Iraq War: Anniversary of a Fever Dream

© Fars News Agency

TEHRAN - March 19 marks the anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

The day is also intended as an antiwar intervention into the capitals of war-making: Washington, London, Canberra and Warsaw.

In the name of pre-empting a threat, the illegal invasion consisted of 21 days of major combat operations, in which a combined force of troops from the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia and Poland went after Iraq's weapons of mass destruction that were never there. Still, that didn't stop the invaders from destroying Iraq's civilization, killing and wounding over one million civilians, and making millions more refugees.

Such a catastrophic delusion should have been a cautionary tale - at least for the capital of war-making Washington. Far from it, years later the warmongers brought the same level of destruction and misery to other sovereign nations such as Libya and Syria. The outcome has been even more regional instability and a freer hand for the kind of Sunni radicals and terrorists who continue to threaten and attack everything and everyone, even in the heart of the European continent.

As is the case with Iraq, the US continues to profit from conflicts by igniting arms race and spreading its military and empire of bases across the globe. It is engaged in over 150 covert and overt wars in places like Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya and Syria, and, via drone strikes, in Pakistan, Yemen, and Somalia. The US government has now gone even further, provoking Russia in Ukraine and Eastern Europe, pushing for another coup in Venezuela, and expanding its military presence in Asia and Africa.

The one war President Barack Obama "seems" interested in avoiding for fear of its repercussions - from the side of Iran - a group of Republican Senators has now taken it upon themselves to strive to bring into being. Congress is keen to increase military budget spending and authorize more war making, while Obama has made clear the wars and horrific abuses (Guantanamo, Black Ops, Blackwater) will continue regardless of Congress, the United Nations, the rule of law, strategic common sense, hardened public attitudes, and of course basic human morality.

The war on Iraq, obviously, was all a fever dream, a mass delusion. There were no biological or nuclear weapons. Iraq was not an important sponsor of Takfiri and Salafi terrorism either.

This was fueled not by the fascist dictatorship in Iraq, but by non-state actors in failed states such as Afghanistan and Somalia. The US-led invasion of Iraq turned it into precisely the sort of failed-state sectarian war zone that does fuel terrorism, sectarianism and instability.

The same rule applies to Libya and Syria, where foreign-backed terrorism rules. After all, if profits can be made through arms transfers and postwar reconstruction, what's to prevent a repeat of that fiasco from once again producing the opposition of its intended effect?

So never mind that Iraq remains under threat and in perilous shape after so many years. What the war history lesson implies is that imperial plunder and the destruction of civilizations is nothing but an upgraded version of a good old tradition - like sending text messages (Predator drone missiles) on New Year's Eve.