US is so stubbornly ignoring its legal obligation to withdraw from the sovereign territory of Iraq.

Yes all of you non Americans “disagree”….now.

Or maybe because the Iraq war was wrong, but supporting Ukraine isn't.

Regardless, it sounds like you've got nothing to back up your claims that we're being lied to. :D

I protested against both Iraq and Afghanistan wars as did many others.

Blacklabel

which side were you on back then?

The American invasion of Iraq was over chemical weapons, just not the mythical ones 'minutes from launch', but rather the ones that had been launched at Iranian and Iraqi civilians.

The goal was to make sure that Saddam never named the sources of the weapons and orders to target civilians in court. 'Amazingly', he was executed before that could happen.

I’m just amazed that half the people in the entire world who were against the US invasion of Iraq…..are on a Japan website on a Friday night 20 years later.

I was a liberal Democrat back then and even I was for it. Bush had like an 80% approval rating despite being a dumbass.

I was a liberal Democrat back then and even I was for it. Bush had like an 80% approval rating despite being a dumbass.

Now, only the last of those three facts is still operative.