On March 19, 2003, when a "coalition of the willing," the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland, invaded Iraq, Tony Blair, the British Prime Minister said the mission was "to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Hussein's support for terrorism, and to free the Iraq people." The invasion was strongly opposed by some traditional U. S. allies, including the governments of France, Germany, Canada and New Zealand. Coalition forces met little resistance and Baghdad was occupied by April 9. Saddam Hussein and central leaders went into hiding as the entire country was occupied. On May 1, the end of "major combat operations" was declared by President George W. Bush. Saddam Hussein was later captured, tried and put to death. However, violence from insurgents and sectarian conflict between Shiites and Sunnis continued for nine deadly years.
One and a half million American troops served during the Iraq war years and the Pentagon released casualty figures on January 1, 2012: 4,487 deaths; 32,226 wounded in action. It is estimated that 500,000 military men and women suffered injuries that include: post traumatic stress disorder (PSTD), traumatic brain injury, major depression, hearing loss from acute acoustic blasts, malaria, memory loss, migraines, hepatitis A, B, and C, sleep disorders and tuberculosis. Many wounds will persist over veterans' lifetimes and some results of military service may not surface until years later. The financial cost of the war mounted to $800 billion dollars. This became part of our deficit and debt since both the Iraq War and the Afghanistan War were not included in the Bush administration budgets.
When the war began, most Americans believed the Bush administration's position that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), and that Iraq was tied to the 9/11 attack on the United States. Colin Powell, the United States Secretary of State, addressed the Security Council of the United Nations in New York on February 5, 2003. In his 80 minute detailed presentation, televised around the globe, he made the case for war against Iraq. He claimed Saddam Hussein was developing WMDs and showed a computer-generated image of an alleged mobile production facility for biological weapons. He said Iraqis were secretly working to revive their nuclear bomb project and stressed "the gravity of the threat that Iraq's weapons of mass destruction pose to the world." He also warned that al Qaeda had a terrorist network in Iraq and showed a photograph of a poison and explosive training camp in northeast Iraq operated by al Qaeda.
Colin Powell, and the rest of the world, learned in the years that followed that there was no link between Saddam Hussein and the al Qaeda terrorists from Saudi Arabia – not Iraq – who flew the three planes on 9/11. Equally significant, we all learned that there were no WMDs in Iraq. Extensive searching by the military found no evidence of developing projects nor actual weapons of mass destruction. On September 9, 2005, Powell gave an important television interview, explaining that the detailed descriptions of Iraqi weapons had turned out to be false, based on misinformation from intelligence sources. He told Barbara Walters, the interviewer, "I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world and it will always be a blot on my record." When his book was released on May 22, 2012, Powell referred to his " infamous" address at the United Nations as "one of my most momentous failures, the one with the widest ranging impact." He was certainly right about the lasting impact. Today, polls show that millions of Americans still believe that Saddam Hussein had WMDs: 63 percent of Republicans, 27 percent of Independents and 15 percent of Democrats.
Iraq is made up of three major cultural and political groups: Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds with tribal and religious roots that stretch back thousands of years. When Saddam Hussein's authoritarian regime was overthrown, his Sunni based Baath party lost power, and democratic parliamentary elections gave the Shiite party majority control with Nuri al- Maliki the first and current Prime Minister. The three parties in parliament were not able to settle the basic problem of dividing up the oil resources and revenues that are distributed unevenly in the nation. The fledgling democracy was struggling while fierce fighting with al Qaeda in Mesopotamia in the north brought heavy casualties to American troops. Shiites and Sunnis fought each other for control in a civil war throughout the central areas around Baghdad. The surge of American troops in 2007-2008 quelled the insurgents and quieted the Sunni-Shiite strife. Civilians everywhere suffered without electricity, clean water and trash collection. Tens of thousands were displaced from their homes and it is estimated that over 100,000 Iraqis died in the war.
The United States built a new $750 million embassy in Baghdad, the largest and most expensive complex in the world with 2,000 diplomats and 16,000 staff. After the last troops left, and our influence clearly began to wane in the country, there was an announcement that the U.S. would reduce the diplomats by half . Our original aim had been to leave 5,000 troops in the country to work with the Iraqis training their military and patrolling the skies. Maliki did not agree to conditions of immunity and the proposal fell through. Nahida al-Dayni, a lawyer and member of parliament commented, "The U.S. had something on their minds when they made the embassy so big. Perhaps they want to run the Middle East from Iraq, and their embassy would be a base for them here."
As soon as the last American troops left on December 31, 2011, violence broke out in different parts of the country. Bombings and explosions in many cities were claimed by al Qaeda . On July 23, 103 people were killed in coordinated attacks in 13 cities. Security forces and government offices were the primary targets aimed at sowing chaos among the civilian population. In September, a prison break in Tikrit freed 47 convicted al Qaeda militants, prompting Hakim al- Zamili, a Shiite member of parliament to declare, " Al Qaeda leaders have no intention of leaving this country or letting Iraqis live in peace." Prime Minister Maliki appears to be moving toward creating a Shiite dominated state. His main rival is Moktada al-Sadr, the virulent anti-American Shiite cleric who spent many of the war years in Iran. Al Sadr controls the Mahdi Army, thousands of men who rally at his command but are now disbanded. At present, he has joined Sunnis and Kurds in calling for the ouster of Prime Minister Maliki.
Iraqi politics reflect the many layers of thousands of years of tribal loyalties and conflicts that underlie the young democracy in 2012. One of the original goals of the war was to "free the Iraqi people." Now, the United States joins the rest of the world – watching how they handle that freedom. And Americans reflect on whether the Iraq War was "worth it."
Joyce S. Anderson is the author of "Courage in High Heels," "Flaw in the Tapestry," "If Winter Comes," "The Mermaids Singing" and her new book, "The Critical Eye." She can be reached at JSAWrite@aol.com.
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