Over 11 years ago we entered a war of choice on a pretext that was always dubious and proved ultimately false. There are several reasons we did this: a messianic belief in the democratisation of the Middle East; a desire to project Western power and install a compliant ruler in Saddam Hussein’s place; inAustralia’s case, pursuing the US alliance.
Iraqi families fleeing violence in the northern Nineveh province. Photo: AFP
But beneath them all lies one essential conceit: we did this because we thought we could. Perhaps some of our soldiers, and multiples more Iraqi civilians would die, but we figured that would be the limit of the fallout. At the very least we assumed our power would be enhanced. At our most delirious we might have believed we’d leave the world a better place.
Indeed that idea hasn’t gone away. When relentless mass uprisings in the Middle East began toppling dictators and promising democracy, the Iraq War’s apologists rushed to claim credit for the change. Saddam’s defeat had unleashed a wave of democratic fervour and a belief in the transience of rulers, so they reasoned. But today, as democracy in Egypt descends into farce and the uprisings in Syria have exploded into the most horrific civil war, this is perhaps not a legacy we should wish to claim.
And now, there’s Iraq itself. Specifically Mosul, which this week fell to the Islamic State in Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Barely a decade after we set out to save the world, terrorists rule one of Iraq’s major cities. “We can’t beat them. We can’t,” says an Iraqi police officer. “They are well trained in street fighting and we’re not. We need a whole army to drive them out of Mosul.” Which might at least sound possible if it weren’t for the army colonel who explained that we’ve just witnessed “a total collapse of the security forces”. This is quite a spectacular step backwards.
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http://friendsofsyria.co/2014/06/14/western-invasion-paved-way-for-iraqs-terror-crisis/