Everything about the American war in Iraq is not just a failure, but an international human tragedy of immense proportions. 
The man who tried to stop the war, Hans Blix – former chief weapons inspector for The United Nations, was ignored by George Bush, even ridiculed. Blix’s views have not changed. He now says that the war continues to be a gross violation of decent, responsible international behaviour. He adds that it is "a tragedy — for Iraq, for the US, for the UN, for truth and human dignity." During the lead up to the Iraq war, Blix insisted that the US and Britain were exaggerating the threat from Saddam Hussein’s alleged "weapons of mass destruction" — traces of which have never been found. In a recent article, Blix says the war was a "setback in the world’s efforts to develop legal restraints on the use of armed force between states" and added that at the time of the invasion, "Iraq was not a real or imminent threat to anybody."
The war has alienated America from the rest of the world, shredded its once great reputation and violated international law. It has promoted torture and violence and the killing of untold thousands of innocent civilians. It has come close to breaking the U.S. military and has saddled America with a debt, both monetary and moral, that will take generations to pay off.
No matter what spin George Bush tries to put on this misguided war, it has left his country in a moral quagmire, divided his own nation and caused misery and pain to all involved. His trite phrase "Axis of Evil" (coined by the expatriate Canadian, David Frum, incidentally), is a tarnished relic and his occupation of Iraq has deeply eroded both western values and the honour of his own armed forces.
Democracy, diversity, equality and freedom of expression cannot be imposed by armed might. They are values that must be nurtured…learned over decades…even hundreds of years. The U.S. has only to look at its own history to see that.
On this 5th anniversary of the American assault on Iraq, American foreign policy, American morality, the American economy and American pride are – to use a crude phrase, "in the toilet".
The coming world depression is not unrelated to a forlorn war that has ripped apart fiscal prudence in the US. And before we Canadians get too smug in our criticism of America, we need to look much more closely at that other war.
Our ongoing military involvement in Afghanistan will eventually have consequences that will prove to be as serious for the western nations involved, as Iraq has been for the U.S. It will drain our economies, sap our moral strength and undermine our own security by creating ever greater resentment against us.
- An economy dependent, even in part, on the production and use of military equipment cannot last for long.
- Tanks, Humvees, bombs and warplanes are built and then destroyed. The resources used to build them are lost forever.
- The lives of soldiers destroyed by war – both physically and emotionally – are lost forever.
- And the lives of innocent civilians slaughtered in war as "collateral damage" are lost forever; their families never fully recover.
Saddam was a very bad man, but he was not a threat to the west. It was our job to keep a close eye on him, but it was the job of the Iraqi people to remove him.
The Taleban are cruel, ruthless and fanatical, but the Taleban are not a threat to the west and it’s not our job to fight someone else’s civil war. It’s the job of the Afghan people to contain the Taleban.
We can help, but we can’t do the job on their behalf.
