T
he U.S. invasion of Iraq, predicated on Saddam Hussein secretly developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD), started 20 years ago today, on March 20, 2003.I recall landing at LAX that night, walking through the terminal and seeing images from CNN: dark skies over Baghdad lit up with tracers from anti-aircraft guns and explosions from U.S. bombs.
Colin Powell had convinced me, in his speech to the United Nations Security Council, that we had intelligence confirming WMD, which justified invading and toppling Hussein.
That proved false. But his other prediction, “If you break it you own it,” played out tragically, not ending after America’s official withdrawal in 2011. Echoes of the war will span generations, as poignantly told in this reflection by Lulu Garcia-Navarro.
In an article in The New York Times, Peter Baker assesses former President Bush’s perspective about the invasion of Iraq:
As far as he is concerned, the world is better off without Saddam Hussein, and he has told advisers he has not changed his mind about that.
Perhaps. But was it worth the carnage?
The invasion succeeded in toppling Mr. Hussein, by all accounts one of the world’s most brutal dictators, but touched off a virulent insurgency and relentless sectarian civil war that ultimately killed 4,600 American troops and 3,650 contractors, at least 45,000 members of the Iraqi military and police, at least 35,000 insurgents and an estimated 200,000 civilians.
I hold fromer President George Bush and former Vice President Dick Cheney — a strong advocate for the invasion — responsible for the greatest blunder in U.S. policy during my lifetime. Aside from any guilt they may silently carry, only God can hold them accountable when they pass from this life.
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