US Army Engineers on Iraq-Kuwait border listen to former US President George W. Bush’s radio address to the nation, March 20, 2003./CFP
US Army Engineers on Iraq-Kuwait border listen to former US President George W. Bush’s radio address to the nation, March 20, 2003./CFP
Edit Note: Wang Jin is a research fellow at Charhar Institute at Northwestern University of China. This article reflects the views of the author, and does not necessarily reflect the views of CGTN.
On March 20, 2003, the United States launched a war against Iraq and reversed the Saddam Hussein regime with the excuse that it eliminated weapons of mass destruction and terrorism. The US invasion not only led to a large number of civilian deaths, but also destroyed the political foundation and abolished the balance of power in Iraq.
The US invasion of Iraq came after the 9/11 attacks in the Washington “War on Terror”. The most accepted story remains that the US invasion of Iraq was motivated by the belief that Saddam Hussein had secret weapons of mass destruction and links to terrorist networks. US politician Condoleezza Rice commented: “We do not want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud”, and US Secretary of State Colin Powell presented to the UN Security Council a small bottle of white powder as evidence of Iraq. Weapons of mass destruction.
Although Powell’s speech did not lead to the UN’s approval of the US invasion of Iraq, and neither Powell nor Rice made the final decision on military action against Saddam Hussein, the US war against Iraq marked an important turning point for the United States and Iraq.
The war in Iraq marks a crucial moment for undermining the international credibility of the United States. Unlike the war against Iraq in 1991, the US invasion of Iraq began in 2003 without the support of the UN Security Council, even without the support of its regional allies, such as Turkey and Saudi Arabia.
In 1991, with the support of a coalition of several countries, the United States launched the war against Iraq, and Washington’s military victory was transformed in the international arena into political credit. However, in 2003, although the Washington war against Iraq successfully overthrew the Saddam Hussein regime with a swift victory, the war began without UN authorization and suggested the collapse of US international credit.
For the Iraqi people, the US war in 2003 started waves of turbulence that continue today. The United States has entered Iraq with the ambition not only to assassinate Saddam Hussein’s regime in the Ba’ath party network in Iraq, but also to establish a “democratic” system and to make Iraq a political example in the Middle East. Nearly two decades later, the United States withdrew its military presence in Iraq, leaving a deadly legacy for the Iraqi people. The US invasion destroyed the political foundation and left endless riots and unrest in the state.
It has also destroyed the political balance in Iraq. As a state with competition for religious sects between Islamic Sunni and Shia, and ethnic divisions between Arab and Kurdish, Iraq must now find a way to bridge the gap between different religions and ethnic groups. Saddam Hussein’s regime used Ba’athism and the slogan of pan-Arabism to unite Iraq. The US war in 2003 drove out Ba’athism without building a new political structure. The division between Sunni and Shia became so rich that the extremist group, ISIS, emerged from Sunni-dominated western Iraq in 2014.
Explosions in Iraqi airspace illuminate the sky during the third night of the US bombing of Baghdad in March 2003. / CFP
Explosions in Iraqi airspace illuminate the sky during the third night of the US bombing of Baghdad in March 2003. / CFP
Ethnic relations between the Arab and Kurdish people have also deteriorated. The Kurdish Democratic Party from the Kurdish Autonomous Region of Iraq has called for national independence in 2017. Sectarian and ethnic policies dominate Iraq, while the unity of the nation grows weaker and darker.
The US war also made Iraq a secondary state in the Middle East. Although severely weakened by the US-led international force attack in 1991, Iraq was still one of the most powerful states in the Middle East before 2003, particularly in the Arab world.
In the Saddam Hussein era, Iraq played a key role in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process and influenced the Arab world through Ba’athism. After 2003, Iraq’s power in the Middle East weakened.
National elections provided an opportunity for external powers to influence Iraq’s internal affairs, and large Iraqi political groups sought support from the United States, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and other external powers to compete for political power. The weak central government can not meet the demands of its people, and social movements and protests continue to shake Iraq’s national unity and capacity.
The US invasion and occupation also led to the deaths and suffering of many Iraqis. Compared to the 4,500 American deaths in Iraq after 2003, the Iraqis suffered much more. Thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed every year since 2003. Some Iraqi people die as a result of US military attacks on civilian targets and various military missions. Others are dying in the unrest and unrest that emerged from the US war in 2003.
Mass protests have been going on in Iraq since autumn 2019. The Iraqi people are frustrated by the lack of electricity and clean water, poor infrastructure, high unemployment rates, political weakness and corruption and widespread poverty. The deep prospects of the Iraqi youth are also of great concern.
The US war against Iraq in 2003, led by George W. Bush, deprived both the United States and Iraq of their national resources. The US withdrawal from Iraq should not mean the end of US responsibility in Iraq. Washington should do more to compensate for the mistakes it has made since 2003.
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