The Tragedy of American Hubris in Iraq
Eddie J. Girdner
"Today I weep for my country."
Senator Robert Byrd

Eighteen months ago the United States, along with Britain, illegally invaded a sovereign nation, overthrew its president and occupied the country. The action was carried out in the face of overwhelming opposition from the international community and the lack of a clear mandate from the United Nations, in Security Council Resolution 1441. UN Secretary General Kofi Annan recently stated that the operation was illegal under the UN Charter. As a result of this action, much of the world has begun to see the United States in a significantly different light: not as a country that brings peace, justice and democracy, but a power outside international law that attacks defenseless countries, illegally, in the pursuit of global power.
The US "regime change" operation in Iraq is now in deep trouble, some five weeks before the US Presidential elections, with the insurgency growing stronger every day. While the US officially claims to have turned over sovereignty to a caretaker Iraqi government, headed by interim Prime Minister Iyad Allawi on June 28, it cannot be seriously doubted that the US remains in control of Iraq and will remain in control for many years into the future as long as the US population continues to support the massive funds and US troop deaths such occupation requires. Spending on the operation in Iraq will soon reach $200 billion with no end in sight.
In the last days before President George W. Bush again faces the American voters, the best possible face is being put on the situation in Iraq, which has become a disastrous fiasco by any reasonable standard. The American people are being told that everything is on track and that Iraq is headed for freedom, democracy and prosperity. The Bush Administration may succeed in concealing the truth from most of the voters in the US, but most officials and the US government and military know that the US is in deep trouble in Iraq. There is a bipartisan consensus between Democrats and Republicans that many more American troops are needed in Iraq just to maintain the status quo. It is highly predictable that the military draft will be reinstated in the US by early 2005. More than 1000 US soldiers have died so far in Iraq and it can be predicted that this number will soon seem small as deaths mount in the continued US presence in Iraq. In recent days, the situation has deteriorated rapidly with more frequent attacks against US military forces as well as Iraqi government security forces. More hostages are being taken and executions of foreign workers carried out. Iraqis have also been taken hostage by insurgent militias. US corporations which rushed for the lucrative US government contracts for reconstruction have been unable to make much very much headway in restoring water, power and other essential services, and now some three billion dollars of the 18 billion dollars appropriated for reconstruction has been shifted to "security" operations.
When the false rationale for the war to overthrow Saddam Hussein collapsed, the blame was laid on the intelligence community. Where were the weapons of mass destruction? In fact, the US government knew the facts, but led by the neocons, was determined to go ahead with the war anyway. Elements within the Bush Administration misled the public by falsely claiming that Saddam Hussein was linked to al-Qaeda and 9/11. The facts about weapons of mass destruction were known. The weapons had largely been destroyed in the l991 Gulf War and subsequently under UN inspections and monitoring. It was also known that the UN weapons inspections were working and effective and that there was no evidence that Iraq had continued its development of nuclear weapons. But the abundance of correct intelligence, in both the US and Britain, was ignored out of the fear by the neocons in the Bush Administration that the Iraq operation of "regime change" would be derailed and the US would lose its golden opportunity to secure the wealth of Iraq and the strategic advantage of an increased presence in the oil-rich region.
The neocons determined that the US must occupy Iraq as part of its global strategy to keep the US unchallenged in its global power. This meant controlling Iraqi oil, given that the future of the Saudi regime was becoming uncertain. It meant ensuring that Iraq did not emerge from UN sanctions and continue to market its oil in Euros, which would militate against a weakening dollar. The US knew that US companies would lose out to European firms in the award of lucrative contracts if Saddam remained in power. "Regime change" would allow the US to establish huge military bases in Iraq for the purpose of controlling the entire Middle East and Central Asian region. In the face of criticism from those who best knew the region, a rosy myth was concocted claiming that the Iraqis would welcome the American occupation with open arms and flowers.
So on March 20, 2003, US tanks rolled into Iraq and a steady stream of dead American bodies began arriving back in the US. Iraqi deaths, both civilian and military, reached the tens of thousands, many killed in their houses in the bombing. The euphoria over the brilliant success of overthrowing Saddam began to break down within three months and within a year, a full-scale insurrection had emerged bringing carnage to Baghdad and other areas with car bombs in urban areas and roadside bombs aimed at US convoys. This carnage goes on and is almost certain to increase as long as the US soldiers are in the country. Unable to secure entire areas, such as the Sunni Triangle, US forces have begun to bomb cities such as Fallujah. The Americans may be targeting leaders of militias opposing the new regime and the US presence, but many women and children are dying in these operations. It is mostly ordinary innocent people who are suffering and the US is not winning the battle for Iraqi "hearts and minds." The US has come to employ the same tactics as the Israelis in the Gaza strip and West Bank against the Palestinians. Just as many feared, the war has become an urban guerrilla war that the US cannot win.
Since 1991, the US has destroyed the Iraqis’ country and the potential of much of the people. The country continues to be deconstructed, rather than reconstructed. Even if the insurgency could be stopped immediately, no one can quite imagine what a future Iraq would look like politically, given the existing religious, ethnic and tribal divisions. The US has brought the gift, not of democracy, but rather anarchy to Iraq. The US has not ended terrorism but rather turned Iraq into the terrorist capital of the world. Nothing could have pleased Osama bin Laden more.
The tragedy in Iraq continues to unfold. No reasonable analysis could imagine that either President George W. Bush or John Kerry could currently reverse the power logic of hegemony embedded in US foreign policy and the incendiary US policy of preventive war, even if they wanted to. Moreover, to call for withdrawal would be to admit that the 1000 US lives, 7000 injured, and the tremendous cost had been for nothing. In fact, there is still no exit strategy. The US election will have almost no affect on current US policy. The US will remain in Iraq. Iraqi people will continue to defend their country, and the local militias will likely continue to flourish. The insurgency will grow larger and many more Americans and Iraqis will die until the American people finally decide to tell their government that enough is enough, as happened in the Vietnam War. But no one knows when this will be or what the ultimate cost will be to the region and to the world. No one knows how many thousands of dead Americans the US people will put up with this time, but it seems that they are prepared for great sacrifices, believing that the US is fighting a "war against terrorism." Those who suffer the most will be the innocent, Iraqis who are being slaughtered, but also common working-class Americans will continue to suffer and die, until they finally wake up to the truth about what their government is actually doing around the world. It seems that the US is destined to pay a heavy price for its imperial adventure in Iraq. Sadly too many Americans believe in the use of force and too few in the US understand that there is no easy way out. It is tragic that neither presidential candidate can level with the American people, call for the US to cut short its losses, and get out of Iraq now. While large corporations like Halliburton and Bechtel are currently reaping big profits, the ultimate outcome for the American people and people of the region will be tragic.
Eddie J. Girdner, Professor, Department of International Relations, Baskent University, Ankara, Turkey. Email:  eddiegirdner_98@yahoo.com