Iraq War – Was it Worth it?
The Iraq war cost $3 Trillion. 4,800 US soldiers were killed and 32,000 seriously wounded. Iraqi civilian casualties range around 600,000
Was It Worth It?
“This war will be long seen as boon for the few, and a bane for the many.”
by RA
(our Baghdad Correspondent)
In
the build-up to the Iraq war, the United States used Iraq’s alleged “weapons of mass destruction” to justify the decision to invade the country.
What were the real
reasons for the war? What were the costs and benefits from the US point of view?
REAL
REASONS OF THE WAR
1. Control
of Iraq’s oil: Second only to Saudi Arabia, Iraq possesses more than 60% of the world’s
known oil reserves, amounting to 115 billion barrels. Thanks to the war, American oil companies returned to Iraq, 36 years after Saddam nationalized them. Remarkably, when the war started, oil was just at $26.00 a barrel.
After the invasion, prices kept rising to new heights and reached a
record of $145.75 in 2008.
2. Preservation
of the U.S. dollar as the world’s reserve currency: In late 2000,
Iraq converted to the Euro in exchange for oil. Had an increasing
number of countries followed suit and shifted away from the dollar,
the U.S. would have been dealt a huge blow inflicted by a
plummeting dollar.
3. Elimination
of a threat to Israel: The centrality of Israel in any U.S. Mideast
strategy is a foregone conclusion. Iraq possessed Scud long-range
ballistic missiles which directly threatened Israel. In 1991, Iraq
attacked two Israeli cities with Scud missiles. It was the first time
Tel Aviv had been hit in the history of the Israel-Arab conflict.
Saddam also doled out thousands of dollars to families of
Palestinians killed in fighting with Israel. Toppling him stemmed a source of support to Palestinians and eliminated the
direct missile threat.
4. Weapons
field-testing: In real-battle mode, the Pentagon
could use a long list of high-tech
and newly developed weapons, such as the highly destructive nano-wave
weapons, e-bombs, sensor fuzed weapons, laser weapons and agent
defeat bombs.
5. War
profiteering: The U.S. targeted the privatization of the Iraqi
infrastructure by granting lucrative (no-bid) contracts to the likes
of Halliburton, Blackwater, Chevron, Shell, Lockheed, DynCorp, and
KBR, all of whom were unwavering supporters of the Bush
administration.
COSTS
OF THE WAR
In
2011, the Congressional Research Service estimated that the U.S. will
have spent almost $802bn on funding the war by the end of fiscal year
2011. The actual cost, however, may exceed 3 trillion dollars when
replacement and maintenance costs for equipment and the care for
wounded troops are factored in.
On
the other hand, 4,487 U.S. troops were killed in addition to 32,223
wounded (one-fifth of whom have suffered serious brain or spinal
injuries and one-third have developed serious mental health problems
- chief among them, post-traumatic stress disorder – soon after end
of deployment).
The
war did also exact a toll on Iraqi civilians and government forces.
UN reports state that Iraqi civilian casualties, commonly reported to
have ranged between 50,000 and 100,000, have been significantly
under-reported. Some informed estimates put Iraqi civilian casualties
at over 600,000 (including 55,000 Iraqi insurgents), whereas about 5
million Iraqis were permanently or temporarily displaced. Besides,
more than 10,000 policemen and soldiers were reported killed as of
July 31, 2011.
UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES: A STRONGER
IRAN
During
his rule, Saddam marginalized the Shi’a and stood as a bulwark
rival against Tehran on behalf of neighbors like (Sunni) Saudi
Arabia, which funded Iraq’s eight-year war against Iran.
The power vacuum in Iraq has been largely filled by
Tehran. The invasion had shuffled the cards of the Iraqi domestic
power equation: Shi’a have risen to power in Baghdad, Kurds have
achieved autonomy, and Sunnis have been pushed to the sidelines. This has played into Iran’s hands, enabling it to increase its political and religious
influence in a friendlier Iraq.
The
post-war Iraq has eased the pressure on Iran. It has created
breathing room for Tehran to pay more attention to the U.S. army
presence in Afghanistan and to Saudi Arabia, the longtime U.S. ally.
The
fall of a longtime foe and the U.S. withdrawal from Iraq have
significantly strengthened Iran – hardly something the
United States originally intended.
AMERICAN
COMPANIES PROFIT
Several American or U.S.-based oil services companies such as
ExxonMobil, Halliburton, Schlumberger, Baker Hughes, and Weatherford
International have won huge drilling and well refurbishment contracts
and subcontracts.
Some
analysts estimate that nearly half of the expected $150 billion that
international oil giants are expected to spend at Iraqi oil fields
over the next few years will be awarded to American
drilling subcontractors.
While other international companies have
established a footprint for building facilities and processing
pipelines, U.S. oil services companies are set to take over most of
the drilling contracts in the six major Iraqi oil fields.
WAS
THE WAR WORTH IT?
Looking
at it from an American prism, the Iraq war
turned out to be a bloody, prolonged and high-cost commitment
in terms of lives and treasure.
The
U.S. credibility has been tarnished by the groundless pre-war claims
set forth by the Bush Administration. The removal of Saddam Hussein
was eclipsed by the rise of a
more belligerent Iran.
The U.S. dollar has maintained its supremacy
but the trillions spent in Iraq will burden the U.S. economy for years to come. Israel was relieved from a historical threat only to
be replaced by that of the Mullahs in Tehran. The war gained the U.S.
unlimited access to Iraqi oil. But while American companies have
emerged biggest winners, the U.S. taxpayers have borne the brunt of
its gigantic cost.
This
war will be long seen as boon for the few, and a bane for the many.
—-
Related – Iran & Iraq sign Defence Cooperation Agreement
also by RA -Iraq Stymied in Face of Challenges
First Comment from Dan
The Iraq occupation was part of the larger strategic goals of the
New American Century plan to control 7 Middle East state in 5
years. Saddam’s army was easily beaten but Rumsfeld underestimated
the magnitude of the blowback or ‘insurgency’ that ensued as soon as
the “Shock and Awe” wore off.
The ferocity of the Battle of Feluja coupled with the unpredictable
reactions of Gaddafi and Assad cost the Bush/Blair Blitzkrieg to
lose the momentum far short of their goal. A lot of people missed
this. The plan called for Gaddafi and Assad taking hostile
actions. Instead, they offered to cut deals with the US State
Department.
Israel’s summer of 2006 attempt to start a war with Lebanon
backfired. The plan was to make it seem Israel was in dire danger
from a Hezbola onslaught, thus gaining world sympathy to draw in
NATO forces to occupy the Israel’s flank in North Africa. Instead,
Sharon’s attack on Lebanon was such vicious overkill that NATO
balked and nothing came of it. The US State Department had to go
back to the drawing board and proceed setting up “Plan B” – CIA
backed “spontaneous democratic revolutions”, brand name: Arab
Spring ™.
The State Department says they like democratic governments, but what
they really want is the appearance of Anti-American, Anti-Israel
Muslim regimes out of chaos. While media pretends that Iraq,
Libya, Egypt and soon Syria are more dangerous, in reality their
military strength has been rendered incapable of fighting an
international war.
Through it’s policy of de-stabilization through support of
subversive mercenary ‘revolutions’, the State Department is setting
up them up to be paper tigers that a US/NATO war can strike down in
the event of war with Iran. Iraq, Libya, Egypt and Syria currently
pose a much weaker military threat to Israel’s flank in the event of
Iran war than they did in 2010.
If the Iraqi government seems for the moment to have turned out
unfavorably for US State Department policy, consider the peculiar
value of copycats of Iran to US rhetoric. How can anybody say that
Iraq is ‘stronger’? They have no army. They lost two generations of
Iraqi manhood. The US State Department killed 600,000 civilians
during the last ten years, and I can’t find a figure for how many
children were crippled and maimed. During the 1990′s the
Bush/Clinton Administrations killed 500,000 children through the
same kind of sanctions they’ve imposed on Iran and Syria. Here’s
Madeleine Albright in 1996. saying 500,000 dead Iraqi Children was
“worth it”.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
Before the “Gulf War” in 1991, Donald Rumsfeld was selling Saddam
Hussein weapons under the table for the “Iraq/Iran War” that killed
a million Iraqi and Iranian young males between 1981-1988. So the
notion of that Iraqis and Iranian are allies is a media con that
only Westerners would believe. Iraqis are Arabs, Iranians are
Persians. They’ve often been at war with each other.
I’m sure everybody’s seen this photo. Rumsfeld gives Masonic
handshake with Saddam and State Department diplomat.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?
So in fact US policy killed over 1.6 million Iraqis since 1981.
If the Iraqi government seems for the moment to have turned out
unfavorably for US State Department policy, it’s a setup for pretext
for WW III to get Iran too.
–
2012-10-08 19:43:36
Source: http://www.henrymakow.com/iraq-war-was-it-worth-it.html
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