America's Iraq Experience: Invasi-Eradicavi-Turbavi

Julius Caesar undoubtedly was showing off with his Veni-Vidi-Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered) when referencing to his short war outside Zela (Zile) in Turkey over two millennia ago. Similarly, if we were to use a short catchy-comment for the almost nine years America has invested in its “Iraq Mission,” we would be on target by condensing the US experience in also three Latin words, although not as melodic this time: Invasi-Eradicavi-Turbavi which sadly stand for, I invaded, I destroyed and I threw-into-chaos.

No matter what the Pentagon and White House tell us, the fiasco in Iraq likely stands as the most costly mistake in America’s history, a true Keystone Kops type of political dark comedy. And it wasn’t a bad or flawed decision by a singular moron or group of morons – Bush the Younger, Sadist Cheney and Loquacious Rumsfeld composing the original warpath triumvirate, together with two dozen equally deranged staff of their inner circles. Unfortunately, this time Congress, together with a brainwashed public, closed rank with an evil and criminal White House. So, whether the American citizenry likes it or not… the Iraq conflict wasn’t just Bush’s war, but “the peoples’ war,” a war with a dangerous aftermath yet to come, one we’ll likely be paying for in the future with additional blood and treasure.

American mainstream media, true to their corporate ownership, are bringing us the images of the GIs returning home together with some white-washed commentary. The corporate media is careful not to turn this December event into a celebration, but grotesquely over-simplifies this empire’s adventure by summarily giving its cost as “an expensive war with 4,500 American casualties and 100,000 Iraqis killed.” There you have it: the sum total of our criminal intervention under the cry of “Democracy and Freedom”! In 1099 AD, it was the cry of Deus vult (God wills it) that led Christianity to its First Crusade and the capture of Jerusalem. Now it’s the pseudo-patriotic cry of defending our freedoms which takes to war thousands of miles away. Totally inane!

Yes, it has been (and continues to be) an expensive war, the true figures not properly made public. And, yes, the number of US casualties is probably around 4,500. But those 100,000 Iraqi deaths are only a fraction of the 500,000 to 1,000,000 range given by most credible accounts. However, even these figures don’t begin to tell the true holocaustic implications of decisions made in the White House during the months leading to the March 2003 invasion of Iraq.

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