Starting Seven Years of War

Commemorating six years since George W. Bush ordered the unprovoked attack, invasion and military occupation of Iraq.

Year seven of this misadventure begins with over a hundred thousands U.S. troops still occupying Iraq.

We must never forget that we were lied into this war ... and we should never forget the thousands of GIs and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis that have died because of those lies.

Six Years Later, Iraq Lessons Still Unheeded | Alexia Gilmore/Mercury News

The most successful war seldom pays for its losses. — Thomas Jefferson

On March 19, 2003, in the aftermath of Sept. 11, the United States launched the Iraq war. Today, six years, hundreds of thousands of military and civilian deaths and $600 billion later, President Barack Obama is telling us the United States is beginning its departure.

But what is waiting in the wings so clearly — so painfully — is the escalation of the Afghanistan/Pakistan crisis. The Obama administration will push this escalation, just as President Bush pushed Iraq. Such is the purview of the party in power. So, let us reflect on Iraq as a prequel to what surely is pending in this next theater of conflict.

Not only has the Iraq war failed to accomplish any meaningful goals when compared to its human and financial costs, it has steeled the resolve of terrorists and other enemies of the United States. In that sense, the war has compromised our security, not protected it.

The public was led down the garden path to justify the Iraq war, as a result of emotion and false information in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Powerful interests and the agendas of government and certain industries also played a central role.

Smaller-scale terrorist attacks had been occurring in Europe, Asia and South America for decades, and the United States had very strong indications that an attack could come to its territory.

However, the country had not effectively retooled from the Cold War and had no real, on-the-ground understanding of the Middle East, or an infrastructure to manage issues and threats facing us. This was very apparent post-Sept. 11, when the country learned that important intelligence was either not pieced together or even translated in a timely manner.

In a broader sense, the United States still has not awakened to the implications of the post-Cold War world of globalism and the multiplicity of dangerous, vying powers.

The country is still in the position of a "nation of trust," held to a higher standard by virtue of its espoused positions about liberty, fairness, equality, democracy and other qualities. This leaves the United States subject to greater criticism when it fails. Looked at rationally, the war on terror is a war of attitudes and nerves. Do we believe in and stand by our values, or do we panic and invade in ill-planned, ill-conceived ways?

Another major lesson of the Iraq war is that it has been a counterproductive foreign policy tool. Our ability to effect positive change through peaceful, collaborative means — traditionally a strength of the United States — has suffered tremendous damage.

We hold important principles — those of the Founding Fathers, by and large —— that the nation should not use warfare as its main tool in engaging with the rest of the world. However, America has involved its armed services in more than 230 conflicts or potential conflicts since our founding, so we have not practiced these principles.

As we confront complex problems in interacting with the rest of the world, we must eliminate wars from the landscape.

Alexia Gilmore of Palo Alto is executive director of Antiwar.com, the largest organization of its kind dedicated to eliminating interventionism around the world.

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Colorado Citizens for Peace

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