Pierce: 15 Years. More Than 1 Million Dead. No One Held Responsible.

[babylonsister]

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a19547603/iraq-15-years-george-bush/

15 Years. More Than 1 Million Dead. No One Held Responsible.
The War in Iraq's latest anniversary passed in all-American silence.
By Charles P. Pierce
Mar 21, 2018


The most tragic and infuriating piece of writing of the week came in Tuesday’s New York Times. It carried a very plain and simple headline.

"Fifteen Years Ago, America Destroyed My Country"

My short visit only confirmed my conviction and fear that the invasion would spell disaster for Iraqis. Removing Saddam was just a byproduct of another objective: dismantling the Iraqi state and its institutions. That state was replaced with a dysfunctional and corrupt semi-state. We were still filming in Baghdad when L. Paul Bremer III, the head of the Coalition Provisional Authority, announced the formation of the so-called Governing Council in July 2003. The names of its members were each followed by their sect and ethnicity. Many of the Iraqis we spoke to on that day were upset with institutionalization of an ethno-sectarian quota system. Ethnic and sectarian tensions already existed, but their translation into political currency was toxic. Those unsavry characters on the governing council, most of whom were allies of the United States from the preceding decade, went on to loot the country, making it one of the most corrupt in the world.

Except for Sinan Antoon’s richly deserved jeremiad, the 15th anniversary of the worst foreign policy disaster in modern American history went sailing by largely unremarked, at least in this country. After all, over here, everyone was too busy keeping track of the latest news involving the vulgar talking yam the country had installed as president, how he was still truckling to Russian oligarchs, how he was still being run to ground by Bob Mueller, and about how he was being outwitted and out-lawyered by a lady from the adult entertainment industry.

But, overseas, particularly in that part of the world where ruined Iraq has been turned into little more than an occupied battlefield, the people living there marked the anniversary the same way they’ve marked every day since George W. Bush launched his war based on lies. They were trying to stay alive.

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https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a19547603/iraq-15-years-george-bush/

[Hermit-The-Prog]

1. WMD found

Words of Mass Deception

[VOX]

2. Thats what Republican-based *Spreading Freedom* looks like.

They love those no-bid government contracts and obscene profits that only continuous warfare can provide.

America must break its addiction to war. It is possible.

[Martin Eden]

3. Crime of the Century

So far.