Our arrival into the military airport in Baghdad was like something from the ‘Charlie Don’t Surf’ scene in the movie Apocalypse Now — US air force jets taking off and landing, Iraqi forces with a heavy presence, US helicopters flying low and loudly across the skies, and the four Australian light-armoured vehicles waiting in the distance.
That’s The Australian — “the only media outlet invited” — reporting on Julia Gillard in Iraq, visiting the 90 Australian soldiers still there.
Apocalypse now or apocalypse slightly later? Tomorrow, US combat troops will leave Iraqi towns and cities, under the Status of Forces Agreement negotiating the US withdrawal. Already there’s been an uptick in violence suggestive of how very fragile the relative calm of the last months remains: a truck bomb in Kirkuk last weekend killing almost 70, a bomb attack in a Baghdad motorbike market killing 15 and wounding 50, a bombing in Sadr city killing 76.
In his book Gamble: General David Petraeus and the American Military Adventure in Iraq, 2006-2008, Thomas Ricks argues that while the surge succeeded militarily, it failed politically, since it never achieved reconciliation between the warring factions. Indeed, by vastly increasing the numbers of Iraqis on the US payroll, it may well have set the scene for fresh violence. His prediction for Iraq’s future?
It’s not going to be a democracy, it’s going to have a surprising level of violence, it’s probably going to be an ally of Iran and it’s probably going to be ruled by some sort of dictator, some sort of little Saddam.
Clearly, the story of the Iraq war still has a long way to run.
And that is why Australia needs the kind of inquiry due to take place in Britain.
It is, when you think about it, a very strange contrast. In the UK, where the party that went to war still holds power, the government’s been forced not to hold an inquiry but to conduct most of it in public, at which current PM Gordon Brown and former PM Tony Blair will give evidence. Here, with the Man of Steel long gone, it’s Fawlty Towers, with no-one mentioning the war.
Already, the prospect of an inquiry in Britain has spurred new revelations. Yesterday, the Mirror reported on a secret military dossier that blames Tony Blair for “uncritically” accepting flawed American plans and says that Gordon Brown didn’t adequately provide for troops, leaving British soldiers communicating by mobile phones because their army radios didn’t work. Before that, the Observor uncovered new evidence that, that when, two months before the invasion, Blair and Bush realised that UN inspectors would not find WMDs, they discussed ways that they might provoke conflict — including flying “U2 reconnaissance aircraft painted in UN colours over Iraq with fighter cover” so that the resulting Iraqi fire that could be presented as a breach of UN resolutions.
Well, were John Howard or Alexander Downer involved in these sinister tete-a-tetes about how best to prevent a peaceful resolution of the conflict? What did they know and when? Don’t Australians have as much right to the truth as anyone in Britain?
True, there’s already been the 2004 Flood inquiry into how Australia’s spy agencies handled Iraq. But that precedent only makes the case for a more general inquiry more compelling rather than less. If it’s fit and proper to investigate how those working for the ONA and Defence Intelligence Organisation performed, isn’t it equally so when it comes to the real decision makers? Going to war is the most serious step a government can take. Shouldn’t we subject what happened back then to the same kind of scrutiny we reserve for ute dealerships?
At the very least, a broad-ranging inquiry might focus attention on some basic questions of process. Greens Senator Scott Ludlam has been trying, without much success, to win support for a Private Senator’s Bill that would force a government to get parliamentary approval before taking the nation to war. If there’s a reason why a declaration of war shouldn’t be put before the parliament, well, it would interesting to hear it.
Julia Gillard could fly out of Baghdad again, accompanied by all those exciting helicopters. The Australian troops will eventually leave, too. But there’s no where for the Iraqi people to go. For their sake, at least, what happened in 2003 still matters.
I’ve always felt in my water that the nerdy twerp was a war criminal, I think Australia deserves to know the facts about the war.
He is also a child abuser, I don’t know what else you’d call someone who locks up children without charging them until they are mentally scared for life and watch their parents suicide or self harm. Many of them attempting to escape conflict he helped create.
There is no one in Australian public life who has stooped so low as JWH , along with his ministers, government and supporters.
The invasion of Iraq was a war crime and all who decided to participate even down to the soldiers who fired the guns are war criminals. There are now a million dead Iraqi civilians, 5 million seriously injured, along with 2.8 million internally displaced and 2 million external refugees. Looks a lot like we have perpetraded a genocide here. For how much longer can we pretend that we are the goodies when demonstrably we are the criminals.
I agree with you, Stephen and Michael. I wrote to Howard prior to the invasion of Iraq. I implored him to allow the weapons inspectors to complete their task/s(I realized later, that none of them were interested in weapons’ inspectors, in fact, they didn’t like the information they already had – that Saddam was no threat to his neighbours, let alone the West – both Colin Powell and Condoleeza Rice stated this early in 2001) and that the people of Iraq had already suffered enough etc.
That the US, Britain and Australia not only allowed Saddam to treat his people in a horrific manner, they took action in the UN to not allow him to be sanctioned – I assume that Britain and Australia voted accordingly or agreed. I don’t recall any Australian politicians (not in the major parties anyway) speaking out against Saddam either in the parliament or outside it.
Reading, From Afghanistan to Iraq – Joining the dots with Oil, it all becomes clear as to the reason/s why both Afghanistan and Iraq were invaded. The death toll in Afghanistan hasn’t been divulged, but it’s suspected that it could be high as that of Iraq – over 1 million 300 hundred thousand, and rising. I’ve also read of the after the initial invasion of Iraq, the US used the same tactics as it used in Vietnam and then in Central America in the 1980’s. The same person who took charge in El Salvador was sent to Iraq – and it was about that time that the violence of both major groups took place. It could be argued, that it was a deliberate method of the US – get them killing each other, then they step in and tell each side, that their presence was vital to their survival?
More than half the kids in Iraq are malnourished and suffering from psychological trauma. The kids in Afghanistan likewise; and the stats re kids who’ve lost one or both parents is disgracefully high. The kids in Palestine likewise, and we, by our blindly following the US are also responsible for them as well.
The reply from Howard was as you’d imagine – full of crap! I marched in protest on Feb 16, and anytime I’ve had the chance since. It’s beyond appalling, that Rudd has put more troups in Afghanistan, and I know that many Australian businesses (including BHP Billiton) have been responsible for the lust for oil and other business ‘interests’ in Iraq. Even the ‘seed’ industry has been taken over by the US. The use of seeds in agriculture in Iraq goes back hundreds of years. Each year the new seeds are planted etc, much the same as here. Thanks to the US, they’ve patented many, and now those farmers will have to pay prior to planting new seasons’ crops. This is just another area of their lives, where Paul Bremmer’s new ‘constitution’ has and will ensure, that the people of Iraq will be deprived billions – particularly where it concerns existing oil wells and any new ones. These agreements will probably be in operation for 30 years. Iraq, like all other oil producing countries nationalized its oil industry – the US, Britain and with our concurrence have changed all that. A good website is http://www.handsoffiraqioil.com It explains all!
The new US Embassy in Iraq cost millions. It’s like a small city – self sufficient in every way. I’m sure there’ll be no problems with clean water, sewerage and electricity that the masses have to deal with. My understanding, is that the land was just taken over by the US, and no Iraqi was asked. This is against the Geneva Conventions re the responsiblity of occupiers. Why was this built, and are we being lied to re the continued ‘occupation’ or ‘presence’ of US military personnel in Iraq? Why were the journalists, unionists and workers targeted by the occupiers, what was our role in this? I shudder to think. How many schools, hospitals, sewerage treatment works, power stations have been destroyed, and when and by whom will they be rebuilt? I don’t think that Iraqi oil money should pay for this. The illegal invaders/occupiers should be made to pay?
I’d like to see Bush/Blair/Howard charged with war crimes. I’d also like to see Howard, Ruddick, Downer and other relevant ministers charged under International Law re treatment of asylum seekers. I’d like to see Sharmon Stone and her parliamentary mates warned by the International Criminal Court of what their fate could be if they persist with their present stance. I feel immense shame, that while raving on about democracy ad nauseum, our national government is just as guilty as Bush/Blair and those who continue the horror in both countries.
STEPHEN – “There is no one in Australian public life who has stooped so low as JWH , along with his ministers, government and supporters.” Indeed!
MICHAEL – “For how much longer can we pretend that we are the goodies when demonstrably we are the criminals.” Sadly, yes!
Lest We Forget!
I’m damned sure I won’t!
We all knew we were being lied to. We all marched in protest and were dismissed as rabble. We hoped and prayed that war would be the last option and yet the Bush with his mates, Howard and Blair just charged on in with good old US know how. Shock and awe, great TV images. Except the camera crews were imbedded and we only saw what the military wanted us to see. Few screaming children and no shots of coffins coming home draped in the flag of the world’s great democracy.
Well what a surprise that it was all a terrible mistake. A mistake that has cost a million lives and trillions of dollars. A mistake that has played into the hands of international terrorism and drowned the moral integrity of the west in a cesspit. Yet there seems some doubt whether to investigate what were, clearly in the minds so many average citizens, war crimes.
We have all been uplifted by the turn of events in both the US and Australia where we have gone back to our quiet lives, safe in the belief that the maniacs have had there day and the good guys have taken over high office. But to let this catastrophy pass by without the most scrupulous examination would be a grave historic mistake. Many 24 hour news cycles have now passed by but the sudden upturn in violence in Iraq reminds us that bad things took place there for which some people were criminally culpable.
If there are no charges to answer, something I very much doubt, fine. But there is a seriously smoking gun that needs to be seriously investigated.
Perhaps worst of all was the destruction of non-military assets upon which society depends so very much. In addition to the schools, hospitals an d factories etc mentioned above, can be added the dams and water distribution systems and bridges.
Imagine an Australia without these same infrastructures. No way to educate, feed and keep healthy and sheltered the majority of the population. Forcing many to relocate from their homes, towns, cities and workplaces of generations.
I feel that Australia will be judged very poorly indeed by the caring citizens of the remainder of the world for that which has been carried out by jwh and associates in our name. Our only way to avoid pariah status in this small world is for Australians, as one nation, to demand and obtain proper investigations of the root causes of this debacle and for our children to be taught how to avoid repetition and to overcome the inherited guilt which those of my baby-boomer generation cannot now atone.
The current government certainly is not without guilt in these matters, as some have commented above. Consider also our feeble actions thus far re greenhouse gas reduction, despite ours being the largest per-capita generator.
There is much work yet to be done. An appropriate starting place would be for the Commonwealth resources put into the study and preparation for war to be matched, dollar for dollar, by resources for the study and achievement of lasting peace, without which our race is, sadly, doomed. And I am not joking or exaggerating!