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MundoOriente PróximoEspañaPolítica Exterior,

Siento vergüenza ajena cuando se acusa al Gobierno de España, entonces presidido por Aznar, de intervenir en la «ilegal guerra de Irak» y «contra la ONU» Recientemente se ha vuelto a escuchar en el Congreso de los Diputados siguiendo la habitual trampa del Gobierno de hacer oposición a la oposición. ¡Y retrocediendo veinte años! Señalaré hechos que desmontan esa manipulación tan reiterada.

La II guerra de Irak de 2003 era una reedición de la I guerra del Golfo de 1990-1991. Se produjo porque Sadam Husein no cumplió las condiciones impuestas por la coalición vencedora. El paraguas de la ONU estaba vigente durante el periodo 1990-2003.…  Seguir leyendo »

Relying on weak intelligence for invading Iraq has had a negative impact on US and UK credibility with several consequences that persist to this day.

MundoOriente Próximo,

20 years on from the fateful decision to invade Iraq, it is generally accepted that the US and UK governments overstated the evidence available for them to justify military action. The central claim to defend invading Iraq was that the country had continued its illicit nuclear weapons programme and had retained illegal stockpiles of biological and chemical weapons. None of these claims supported an imminent threat justification nor could any hidden caches of WMD be found by the US Iraq Survey Group after the invasion.

In the US, President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney hinted at additional evidence which could not be shared publicly to suggest that if only people knew what the government knew, they would agree that Iraq posed a significant threat to the West and needed to be disarmed.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

The American-led invasion of Iraq, which took place 20 years ago this week, set in motion a series of commitments to the Middle East, which have shaped the limits and tempered the expectations of American policy in the region and beyond. The 2003 invasion, a tactical success, gave way to a second act that laid bare how unprepared the United States was to win the peace. It managed the problem, which grew increasingly intractable, through a series of uninformed (or misinformed) decisions, the way it always has: by throwing resources at the problem.

Burdened by this history, and facing the need to reshape foreign policy in the light of challenges posed by China’s increased engagement in the region and the raw aggression of Russia, the Biden administration has a new vision for policy in the Middle East.…  Seguir leyendo »

U.S. President George W. Bush announcing the start of the Iraq War, Washington, D.C., March 2003. Kevin Lamarque / Reuters

MundoAméricaMundoOriente Próximo, ,

Twenty years ago this month, President George W. Bush ordered the invasion of Iraq, the most important foreign policy decision of his eight years in office and, arguably, the most significant since the end of the Cold War. The U.S.-led invasion—and the insurgency, counterinsurgency, and sectarian strife that followed—led to the deaths of over 200,000 Iraqis and the displacement of at least nine million. More than 9,000 U.S. soldiers and contractors sacrificed their lives in the war and it cost U.S. taxpayers over $2 trillion. The invasion besmirched the United States’ reputation, fueled a sense of grievance among Muslims, complicated the "global war on terror”, divided the American people, and sundered trust in government.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

The invasion of Iraq in 2003 and the mismanagement of what followed significantly diminished American power, making our security and prosperity more difficult and costly to sustain. They were mistakes of historic proportions. Yet they were not America’s first significant foreign-policy debacle, nor the first time the United States has been a flawed beacon of its values. In many ways, the failures of the Iraq war mirror some of those of the Vietnam war, and have already had significant repercussions in domestic debates and international attitudes. But, just like Vietnam, they have not meant, and they do not mean, an end to America’s global dominance.…  Seguir leyendo »

Supporters of the Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr protesting the US occupation, Baghdad, 2008. Moises Saman/Magnum Photos

MundoOriente Próximo,

I first visited Iraq in October 2002, barely a year after the United States attacked Afghanistan in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. I went there as a photojournalist, invited by the government of Saddam Hussein to cover the presidential referendum in which, according to Iraqi officials, 100 percent of the population voted to extend his rule. It was my first experience working under the supervision of government minders, without freedom of movement, only allowed to cover pro-regime events. The US invasion already seemed inevitable after the passage that month of the joint resolution authorizing “use of military force against Iraq”.

Over the next two decades I covered conflicts big and small in Afghanistan, Haiti, Nepal, the former Soviet Union, Lebanon, and the Democratic Republic of Congo, but I spent more time working in Iraq than anywhere else.…  Seguir leyendo »

Tropas estadounidenses y kuwaitíes cierran la frontera entre Kuwait e Irak tras el paso de los últimos convoyes militares el 18 de diciembre de 2011, poniendo fin a la Operación Nuevo Amanecer, sucesora de la Operación Libertad Iraquí iniciada en marzo de 2003. Wikimedia Commons / Corporal Jordan Johnson, United States Army

MundoOriente Próximo,

Ocultos tras el protagonismo que acapara la guerra que se está librando en Ucrania, se cumplen estos días veinte años del comienzo de la operación militar que puso fin al despotismo de Saddam Hussein, que alteró irremediablemente el equilibrio de poder en Oriente Medio y que sacudió los cimientos del sistema internacional de una forma aún no totalmente vislumbrada.

La operación Iraqi Freedom fue una deslumbrante ofensiva convencional ejecutada con notable pericia profesional por una fuerza conjunto-combinada liderada por Estados Unidos. Nada pudo hacer ante su superioridad un poco motivado enemigo iraquí compuesto por una amalgama de unidades del ejército regular, de la Guardia Republicana y de milicias improvisadas, que trató inútilmente de contener el torrente ofensivo que anegaba el país.…  Seguir leyendo »

Iraqi soldiers surveying the aftermath of an ISIS suicide car bomb in East Mosul in 2017, years after the Iraq war ended. Ivor Prickett for The New York Times

MundoOriente Próximo,

It was supposed to be a farewell party.

Young soldiers and their barely older civilian government colleagues were dressed in swimming trunks, cannonballing into a palace pool that had once been a symbol of the deposed dictator Saddam Hussein’s power. Other young Americans were chowing down on corn on the cob and burgers. I was one of only two journalists on hand, having been sneaked in by a friend who was working with the American-run Coalition Provisional Authority, which was the transitional government in Iraq for the first year after the U.S.-led invasion.

It was emblematic but not surprising that there were no Iraqis there for the occasion: what was being billed as a celebration of the formal end of the Iraq war.…  Seguir leyendo »

A member of the Iraqi Federal Police stands guard near the 17 Ramadan Mosque in Baghdad on 9 March 2023. 20 years after the US-led invasion, the oil-rich country remains deeply scarred by the conflict. Photo: AHMAD AL-RUBAYE/AFP via Getty Images.

MundoOriente Próximo,

It is now 20 years since the United States-led coalition invaded Iraq with the intent to remove the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein and usher in democracy.

Despite the hundreds of billions spent for this effort, Iraq is still not a functioning democracy and continues to struggle to build coherent state institutions. Instead, the invasion and subsequent occupation unleashed wave after wave of crisis, from the rise of salafi-jihadi organizations like Al-Qaeda or ISIS to fallout from the US confrontation with Iran.

Today, conflict continues to be an everyday reality in Iraq, from armed groups competing for territory and influence, to the structural violence of a corrupt system where political elites pocket state funds meant for the provision of basic services, leading, for instance, to the proliferation in the healthcare system of fake medicine.…  Seguir leyendo »

An man reading a newspaper in Los Angeles, March 2003. Jim Ruymen / Reuters

MundoAméricaMundoOriente Próximo, ,

Twenty years ago, the George W. Bush administration invaded Iraq to topple Iraqi President Saddam Hussein and eliminate the weapons of mass destruction (WMD) officials said he had. Getting the American public to support a war against a country that had not attacked the United States required the administration to tell a convincing story of why the war was necessary. For that, it needed the press.

I was Knight Ridder’s Washington, D.C., bureau chief at the time, and among other duties handled our national security coverage. This gave me a front-row seat to Washington’s march to war and the media’s role in it.…  Seguir leyendo »

Protesters inside the Iraqi parliament in Baghdad, July 2022. Thaier Al-Sudani / Reuters

MundoOriente Próximo,

Twenty years ago this month, the United States and a handful of allies invaded Iraq, promising to unseat the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein and build a new, flourishing democracy. They succeeded in quickly bringing down Saddam, but conjuring a democratic Iraq proved to be much more difficult. Instead, what emerged after 2003 was a political system grounded in corruption, self-dealing, and brutal oppression at times reminiscent of the violence of the previous regime.

On paper, Iraq in the last 20 years has looked like democracy, staging five national elections and seeing five largely peaceful handovers of power between different political parties and prime ministers.…  Seguir leyendo »

MundoOriente Próximo,

Two decades ago, on March 19, 2003, then-President George W. Bush ordered the US invasion of Iraq. A week later, near Najaf, a city in southern Iraq, then-US Major General David Petraeus turned to the American journalist Rick Atkinson and asked him a simple question: “Tell me how this ends”. That remains an excellent question.

The Amna Suraka Museum, which was once a prison and torture site used by dictator Saddam Hussein’s intelligence agents in Sulaymaniyah, Iraq, is a good place to try to contemplate the legacy of the US invasion and, perhaps, an ancillary question: Was it all worth it?…  Seguir leyendo »

Rose Gentle, left, at a news conference held by relatives of military personnel killed during the Iraq War, after listening to the Iraq inquiry report on 6 July 2016 in London. Photograph: Dan Kitwood/Getty Images

MundoOriente Próximo,

Although it’s 20 years since the Iraq war started, and coming up to 19 years since my son was killed, it still feels like yesterday to me. Anniversaries don’t mean much except another year without Gordon. It’s just as hard as it was in the beginning.

Gordon never really had an ambition to join the forces. He was just a normal boy: full of fun, loved his sisters to bits, never got into trouble. He loved climbing, so if you were looking for Gordon you’d look up the nearest tree. He’d have his pals round every weekend, and they built a shed in a neighbour’s garden and nicknamed themselves the shed heads.…  Seguir leyendo »

Piro, right, with Todd Irinaga, a fellow FBI agent, in 2003. Piro questioned Saddam over seven months. Courtesy George Piro

MundoOriente Próximo,

Two decades ago, on March 19, 2003, President George W. Bush ordered the US invasion of Iraq. Bush and senior administration officials had repeatedly told Americans that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was armed to the teeth with weapons of mass destruction and that he was in league with al Qaeda.

These claims resulted in most Americans believing that Saddam was involved in the September 11, 2001, attacks. A year after 9/11, two-thirds of Americans said that the Iraqi leader had helped the terrorists, according to Pew Research Center polling, even though there was not a shred of convincing evidence for this.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘The repeated failure to address Iraqis’ concerns has triggered cycles of protests.’ US soldiers and Baghdad residents, Iraq, May 2003. Photograph: Nam Hun Sung/Gamma-Rapho/Getty Images

MundoOriente Próximo,

Twenty years ago, around this time, the US-led military operation to invade Iraq and topple Saddam Hussein’s regime finally seemed inevitable for Iraqis. With it, the idea of leaving started to sink in.

By leaving, I do not mean fleeing the country. That was not even an option. After the 1990s Gulf war, and the international sanctions that followed it, Iraqis were isolated from the rest of the world. For many, there was no exit. Leaving meant departing schools, universities or workplaces, saying goodbye to friends and colleagues, and moving to relatively safer places within the country, away from the areas targeted by strikes and bombings.…  Seguir leyendo »

‘Countries outside the west have an interest in defending the principle that sovereignty should be respected.’ Photograph: Jim Lo Scalzo/EPA

MundoOriente Próximo,

Two decades ago, the United States invaded Iraq, sending 130,000 US troops into a sovereign country to overthrow its government. Joe Biden, then chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, voted to authorize the war, a decision he came to regret.

Today another large, world-shaking invasion is under way. Biden, now the US president, recently traveled to Warsaw to rally international support for Ukraine’s fight to repel Russian aggression. After delivering his remarks, Biden declared: “The idea that over 100,000 forces would invade another country – since world war II, nothing like that has happened”.

The president spoke these words on 22 February, within a month of the 20th anniversary of the US military’s opening strike on Baghdad.…  Seguir leyendo »

New and old graves at a cemetery on the outskirts of Samarra in Salahuddin Province in 2010.

MundoOriente Próximo,

Twenty years ago this week, I witnessed the opening salvos of the United States invasion of Iraq from the rooftop of the Palestine Hotel in Baghdad. I was among the few foreign journalists not embedded with the American military who remained to cover the start of the war from the capital. It was not my first war as a photographer, but it was the first time I had experienced bombardment in a densely populated urban center.

I recall the unnatural silence blanketing the city before the first American cruise missiles were launched. I saw them before I heard them, heading across the river from us toward their targets into what the U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

Visitors walk by a flower installation during the International Festival of Flowers and Gardens in Baghdad on Thursday. (Ahmad al-Rubaye/AFP/Getty Images)

MundoOriente Próximo,

Twenty years ago this month, as tens of thousands of U.S. troops prepared to storm into Iraq, the task of rebuilding and governing the soon-to-be-liberated country of some 25 million people fell to a few dozen Americans ensconced at a Hilton resort on the Kuwaiti beachfront. Some were military reservists with skills in civic administration. Others were long-serving officials or retired diplomats eager for one final tour of adventure. None of them, however, had a plan.

Because there wasn’t one.

The failure of President George W. Bush’s national security team to craft a detailed strategy for what to do once U.S.…  Seguir leyendo »

Prisoners in the Abu Ghraib jail, northwest of Baghdad, on Oct. 20, 2002. (Jerome Delay/AP)

MundoOriente Próximo,

As a French citizen of Iraqi descent, I have watched a collective amnesia overtake the world since the invasion of Iraq 20 years ago. The anniversary of the start of the war is an excuse for uneasy acknowledgments that mistakes were made. Everyone wants to focus on the future.

In Iraq, the war is well remembered. It shapes the everyday lives of people trying to build a life for themselves and their families. But the war has also erased a coherent sense of Iraqi identity. This is the war’s most bitter legacy.

I have been going to Iraq since I was 9.…  Seguir leyendo »

A U.S soldier walks in Baghdad, April 2003. Goran Tomasevic / Reuters

MundoAméricaMundoOriente Próximo, ,

Twenty years ago, the United States invaded Iraq. It spent a decade breaking the country and then trying to put it back together again. It spent another decade trying to forget. “We have met our responsibility”, U.S. President Barack Obama told the nation in 2010 while declaring a short-lived end to the U.S. combat mission in Iraq. “Now, it is time to turn the page”.

For Obama, moving on meant taking the fight to al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan through a surge of U.S. troops. Obama’s critics, for their part, soon found another reason to tell Americans to “get over Iraq”: the debacle was, in their view, making the president and the public too reticent to use military force, this time to sort out Syria’s civil war, which erupted in 2011.…  Seguir leyendo »