In just a few weeks time the War in Iraq will draw to a close. I'm not exactly sure how we should label this "War" since I am unable to pinpoint exactly who the "War" has been against, since the fall of Saddam Hussein nearly a decade ago. It is one war, and I am sad to live in a time where I describe a war so nonchalantly, that I am simply perplexed and bewildered by. I was only 11 years old when Al-Qaeda attacked this country, throwing the world into a tailspin. I remember sitting in my FACS class, which was similar to Home-Ec, in 7th grade listening to Mr. Berkowitz, my principal, tell the school over the loudspeaker there had been an attack in New York. I remember teachers hugging and crying, and I remember listening to the radio at lunch hearing that another plane crashed in Pennsylvania. Of course, I was completely unaware of the magnitude and it wasnt until I went to a friends house after school and saw those planes hitting the Towers that I realized my life would never be the same.
Yet as an 11 year old, it became clear to me who attacked us. It was Al-Qaeda, under the leadership of Osama Bin Laden. It seemed there was unanimous recognition of this fact and I certainly had no reason to doubt it. The course of action, and I had turned 12 by this time, was to go after this group, who were supposedly hiding in the mountainous region between Afghanistan and Pakistan. We would be at war with Al-Qaeda. Yet, in October of 2002, Congress passed the Iraq Resolution, justifying the use of military force in Iraq. And as a 12 year old, I was bewildered, similar to the feelings I harbor today, about why we were all of a sudden at war with Iraq.
This was a war we had never fought before. Al-Qaeda was en enemy that was unidentifiable. They were a bunch of rag tag soldiers living in caves. Besides the faces of Osama bin Laden and few other members of the top echelon of leadership, there was nothing to target. Al-Qaeda didn't even have a known headquarters. When Japan attacked us on Pearl Harbor, 70 years ago today, we could put a face on the atrocities. They had a flag, an army, cities, and a country. But that was simply not the case with Al-Qaeda.
Iraq had a face. Its face was Saddam Hussein. And inexplicably, at the behest of George W. Bush, the United States invaded Iraq in March of 2003.
And that leaves us with today. And my bewilderment and confusion turns to anger. I'm angry that nearly 4500 military service members have been killed in Iraq, mostly young men and women. I'm angry that there have been over 32,000 American casulaties during this war. I'm angry that we have spent huge sums of money in Iraq, somewhere around 1 Trillion, that wasn't paid for. I'm angry that somewhere around 100,000 Iraqi's have been killed in this war. A simply staggering number. I'm angry about the unconscionable toll this has put on American families. I'm angry about a group of young men and women who will return from Iraq physically or emotionally scarred, or both. And I'm angry that nearly all of it could have been avoided, while achieving the same result.
Enter: The Arab Spring.
Tunisia, Yemen, Egypt, and Libya all saw their long standing dictators removed in an unprecedented period of upheaval. And Syria is sure to be next. Yet, one country never had their chance. Iraq.
What country would have been a better candidate to see upheaval than Iraq? Iraq and its leadership stood for everything that the Arab Spring sought to uproot. An oil-rich country led by a maniacal dictator who had been in power for decades. Sound familiar? Try Libya. I'll continue. A delusional leader who lived a lavish lifestyle, purporting to be a man of the people, while his people lived in poverty, deprived of basic human rights while living in fear of torture and/or imprisonment for the smallest amount of dissent. Not a mirror-image but pretty darn close.
The results we currently see in Libya could very well have transpired in Iraq. And I don't hesitate to say that the Arab Spring would have undoubtedly spread to Iraq. We forced democracy on Iraq instead of waiting for it to come to its people. And right as we are pulling out of Iraq, the region is seeing democracy make its way in. Yet, this war in Iraq has systematically destroyed our standing in the world. All of the sympathy we had aroused after 9/11 was shattered following the invasion. We were seen as a victim following the attacks on 9/11, yet the moment we invaded Iraq we became the oil grabbing, imperialistic monster, as much of the Arab world sees us today. By invading Iraq we essentially created an enemy. The insurgency in Iraq was American made. Al-Qaeda in Iraq was American made. And they will remain in the country, hostile to any U.S. backed government, long after our troops pull out.
The decision to invade Iraq, I believe, will haunt this country for many years to come. The damage we did to our own people, to the Iraqi people, to our standing in the world, to our economy, and to the current country of Iraq is simply incalculable. And what have we accomplished? We deposed Saddam Hussein but chances are he would have been gone in time. So I struggle to find anything positive about the "War" in Iraq.
I don't know how George W. Bush feels about his decision to invade Iraq. I dont know how he feels about signing a document that sent young men and women to their death for his own self-righteous pursuit. War is not a simple board game, like Risk, where you can send cannons and horses into a country and simply by rolling the dice, can you conquer land. War involves blood. A lot of blood. So when I look back on this terrible "War", many emotions permeate my body. The anger slowly subsides and I'm left with sadness. Immense amounts of sadness.
