Iraq: 5 years on, no end in sight

When an incompetent clique of corporate elitists grabs power in a wealthy and powerful nation, it is everyone’s worst nightmare, like an enraged bull in a shop of priceless porcelain. Five years after the launching of one of the most flagrant breaches in international law history has seen, the government of the United States of America continues to hail its victory. The naked truth however, is that five years on, there is no end in sight.

	BREAKING NEWS Condoleezza Rice's sexual worries in the White House Future generations to suffer from severe lack of fresh water USA plans to encircle Russia with missiles and radars
	Russian pop star Anna Semenovich More...

Five years ago to this day, this column was being written with a sense of foreboding, sadness and a sullen acceptance that the Bush regime had indeed made the United States of America the pariah of the international community. As the time wore on, and the horrific predictions made here proved not only to be right, but painfully so, the military and civilian casualties on all sides rose as the tragedy unfolded before our eyes.

They would be welcomed like heroes. The people would greet them with open arms. Flowers, even. A new democratic government would be swept into power on a wave of popular euphoria and the entire population of Iraq would rise up, place their hands on their hearts and sing God Bless America.

Only a half-wit OD’ing on pink magazines and who believed that in the Westerns the cowboys were the good guys and the “injuns”, the baddies - would swallow such bull, hook, line and sinker.

After five whole years of war crimes, criminal mismanagement, breach of the UN Charter, breach of the Geneva Convention, mass murder, torture, rape, deployment of weapons of mass destruction in civilian residential areas, destruction of civilian structures with military hardware, Iraq continues in chaos.

Five years on, there is no end in sight. The process of state-building was delayed by sweeping out of office anyone and everyone connected with the Ba’athist Party, the very people who were trained in governing the civil service which kept Iraq running. In their place, a mottley bunch of wannabe politicians on the fringes of Iraqi society were hurriedly gathered together in a London hotel and told to their disbelief that they would be the new candidates in a democratic election, so democratic in fact that the most-heard question outside polling stations was “Who are we voting for?” The result? The government of Iraq does not dare venture out of the Green Zone in Baghdad.

Speak your mind on Pravda.ru forum