Withdrawing from a wrecked country

US troops in Iraq. Pic. courtesy: Google

American combat troops departed not in a display causing shock and awe but in silence and darkness. They had arrived on a monstrous lie, the claim that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction and they have left on a whopper. Over 50,000 US troops are to remain in Iraq, and their numbers could rise to 70,000. They will be called ‘Advise and Assist brigades’; they have warplanes and helicopters and will accompany Iraqi troops into combat.

The US also has several big, effectively permanent military bases in Iraq and intends to maintain about 200,000 mercenaries as ‘protectors’ of Western business and other interests across the country. The troops who have left have done so seven years after President George W Bush made ‘Mission accomplished’ proclamation.

US-led invasion

The effects of the illegal US-led invasion of 2003 and the subsequent occupation have been catastrophic. There is no accurate record of how many Iraqis have died or been wounded in the seven years: estimates range up to one million deaths. About five million Iraqis are refugees, with 2.7 million of them displaced internally. Unemployment is at 40 percent. With temperatures around 500C for several months a year, power supplies fail, which means water-treatment plants shut down, increasing the risk of epidemics.

The administrative chaos was caused by Washington’s assumption in 2003 that much of the population was fanatical in supporting Saddam Hussein; this led the occupying powers to disband the Iraqi Army and much of the Police and civic administration around the country.

Pic. courtesy: Google

The effects of war include the poisoning of Iraq and beyond by an estimated 1,000 tonnes of depleted uranium used in US munitions. As for the lives of ordinary Iraqis, the population of 30 million faces another descent into vicious sectarian violence.

Political vacuum

This is driven by extremist elements out to exploit the political vacuum as the country’s elected politicians squabble interminably over forming a government, five months after the election.

Indeed the invasion has been a gift to the al-Qaeda, which now has expanded influence in West Asia. Furthermore, Iran, which Washington openly hates and fears, has strong influence on Iraqi Shia leaders. The US may have removed Saddam, who by 2003 was so weakened that even neighbouring states no longer feared him; but it has wrecked a whole country that represents one of the world’s great ancient civilizations.

Courtesy: The Hindu