After twenty-three years, the final US troops are being removed from Iraq - a full thirty-five years after The Gulf War, a decade of genocidal sanctions and bombing, the full invasion of 2003, years of civil war and spin-off wars (including the ISIS period) and now the US-Israel war with neighbouring Iran.
Yes, after thirty-five years and 2-3 million deaths, and millions of refugees, the Iraqis are justifiably celebrating the US departure. One cannot but think of the moment in December 2008 when Bush was making his final visit to Baghdad (the scene of the crime) when the Iraqi journalist expressed the frustration of his people by hurling his shoes at the US president.
For my part, I think of all the lies going back to US dealings with Iraq in the 1980's and its support for Saddam Hussein in the Iraq-Iran War, as the Americans wanted to see the Revolutionary regime ousted from Tehran. In typical duplicitous fashion the US even furnished weapons to Iran whose arsenal was mostly US-based given that from 1953-1979 the Shah was America's chief proxy in the region - fulfilling a role later given to Saudi Arabia. Even now Iran fights the Americans utilising old US weapons platforms such as the F-14.
There were lies concerning the events of 1990 and the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, lies about the goals in the Gulf War and the conduct of that war. The US was keen to overcome 'Vietnam Syndrome'. They wanted a clear victory and carefully managed the media coverage. Vietnam had been covered extensively by nightly news broadcasts in the 1960's and 70's, but the Gulf War was covered around the clock on CNN.
As a lost person given over to American idolatry, I joined the Air Force in the 1990's and began to learn a great deal more about how the Empire worked and was dismayed to realize what the US was doing in Iraq, and worse I was part of the logistical chain in support of that ongoing war crime that resulted in the deaths of over a million Iraqis and over 500,000 children, not to mention the deformities and birth defects due to contamination from American munitions.
Converted to Christ, I got out of the Air Force as soon as I could, but had a scare in 2002 during the hysteria and build up to the Iraq invasion. The country was being subjected to a massive propaganda campaign about WMD and the suggestion that Saddam Hussein was somehow behind 9/11. The officials danced around the issue because they knew it was a lie but it was effective and in the public mind, many made the association and still do. I received a letter from the Air Force suggesting I might be called up as I was still technically part of the Inactive Reserve - no weekends or anything like that, just your name on a list. We spoke of leaving the country as conscience would not allow me to participate in any capacity or put on that uniform again. By God's mercy, I received my final discharge in March of 2003 just as the invasion got underway. It was a happy day to say the least.
Then came the war years and all the lies, tragedies, and insanity that went with it. Cheney, Rumsfeld, Powell - all names that come to mind, people that were involved and in the news every day. There were a series of failed generals, the bumbling incompetence of Paul Bremer, the looting and corruption, the Fallujah battles and the cover-up of massacres, Blackwater, Abu Ghraib, al Qaeda in Iraq, the capture and execution of Saddam Hussein, and the fiery resistance of Muqtada al-Sadr. As the situation devolved into civil war, the legacies of Bush, Tony Blair, and others were forever tarnished. The US lashed out at nations like France and Germany that had refused to participate. It was a fiasco in every way. Does anyone remember the Land Letter and how none of those Evangelical leaders were held to account?
It was all part of a Neo-Conservative strategy (PNAC) to remake the Middle East and secure American hegemony over Eurasia and the world. It was part of a larger plan to secure resources, block China's growth, and ensure that Russia would be contained.
A generation later the results are mixed but mostly constitute failure. The chaos helped pave the way to the presidencies of Donald Trump and now his dismantling of American power - in the name of restoring greatness. Whom the gods would destroy they first make mad is a saying that comes to mind. It also reminds me of 1941 when Hitler was at the height of his power, he attacked the Soviet Union - a move that would eventually result in his downfall.
The US has facilitated regime change in many of the countries on the Neo-Con list such as Libya and Syria. There have been wars in the other countries they wished to overthrow such as Sudan, Somalia, and Lebanon. Millions have died as a direct and indirect result of their schemes and manipulations. And of course the big target and thus far the biggest failure is Iran.
The Iraq War strengthened Iran and helped to intensify the heated rivalry between Tehran and Riyadh. The American War on Terror spread chaos and disrupted the entire Middle East. As already stated, millions have died and yet it has also helped to spark the refugee crisis. And wars beget wars.
The entire Bush leadership team are criminals, blood-thirsty monsters and yet most people forget this. The media has rehabilitated Bush, and while Cheney and Rumsfeld weren't beloved figures they received tributes at the time of their deaths. Powell was always 'the good soldier' even though his record indicates something other than goodness and morality. Condoleeza Rice is the director of Stanford's Right-wing think-tank The Hoover Institution. John Ashcroft (a pivotal figure in implementing the Patriot Act and domestic surveillance) is a lobbyist for the rich and powerful. The perjured Alberto Gonzales is dean at a Christian college. Paul Wolfowitz ended up at the World Bank but fell into scandal. He still floats around in the lobby and think-tank orbit. Richard Perle is still operating and still as dirty as a Philadelphia side-walk. The other PNAC strategists and apologists such as Bill Kristol, Robert Kagan, and Elliot Abrams, are all flourishing and are rehabilitated - some now affiliated with the Democrats, signifying that party's turn to the Right in the realm of foreign policy.
Only John Bolton who became a Trump critic (after first serving in his administration) has run into trouble. He was indicted by Pam Bondi's Justice Department for mishandling classified documents and per his plea deal must pay over $2 million dollars in fines. I'm sure he'll manage. It was payback for the fact that he had become famous as a critic of Trump. The media rehabilitated his tarnished image from the Bush days and whitewashed his previous judgments and questionable character, and he appeared all across the media spectrum. Obviously, Trump took notice.
It's fitting this troop withdrawal takes place just weeks after the 25th anniversary of 9/11, not because Iraq was involved in the attacks but because that event marked the beginning of Bush's forever global war. It started with Afghanistan and ended in futility and withdrawal in 2021. And now 25 years after the event which was to be the justification for America's hegemonic agenda - the US quietly withdraws its last troops from Iraq. It's really rather symbolic.
But the immediate story isn't really being told. The US would probably stay but for the fact that Iran has all but destroyed the American bases and the US either has to invest billions of dollars in rebuilding them - which it cannot safely do while the conflict continues, or it must abandon them, and that's what Trump and the Pentagon have chosen to do, even while they cover up the extent of the damage and the casualties. The US is quietly withdrawing like a dog with its tail between its legs. It is a clear moral and strategic victory for Iran.
The Pentagon can whitewash this by arguing it was a scheduled withdrawal as per the agreement with the Iraqi government but this is deceptive to say the least. The US effectively controls the Baghdad government and its finances - Iraqi oil revenues are deposited into the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Cash (US dollars) are still flown from the US to Iraq on pallets - a schedule that Trump interrupted this summer to put Baghdad in its place. Baghdad cannot tell the US what to do. Iraq is not an independent state. Even this military withdrawal is only symbolic to a point. It does mark a watershed moment for the country and will probably embolden its leadership - but only to a point. They are still completely entangled with the United States.
But there are signs that things are changing - the fact that Muqtada al-Sadr has (just this spring) integrated his Shia militia with the official Iraq military indicates that he feels the government is sufficiently under the sway of and in alignment with the Iranian government that he need not keep them a separate entity. The Baghdad-based al-Sadr has long been labeled an Iranian proxy and was frequently seen alongside Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei and Qasem Soleimani - both of whom were assassinated in airstrikes. The US certainly tried to get Sadr more than once, but failed.
The Americans could have snapped their fingers and extended their stay. There would be a signing ceremony and some other window dressing to make it look like Iraq invited them to stay, and there'd be various agreements, guarantees, gifts, programmes and the like, but the US has pulled up stakes and left.
This will be spun by US media outlets, particularly those on the Right such as the FOX channel. And I suppose this spin will soften the anger felt by many in the public. For my part, I immediately think of the Fundamentalist Baptist man (and proud Vietnam Veteran) I encountered at a local shopping mall (now closed) in 2012. His son had been killed while on a patrol in 2004. This poor deceived man produced a tract/booklet that attempted to juxtapose his son's supposed courage and death with the gospel message of Christ's death on the cross. It's actually a blasphemous work by my estimation. Confusing American identity and soldiers dying on the battlefield with the sacrifice of Christ, the end result is somehow American soldiers are holy martyrs. And indeed in the years since 9/11 countless small towns have put up banners on telephone poles with the faces and names of veterans - many still living that chose to pay to have their faces put on display. They are (in the American nationalist religion) saints, and these banners are like icons confronting us as we walk or drive down the street. Aside from just looking tacky (especially as they fade and are frayed or in many cases are mounted with cheap-looking PVC frames), they clutter up the street-scape and are an eyesore. But to many people they are stamps of holiness on the town as these are the saints and precious martyrs of the holy American Zion.
This father in question went further and got a whole bridge named after his son which has a Veteran's park at one end with monuments to America's wars. Every Friday afternoon a bunch of the local veterans stand out on the curb with flags and signs trying to get everyone to 'honk' their horns as they go by. It must drive everyone that lives nearby to the point of insanity (with all the horns) but you can't interfere with the veterans. They take priority. In many small towns they have 'Boot Drives' wherein they block traffic and hold out boots as collection trays for the various organisations such as the VFW, AMVETS, and the American Legion. We always joke that it's just beer money because primarily these places are drinking clubs or bars where everyone sits around and celebrates their greatness and the glory days. Obviously I never honk or wave and I can tell it offends them. I always make sure to make eye contact with them as I drive by so they know that I see them and I'm not playing the game. As far as the boot/beer beggars, I don't even put my window down. It's a little awkward given that in some of these towns they are people I know.
The father in question has seemingly decided to give his life to these causes. He goes around to local schools and speaks of the greatness of military service and when local churches (this just makes me sick) have dinners to celebrate high school graduates that have enlisted and are getting ready to ship out - this father is often the keynote speaker at the event. His son is a martyr - or at least he thinks so.
It also baffles me as he would surely know what military life is like. It's far from a moral environment. The military people I encountered were some of the worst degenerates I've ever known in my life. As I've told in the past, I had lots of possessions stolen from my room and often struggled to sleep at night because of the incessant party culture - thumping music, shattering glass, screaming, and the like. The whole thing was a joke and this was thirty-plus years ago. The fact that the Snowflake generation is trying to throw themselves off of aircraft carriers is not surprising to me and I'm sure it's been noted by the Russians and Chinese who fear American technology but laugh at American decadence and the character it produces. But I digress.
Of course the sad thing is his son died as part of an invasion force - a force that on the basis of lies attacked a country and was in the process of killing its people, including their women and children. Yes, people fight back. I'm afraid I can say without hesitation that he deserved to die as the criminal he was. He had it coming. I'm sorry he was deceived by his country, his family, and his church into thinking that this was somehow God-honouring. He was not a martyr but part of a criminal syndicate. For some reason conduct that would normally be considered terrorism or murder becomes legitimate because you put on a uniform with a national insignia. That's the world's wisdom and ethics. It does not reflect Christian thinking or New Testament Kingdom values.
The father and I got into it. I had been minding my own business waiting on my wife who was in the fabric store. He approached me and wanted to evangelize me with his heretical soldier-martyr tract. I rejected him and challenged his narratives about the war and his son's death. He immediately assumed I was some pro-gay, pro-abortion, liberal media consumer-type and an utter pagan. When I told him I rejected what he was saying as a Christian, that I rejected Bush's arguments and the reasons given for the war, and that his son's death was not honourable, he got angry and told me he wanted to punch me in the face.
My wife returned about that time and we parted ways before he got up the gumption to strike me. I used to see him around on occasion but as the mall has closed, I haven't run into him in many years but I still see those tracts around in local stores. He's still at it - his name pops in the paper promoting this or that for the military.
I'll always remember how he teared up talking about when he and other 'Gold Star' parents got to visit Bush in the Oval Office. I was incredulous. Here he's standing before the architect of this phoney war that led to his son's death and instead of being filled with indignation, he's tearing up because he loves the guy and believes he really cares about these soldiers and their families and that he's a wonderful Christian man. I expressed my incredulity to him but he couldn't understand it. And my rejection of Bush's Christian profession angered him.
All I could think was 'wow' - the self-deception here runs so deep. Only the Spirit can change this man's heart. But what a change that will mean! To accept the fact that his son not only died for nothing (a pack of lies) but worse he died while perpetrating an immoral act, a crime - he was part of a murder-theft operation. In other words he died in shame disgracing the name of Christ which he professed. That's a hard pill to swallow and apart from the grace of God I don't expect this man to ever reach that point. He was also proud of his 'service' in Vietnam, another horrific crime, another war buried in a mire of lies and deceit that left millions dead. There's no reflection, no repentance, just pride and a glorying in evil. Idolatry sears the conscience and destroys spiritual discernment.
I've been thinking about this guy today as I watch and listen to the news. I wonder what he's thinking? In some respects (by my estimation) people like him are beyond thinking and moral judgment. I don't doubt for even one second that he's all caught up in MAGA and all the rest that goes with it. Maybe he's angry watching the American troops leave in defeat. Like Gollum, maybe he just sits and tells himself lies and re-writes the history, shaping it into whatever he thinks it needs to be in order to retain his sanity and his hold on life. It's judgment of course. I truly pity the man but as I watch the troops leave Iraq, there is a kind of vindication. It does nothing to ameliorate the suffering of the Iraqi people, nor will it heal the wounds or replace the millions dead. But it's right that those troops leave and there won't be parades down main streets or a ticker-tape extravaganza on Broadway. If they did, everyone would know it was a farce.
What is amazing to me (and part of getting old) is to realize that these events which are still so fresh in my mind are now a generation ago and more. Over 30% of the US population was born after 9/11. About 50% were born after 1989 and the end of the Cold War. These people aren't going to remember things like the Gulf War or what happened in the 1990's in connection with Iraq. Many were in elementary school or junior high when 9/11 happened and many more are too young to remember it or much of anything about the Iraq War.
With regard to Iran, the angst everyone felt in connection to the Hostage Crisis and how it affected the 1980 election, and the whole public perception of Iran (and the propaganda campaign) in the 1980's has been lost and forgotten. Maybe some interest was sparked with the 2022 attack on Salman Rushdie. Maybe.
Anyway you can read about these things, and nowadays you can watch videos, documentaries, and news clips, but learning about it in retrospect you cannot 'catch the mood' of the times, or at least it's difficult. All history is that way of course but it strikes you on a different level when you've lived through it and these events played a role in your life and your interactions with other people (with other Christians) and yet now enough years have passed that they are no longer 'current events' but are becoming part of history.
And yet there are connections to be made that unfortunately few people are able to make. How many will even pause ten seconds to reflect on the American legions leaving Iraq? I don't know. And what do they reflect on if they can't connect it to a larger tapestry and all the events that took place there in the 2000's and (just as importantly) the 1990's and 1980's?
Just as many historians have whitewashed US crimes in Vietnam, I have no doubt that either Ken Burns or someone like him will do the same in connection with Iraq. I rarely encounter anyone who knows much about these wars - even the veterans. Their memories and understanding are limited to their own experiences and their desperation to be recognized and honoured as they put stickers and license plate frames on their cars telling everyone they were part of it. They should be ashamed, but instead they act entitled, wanting discounts in restaurants and my daughter who works in a grocery store frequently sees them come in with their hats and veteran paraphernalia strutting through the aisles of the store. They're not buying anything. They just want people to come up and thank them 'for their service' and offer them praise. They stop and stare at my daughter and wonder why she won't say anything. They probably figure she hasn't been properly taught. It would never occur to them that she was taught something quite different and in the name of Christ. They're sick and twisted and I'm afraid the Fundamentalist father I encountered is one of them.
Iraq's troubles are far from over. The country was always a fiction, one of many created by the British and French at the end of World War I and the break-up of the Ottoman Empire. The provinces of Mosul, Baghdad, and Basra (the Iraq Region) were initially under a British mandate but after revolts were combined into a unitary kingdom in 1932. The puppet Hashemite monarchy was overthrown in 1958 and the republic which emerged was taken over by a Baathist coup in 1968. Saddam Hussein was involved and became the functional ruler of the country by the mid-1970's and went on to consolidate his power until his overthrow in 2003.
Iraq is majority Shia but with a significant Sunni minority and the Kurdish region in the north. The American wars polarized these communities and the Sunni and Shia fought a vicious civil war from 2006-2008 which was further complicated by al Qaeda and Salafist elements - which would later re-emerge as ISIS. There is no real non-partisan Iraqi identity. Under Saddam Hussein, the minority Sunnis held the reins of power but they were toppled by the US and in democratic terms the Shia will always win - something unacceptable to most Sunnis. Remember the country has massive oil reserves and whoever runs it makes alliances and cuts deals. There's more than just religion at stake. The Kurds are effectively autonomous and have flourished which frustrates Türkiye, and should they declare an autonomous Kurdistan it would lead to war. Everything is fragile, the society is divided and still quite broken from the wars. There are numerous plausible scenarios in which conflicts could re-emerge. These mandate countries created by the British and French such as Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, and Iraq were lines on a map that did not represent geopolitical and cultural realities. Historically the only way they can hold together is through authoritarian rule that keeps the factions from fighting each other or breaking the country up. War weariness in places like Syria have created conditions in which a semblance of democracy (and acceptance of results) can function but will it be permanent or only for a season? Humanists (in keeping with their faith) and believers in democracy think it will persevere and is natural to the human condition. History (and Scripture) tells otherwise and all the more given these societies do not have the cultural history or the foundations or stable institutions for these systems to work. Often the only stable state institution is the military.
So is there hope for Iraq? Who can say? There are too many variables to make a prediction. I hope the people of Iraq can rebuild a stable society and know some peace but they live in a tough neighbourhood and are not likely to be left alone given the vast resources the country possesses. The US troops are gone but not its bankers, envoys, and diplomats. Iraq has made a move toward independence and autonomy but it's not there yet. Just this year Iraq has expressed interest in joining BRICS, a move that would mark a shift away from US control and financial ties and a means of countering US attempts to punish them through those means. The road to membership will not be easy.
It's a day of reflection and uncertainty. And why in God's Providence did all this take place? God uses nations to punish other nations and peoples, but then in turn will punish the aggressors (who function as his axe) for their hubris and destroy them as well. The plan of God and His Holy Wisdom is beyond our knowing. The people of the region have suffered terribly and yet Iraq also represents US over-reach. Bush was riding so high in the aftermath of 9/11 and the overthrow of the Taliban in the fall of 2001. He was visibly giddy. And yet as he reached for the stars (I use that phrase theologically and in terms of spiritual-celestial reference) he helped play a key role in setting the stage for American decline and the fall of the American Empire, a fall which is still in progress. There's a kind of dark and tragic poetic aspect to it all and I wonder if Bush thinks about that sometimes. I doubt it. I'm afraid in addition to lacking a conscience and the capacity for remorse and repentance, he's not a reflective person and as such was easily manipulated by cunning and sinister men. Some of these same men (such as Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Powell) have now stood before the Throne of Judgment and answered for their deeds.