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Showing Original Post only (View all)We anti-war protesters were right: the Iraq invasion has led to bloody chaos [View all]
Article that sums up my own views of the situation in Iraq very succinctly.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/12/anti-war-protesters-iraq-invasion-bloody-chaos
I have encountered no sense of vindication, no "I told you so", among veterans of the anti-war protest of 15 February 2003 in response to the events in Iraq. Despair, yes, but above all else, bitterness that we were unable to stop one of the greatest calamities of modern times, that warnings which were dismissed as hyperbole now look like understatements, that countless lives (literally no one counts them) have been lost, and will continue to be so for many years to come.
The catastrophic results of the Iraq invasion are often portrayed as having been impossible to predict, and only inevitable with the benefit of hindsight. If only to prevent future calamities from happening, this is a myth that needs to be dispelled. The very fact that the demonstration on that chilly February day in 2003 was the biggest Britain had ever seen, is testament to the fact that disaster seemed inevitable to so many people.
In a way, opponents of the war were wrong. We were wrong because however disastrous we thought the consequences of the Iraq war, the reality has been worse. The US massacres in Fallujah in the immediate aftermath of the war, which helped radicalise the Sunni population, culminating in an assault on the city with white phosphorus. The beheadings, the kidnappings and hostage videos, the car bombs, the IEDs, the Sunni and Shia insurgencies, the torture declared by the UN in 2006 to be worse than that under Saddam Hussein, the bodies with their hands and feet bound and dumped in rivers, the escalating sectarian slaughter, the millions of displaced civilians, and the hundreds of thousands who died: it has been one never-ending blur of horror since 2003.
The invasion was justified as an indispensable part of the struggle against al-Qaida. Well, to be fair, large swaths of Iraq have not been handed over to al-Qaida: they are now run by Isis, a group purged from al-Qaida for being too extreme. Iraq and Syria are trapped in a bloody feedback loop: the growth of Isis in Iraq helped corrupt the Syrian rebellion, and now the Syrian insurgency has fuelled the breakdown of Iraq, too. Those who believe that the west should have armed Syria's rebels should consider the fact that Isis reportedly raided an arms depot in Syria which was stocked with CIA help. Support from western-backed dictatorships in Saudi Arabia and Qatar has fuelled the Syrian extremists now spilling over into Iraq.
The catastrophic results of the Iraq invasion are often portrayed as having been impossible to predict, and only inevitable with the benefit of hindsight. If only to prevent future calamities from happening, this is a myth that needs to be dispelled. The very fact that the demonstration on that chilly February day in 2003 was the biggest Britain had ever seen, is testament to the fact that disaster seemed inevitable to so many people.
In a way, opponents of the war were wrong. We were wrong because however disastrous we thought the consequences of the Iraq war, the reality has been worse. The US massacres in Fallujah in the immediate aftermath of the war, which helped radicalise the Sunni population, culminating in an assault on the city with white phosphorus. The beheadings, the kidnappings and hostage videos, the car bombs, the IEDs, the Sunni and Shia insurgencies, the torture declared by the UN in 2006 to be worse than that under Saddam Hussein, the bodies with their hands and feet bound and dumped in rivers, the escalating sectarian slaughter, the millions of displaced civilians, and the hundreds of thousands who died: it has been one never-ending blur of horror since 2003.
The invasion was justified as an indispensable part of the struggle against al-Qaida. Well, to be fair, large swaths of Iraq have not been handed over to al-Qaida: they are now run by Isis, a group purged from al-Qaida for being too extreme. Iraq and Syria are trapped in a bloody feedback loop: the growth of Isis in Iraq helped corrupt the Syrian rebellion, and now the Syrian insurgency has fuelled the breakdown of Iraq, too. Those who believe that the west should have armed Syria's rebels should consider the fact that Isis reportedly raided an arms depot in Syria which was stocked with CIA help. Support from western-backed dictatorships in Saudi Arabia and Qatar has fuelled the Syrian extremists now spilling over into Iraq.
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We anti-war protesters were right: the Iraq invasion has led to bloody chaos [View all]
T_i_B
Jun 2014
OP
'Bush to Raise Money for Group That Converts Jews to Bring About Second Coming of Christ'
cprise
Jun 2014
#38
They weren't just clueless, they were blinded by greed and their own screwball dogma
Warpy
Jun 2014
#32
It will be interesting to see what she says after her recent "still wrong" comment.
CrispyQ
Jun 2014
#40
I have a dreadful feeling we'll start hearing a lot of "the war was wrong but we broke it.."
arcane1
Jun 2014
#43
Yep. There's always plenty of justification when the corporations can make a buck. -nt
CrispyQ
Jun 2014
#45
They're gnashing their teeth we didn't stay in Iraq, and are blaming Obama for what's happening now.
Martin Eden
Jun 2014
#28
W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Condi Rice, and David Rumsfeld ignored the history of the art of war
TRoN33
Jun 2014
#6
Agreed. And let's consider what our $2 trillion war has done for the average Iraqi.
sinkingfeeling
Jun 2014
#7
thinking about it, i may have participated in a protest of the 2nd Iraq war, just few showed up
Leme
Jun 2014
#22
the meek response from the Democrats convinced me the fix was in, not like I had major doubts anyway
Leme
Jun 2014
#33
The Clown Prince says he has a clear conscience. Which is horseshit, of course.
Aristus
Jun 2014
#16
I think it's a little more complicated than that and they do not necessarily have to be a
underthematrix
Jun 2014
#30
Think Progress "Why The Middle East Is Now A Giant Warzone, In One Terrifying Chart"
kristopher
Jun 2014
#46