Balance sheet of the US war with Iraq

30 December 2011, 18:00 PM

Brig Gen Md Abdul Hakim Aziz, psc (Retd)

Photo: AFP

FINALLY, the US forces have retreated from Iraq after being exhausted of long nine years of illegal occupation that the world witnessed when President Bush Junior launched his campaign in 2003; defying worldwide public opinion. The future event in international politics will say whether this is Barack Obama's election strategy or a preparation of deploying troops elsewhere. Iraq had a major role in the development of the Muslim Arab civilisation, that is where Islamic Arab civilisation reached out to the whole world. The Iraqi capital Baghdad was built in 145 A.H./ 762 A.D. at the reign of the Caliph Abu Ja'afar al-Mansur, on the west bank of the Tigris. Baghdad had a distinguished role in the political and intellectual events that took place in the Arab Islamic world in particular and in the whole world in general. Unfortunately, Iraq became unstable and totally in chaos after the US tried to export freedom and American values to Iraq, following a series of crisis that erupted in the Middle East region where US had active interest. And because of nine years of looting Iraqi wealth, killing millions of innocent men and women, violating human rights, molesting her sovereignty, Iraq by any standard cannot be called a self-reliant country at this moment. The recent history reveals that it is the US policy that has not allowed Iraq to become self-reliant instead the country's armed forces, its economy and entire social fabric has been systematically destroyed by the US forces during the entire period of nine years of occupation. The seeds of destruction of Iraq started long before the US occupation, after the US became an ally of Iraq in the early eighties. The diplomatic relations with Iraq had been severed shortly after the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War. A decade later, following a series of major political developments in the Middle East region, particularly after the Iranian revolution and the seizure of embassy in 1979- 81 Iran hostage crises, President Jimmy Carter ordered to review the American policy towards Iraq. The Islamic revolution in Iran upset the entire strategic equation in the region. Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, America's major ally in the Persian Gulf was overthrown, and no one else could replace him as the guarantor of the US interests in the region. The US was in search of a new ally in the region to counter balance Iran and found ambitious Saddam Hussein. There were considerable evidences that the US gave green signal to Saddam Hussein to launch war against Iran in the year 1980 which continued till 1988. The US actively supported the Iraqi war effort by supplying the Iraqis with billions of dollars of credits, by providing US military intelligence and advice to the Iraqis, and by closely monitoring third country arms sales to Iraq to make sure that Iraq had the military weaponry required. The US also provided strategic operational advice to the Iraqis to better use their assets in combat. The CIA, including both CIA Director Casey and Deputy Director Gates, knew of, approved of, and assisted in the sale of non-US origin military weapons, ammunition and vehicles to Iraq. There were reports in media that the Senior Bush, operating largely behind the scenes throughout the 1980s, initiated and supported much of the financing, intelligence and military help that built Iraq into the power it became as a strategy to counter balance Iran. The war with Iran drained out the Iraqi resources to a great extent. Iraq was in debt amounting more than $60 billion. Beside the US, many other Gulf countries supported Iraq against the war with Iran including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Iraq was in urgent need of funds to rebuild the country and only source was earning from oil revenue. To recover from crippling economy, Iraq wanted that the international oil price be increased by decreasing oil production but was not able to do so because of non cooperation of another OPEC member Kuwait. According to former Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, "every US$1 drop in the price of a barrel of oil caused a US$1 billion drop in Iraq's annual revenues triggering an acute financial crisis in Baghdad". It was estimated that between 1985 and 1989, Iraq lost US$14 billion a year due to Kuwait's oil price strategy. Kuwait's refusal to decrease its oil production was viewed by Iraq as an act of aggression against her which was further aggravated when Iraq alleged that Kuwait was slant-drilling across the international border into Iraq's Rumaila field. However, many believe that Iraq intention was to create a pressure on Kuwait to get the relief of debt that Iraq owes to Kuwait. Failing to solve the dispute with Kuwait through negotiations, Iraq was ready to settle the score through military means. On July 25, President Saddam Hussein summoned the US Ambassador to Baghdad, April Glaspie, to his office; explained Iraq's position who told Saddam Hussein that Washington, "inspired by the friendship and not by confrontation, does not have an opinion" on the disagreement between Kuwait and Iraq, stating "we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts." She also let Saddam Hussein know that the US did not intend "to start an economic war against Iraq." These statements may have trapped Saddam to believe he had received a diplomatic green light from the United States to invade Kuwait. Later in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings, Ambassador Glaspie testified that she had repeatedly warned Saddam Hussein that the US would not tolerate the use of force in ending Iraq's dispute with Kuwait, but secret cables made public on July 12 appeared to many showed Ms. Glaspie was actually less than forceful about the warning. Sen. Cranston characterised the inconsistencies between Ms. Glaspie's testimony and the secret cables, an attempt by Ms. Glaspie to deliberately mislead Congress about the origins of the Persian Gulf War. Iraq invasion to Kuwait took a complete U-turn in the US-Iraq relationship and Iraq had to pay a heavy price for the aggression. Iraq was evicted from Kuwait by coalition force under the US leadership. Iraq suffered a humiliating defeat and his forces were routed. Senior Bush kept the objective limited and as such there was little controversy of first Gulf war. But the second Gulf War under the presidency of Junior Bush earned huge debate as US completely failed to justify the causes of war. Iraq's possibility of seeking weapons of mass destruction and link with al-Qaeda was unfounded, false, fabricated and proved to be blatant lies by Bush and Blair administration. The controversy also rose with the conduct of war by the US and its allies, its treatment to the Iraqi PW's and dealing with subsequent Iraqi administration including various deals and contracts. Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo brought a lasting damage to America's reputation among the world's more than 1 billion Muslims. The war in Iraq was a strategic miscalculation and a greatest blow to American power and prestige since Vietnam. The human and moral cost of the war was too large. The US lost 4,485 young American men and women and more than 31,921 were injured. President Barak Obama rightly said, "We've got an enormous investment of blood and treasure in Iraq." Besides millions of Iraqis were killed, wounded and made homeless. The cost of war was close to $1 trillion and its consequence in the US economy is now evident. The most obvious fact is that the war with Iraq has exposed the US weaknesses of declining moral values from top to bottom which should be a subject of research by social and political scientist. The writer is a retired Brigadier General.