Iraq and the perils of collective forgetting
As Americans once again move on to other issues, the legacy of the Iraq war is still felt by many
As we pass the 20th anniversary of the illegal invasion of Iraq by the George W. Bush administration, I am reminded of the words of Gore Vidal: “We are permanently the United States of Amnesia. We learn nothing because we remember nothing.” A controversial figure, Vidal was often prescient in his analysis of American political culture and discourse. This is particularly notable when it comes to our society’s inability to think critically or deeply about wars. The same could be said about our tendency to forget significant events, even when they occurred as recently as twenty years ago. We just seem to always move on from things so quickly.
Perhaps this is due to our hyper-consumerist culture (it was after all President George W. Bush who urged Americans to “get down to Disney World in Florida” only a few weeks after the 9/11 attacks). Or perhaps this is driven by a media that constantly incentivizes sensationalist coverage and seems to care more about ratings than about journalistic standards or ethics these days. Who can forget how CBS CEO Les Moonves celebrated the candidacy of Donald Trump in 2016, declaring that “it may not be good for America, but it’s damn good for CBS.” Or perhaps it is due to the fact that many Americans are living in a state of perpetual economic anxiety, making it increasingly difficult to stay abreast of current affairs as they’re just trying to get by day to day. Whatever the reason, the end result is that we have become a society where we are not forced to reckon with the effects of our government’s military adventurism. With the exception of a tiny percentage of Americans serving as active duty military personnel and their loves ones, Americans generally go about their daily lives and don’t devote much time or effort thinking about what the military does in our name. This dynamic makes it easy for politicians and officials to skirt accountability, while manipulating the public to acquiesce to their interventionist projects, despite the fact that these interventions continue to fuel instability wherever they occur.
Today it is widely accepted that the 2003 war in Iraq was built on falsehoods. The war was incredibly costly, both in financial and human terms. Hundreds of thousands lost their lives, and countless more were forever wounded, physically and mentally. It also led to a dramatic decline in the reputation of the United States globally, particularly following revelations of abuses by American forces in places like Fallujah and Abu Ghraib. Much of this era has all but been forgotten within the U.S., or sanitized by the mainstream press, despite the longstanding effects that are still felt today. While American forces may have officially left Iraq in 2011, they did not leave behind a prospering democracy as they departed, despite the assurances U.S. officials gave before and during the war. This of course is not unique to Iraq, as we have seen from other places where the U.S. has left behind chaos in its wake.
Looking back at the trajectory of the war, it is clear that American policymakers did not have a real plan or strategy of what to do once Saddam Hussein was removed from power. This failure to adequately plan for a post-war Iraq led to disastrous consequences. Not only did the war destabilize the region, but it also helped pave the way for the rise of the Islamic State, something that continues to plague the world today. As history has shown, wars are easy to start, but can be quite difficult to end, and often lead to unpredictable outcomes. For this reason, it is incumbent upon our political leaders to exercise caution and judiciousness whenever considering the use of military force. We must also make our voices heard so that leaders understand the importance of restraint and wisdom when making foreign policy decisions.
According to a report by the Costs of War project at Brown University, at least 38 million people have been displaced from their homes as a result of U.S. led wars during the post-9/11 period across eight different nations. It should be stressed that this is a conservative estimate and, as the authors of the report state, this figure could well be as high as 60 million. Over nine million of these people were in Iraq, with just over two million consisting of refugees and asylum seekers, and the remainder being internally displaced people. That is an astounding number to contemplate, and one that should give us all pause, as millions of Iraqis are still in need of humanitarian assistance.
Nearly 1.2 million people remain internally displaced in Iraq. These individuals and other returnees face various challenges related to accessing basic services and livelihoods. People who lack core civil documentation are often at particular risk of having other humanitarian needs. Following years of conflict, documents may have been lost, damaged, or confiscated by armed forces across Iraq, making it even harder to access critical services. This, along with coping with destroyed property and infrastructure, as well as the danger of explosive devices (which pose a particular risk to children), are just some of the issues that continue to complicate Iraq’s recovery and daily life for its people.
What happened in Iraq may be far from the collective American consciousness and memory, but if we are ever to learn from our past, we must seriously consider how the actions we take abroad impact those on the receiving end.
