An invasion that has little justification

Today marks the second anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq.

Two years ago, American forces were sent into Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussain and eliminate his weapons of mass destruction.

Since then, however, all of the justification posed by the White House to fight the war has been discredited.

There were no weapons of mass destruction. Saddam had no collaborative ties to Al Qaida. The White House had a well drawn up plan to launch the war, but it failed to develop a strategy to “win the peace” and establish a secure Iraq.

Since then, more than 1,520 American soldiers have been killed.

There still is no exit strategy for US troops and no definite date on which the Iraqi security forces will be ready to take over responsibility.

Corruption and graft is rampant and reconstruction has hardly begun. The Americans are becoming increasingly disillusioned with this “war of choice”. According to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll, 53 per cent of Americans said the war was not worth fighting and 70 per cent said the number of US casualties is an unacceptable price.

Larry Korb of the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington said, “In the days after the invasion two years ago, the Bush administration predicted the war would pay for itself.” Andrew Natsios, head of USaid, told Congress, “In terms of the American taxpayer’s contribution, $1.7 billion (about Dh6.205 billion) is for the US. The rest of the rebuilding of Iraq will be done by other countries and Iraqi oil revenues.”

Reconstruction

Deputy Secretary of State Paul Wolfowitz backed him up, saying Iraq was a country “that can really finance its own reconstruction and relatively soon”.

Two years ago, the White House predicted that US troops would be greeted as liberators by the Iraqi people. But by July 2003 there were about 5,000 “insurgents” fighting US forces.

Today that estimate is closer to 18,000. And while a year ago there was an average of 14 attacks against US troops every day, there are now more than 70.

A new government report found “US government agencies do not report reliable data on the extent to which Iraqi security forces are trained and equipped.”

For example, the number of Iraqi security forces is consistently overstated. Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld has said 145,000 Iraqi troops have been trained. But Senator Joe Biden, the ranking Democrat on the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations, puts that number at closer to 4,000.

Two years ago, the White House promised to restore prosperity to Iraq.

However, instead of sending seasoned experts to lead the massive reconstruction, the administration instead sent very young, inexperienced ideologues, chosen for their loyalty rather than expertise.

Money was bottlenecked; contracts were botched. And those shortcomings had serious consequences.

Today, Iraq produces about 700,000 barrels of oil a day less than it did before the invasion. Electric power output has dwindled.

The administration put the burden of reconstruction on the shoulders of private, no-bid, outside contractors, many of whom saw it as an easy way to make a quick dollar. Today, for example, Pentagon auditors have discovered Halliburton has overcharged American taxpayers by $108 million (about Dh394.2 million).