“Our war there will be
over. All of our troops will be out of Iraq,” President Barack Obama said in
his Dec. 17 weekly radio address.
But while combat
troops are leaving, for now at least, the U.S. government is creating a staff
of 16,000 for its newly constructed embassy in the heart of Baghdad. Although
Iraq has only 28 million people, the new U.S. embassy is the largest in the
world. It is a massive compound that is one and a half square miles-—an
enormous complex of 22 buildings and the size of 94 football fields. Half of
the 16,000-person staff will consist of a private military army made up of
mercenaries under the control of the State Department. The State Department
budget for the embassy is estimated at $25-30 billion over the next five years.
In addition, the
Pentagon retains a vast network of bases, sea and air power surrounding Iraq.
Washington’s intention clearly is to dominate Iraq for many years to come in a
colonial-type relationship. Iraq possesses the second largest oil reserves in
the world.
Obama’s speech was the
latest in a series of appearances seeking to bolster the president’s
re-election prospects by associating himself with “the end of the war in Iraq.”
The dishonesty of this
presentation would be considered breathtaking except for the fact that his
deception fits exactly into the pattern of lies and deceit practiced by all
other Democrats and Republicans who have served as the CEO of the U.S.
imperialist state.
While trying to
ingratiate himself with the service members, veterans and their families, Obama
vastly underestimated the real damage done to them, stating that “tens of
thousands have been wounded.”
The official Pentagon
figure of U.S. wounded is around 32,000. But a Brown University 2011 study
reported that, of the 1.25 million service members who had been deployed to
Iraq and Afghanistan at that time, nearly half had filed disability claims—in
others words, 600,000, a big majority Iraq veterans. Nor did the president
mention that many thousands of returning vets are now homeless, living in the
streets—a number that grows daily.
No mention either that
the war in Iraq has already cost more than a trillion dollars and will likely
end up costing more than $3 trillion in the end due to long-term interest,
disability and health cost.
But the most glaring
omission was the catastrophic impact of the war on Iraq and its people. “For
nearly nine years, our nation has been at war in Iraq,” said Obama. In reality,
the war in Iraq has been going on for more than two decades: The 1991 “Desert
Storm” destruction of the country’s infrastructure and a lethal 13-year
sanctions blockade preceded the 2003 invasion and occupation.
More than two million
Iraqis have died as a result of war and sanctions, an estimated 4.5 million
have been displaced and an unknown number, but one which must be counted in the
millions, wounded. There are over one million widows in Iraq. All this in a
country of just 28 million people.
The U.S. occupiers
disbanded the entire government and shut down all vital service systems, such
as health care and food distribution. The occupation deliberately pitted
religious and ethnic groups against each other, using the classic methods of
colonial divide-and-rule. This policy greatly exacerbated sectarian violence
that took a toll in the hundreds of thousands and continues to plague Iraq
today. A once relatively stable society was ripped to shreds.
There is not a single
reference in the president’s proclamation about the horrific crimes committed
against Iraq. Just colonialist-style statements like, “Iraq’s future will be in
the hands of its own people.” As if the U.S. occupation had, instead of
inflicting untold destruction, been a training session for the Iraqi people in
self-government.
Iraq had been an
independent country for 45 years after kicking out the British colonizers in
1958, and was one of the most economically and socially advanced countries in
the Arab world prior to the 1991 war.
Despite all that they
have suffered, the Iraqi people have a long and proud history of struggle
against imperialism and injustice, a struggle that will continue.
For more on the hidden history of Iraq, read “Our view on modern Iraq: An anti-colonial revolution in perspective”
