It's been a disaster on almost every count - don't forget the damage done to US power and Western influence generally. The war has demonstrated the limitations of the US's overwhelming military advantage and has massively reduced its soft power across the world and caused enormous harm to the US economy. On top of that it has put back the cause of human rights and wasted enormous sums of money that could have been spent so much better elsewhere.

It is frightening how few of the original supporters of the war are prepared to admit they'd got it wrong. My greatest fear is that we now repeat the catastrophe by bombing Iran.

The latest fighting around Basra involving the Shia militias and government troops may be a new, dangerous phase in the conflict. The uneasy truce with Sadr and his Medhi army seems to be over.
For a couple of recent US responses to the 5th anniversary please see: http://laborview.blogspot.com/2008/03/mccain-winning-iraq.html McCain winning Iraq

Kevin Rennie

Good article from Antony Loewenstein. The Iraq War has been a disaster from day one, which is why so many of us opposed it since before it happened. What an absolutely monumental mess the US and its allies have made: millions of refugees, hundreds of thousands of deaths and casualties, the rise of militant Islamism in Iraq, the escalating civil war... for what gain?

Sure Saddam's dead and his horrible henchmen are gone, but is Iraq now and in the foreseeable future likely to be a better place for the war? I think not.

And I note that after five years they still haven't managed to find a single 'weapon of mass detruction'. The only mass destruction I can see has been the near total destruction of Iraqi society.

'The only mass destruction I can see has been the near total destruction of Iraqi society.'
That is all you are likely and want to see when you are in love with SBS/ABC. A little balance would be a breath of fresh air.

“ The Iraq War has been a disaster from day one, which is why so many of us opposed it since before it happened. “

Posted by CJ Morgan, Wednesday, 26 March 2008 9:41:42 AM


Now we know why CJ Morgan is so smart: he has a crystal ball!

We all know now that it has been a disaster; but CJ Morgan knew it would be a disaster before it started – “why so many of us opposed it since before it happened.”

The real disaster will come when the allies do pull out and we are flooded with illegals, as we were

The Balkans strife started in the mid nineties with no hope of NATO leaving soon.
East Timor's strife started in '98 when Habibi offered the Timorese a vote.
With the Timorese Prime Minster recently being shot I doubt that Australian Troops will be leaving soon.

I can also mention Palestine/Israel, Afghanistan, Cyprus, Korea, etc etc etc.

These conflicts take time to resolve and until there is a chance of an acceptable peace in these conflict zones it would be foolish to remove troops in either a peace making role or a peace keeping role.

All in all it is better to have Saddam and his son's gone even if it has meant ongoing strife.

The US&allies most recent invasion of Iraq has been a magnificent success, (Dick Cheneys) Halliburton PL alone has taken over $13billion in contracts, (GW Bush's dads company) the Carlyle Group has taken billions more, and nobody has died except a million Iraqi's & 5000 yankee trailer trash.

Would we do it again? Surely we will, cos
a) we NEED their oil,
b) theres lots of money to be made, &
c) its what the anglosphere has been doing for centuries.
We call it progress.

do it again? mate, we didn't 'do it' in the first place.

dubya did it, howard followed, ozzies weren't consulted. graziers don't consult sheep, you know. i do wish you'd stop pretending to be citizens when you're not- it's a kind of adolescent boasting which invites ridicule.

when did we agree to 'do it' the first time?

Australia is already doing it again in one sense. Our ongoing deployment of troops in Afghanistan shows how little imperialism round the world understands the ability of ordinary people to fight back.

US imperialism is locked in battle with European imperialism and with the rapidly growing Chinese imperialism for global economic dominance. China's share of world GDP is now about 10% from memory, while the US remains at about 20%. The difference is I think that the shift has involved productive capital moving towards China. While the US share of world GDP has remained relatively the same since 1975 or so, its nature has changed from the productive sectors to unproductive sectors (or to put it crudely from goods to services.)

The US invasion of Iraq had many reasons but one was that it was an attempt to warn the Chinese that US military power exists to ensure and enforce US economic dominance around the world.

If that is the case it has been a complete failure.

The developments in Basra highlight the dangers for the US. The puppet regime is attacking Sadr and his Medhi army to force them to give up their weapons (ie surrender to the puppet regime with unknown consequences).Sadr's call to do so only when the invaders have left will resonate with most Iraqis. Despite all the crap in The Australian and other mainstream newspapers, most Iraqis hate the western invaders.

Sadr's call and the ongoing fighting has the potential to unite Shia and Sunni against the common enemy. We shall see.

Australia is involved because it wants to defend ANZUS. It is under the umbrella of the alliance with the US that we can pursue our own imperialist interests in the region. That is why Rudd, although he is moving out of Iraq supposedly, is continuing with the much more dangerous role we play in Afghanistan. By doing so he hopes we can impose our military and or economic will on the so-called failed states of the region and continue our economic expansion into South east Asia.