Over the past 20 years, the Iraqi people have suffered greatly from the catastrophic impact of the US war in Iraq - "the United States has brought division and suffering to Iraq" (international perspective)

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The United States has indiscriminately used force to wage war against Iraq and imposed the so-called "democratic transformation", which has led Iraq to fall into war, social division, frequent conflicts, and serious humanitarian disasters for the local people.

On March 20, 2003, the United States and its Western allies invaded Iraq on the grounds that "Iraq has weapons of mass destruction" and despite the strong opposition of the international community, bypassing the United Nations Security Council and causing huge casualties and property damage to the Iraqi people. Over the past 20 years, the severe wounds inflicted on Iraq by the war have not yet been healed. Our reporter recently visited Iraq to learn about the living conditions of the local people.

"They destroyed schools, destroyed roads, destroyed our lives"

Step into Najaf, a city south of Baghdad, and you'll find dilapidated brick houses and shantytowns. Mohammed Ali, 30, brought up the Iraq war with his eyebrows twisted together. He told reporters: "The Americans came and made a bunch of promises, and nothing was kept. They destroyed schools, destroyed roads, destroyed our lives, and now we have nothing. ”

After the outbreak of the war, Ali was forced to drop out of school to work, and still lives on odd jobs, earning enough money every day to support his family. He said: "We welcome investors from all countries to come to Iraq, but we do not welcome aggressors!" ”

Saeed, a resident from Mosul, told reporters that he spent his childhood in fear and fright. "During the Iraq War, I witnessed American atrocities many times. The father of one of my classmates was a professor of history at the university, and once he drove normally on the road, only to be run over red-handed for not giving way to the American tanks behind in time. In 2014, Mosul was occupied by the extremist group Islamic State, and it was not recovered until 2017. Separated by the war, Said and his family moved to Najaf. "The trauma of war still makes it difficult for the Iraqi people to breathe," he said. Our family had nowhere to go but to live in an illegally built shantytown. ”

In Tahrir Square in downtown Baghdad, Mustafa, an elderly man from the Kurdish region of northern Iraq, told reporters that for 20 years, Tahrir Square has witnessed the war and turmoil experienced by Iraq. In 2019, a car explosion occurred here, killing and injuring five people. Last July, demonstrations took place here in which demonstrators clashed with security forces, injuring dozens of people.

Today, Tahrir Square has been renovated, with tourists walking on the square and a group of children playing football barefoot on the grass. Mustafa said: "A peaceful life does not come easily. Economic and social development is possible only in a peaceful and stable environment. Having experienced turmoil, we have learned more about the preciousness of peace. ”

"Infrastructure destroyed, antiquities looted, economic development regressed"

The war in Iraq launched by the United States has resulted in the death of a large number of civilians and caused a serious humanitarian catastrophe. According to the "Cost of War" project of the Watson Institute of Brown University in the United States, in the 20 years since the US military launched the Iraq War in 2003, 185,000 to 208,000 Iraqi civilians have died in the war, and tens of millions of Iraqi families and people have been affected by the war itself and the "after-effects of war".

The effects of the U.S. military's use of munitions prohibited by international conventions in war have not been eliminated to this day. A report from the Dutch peace organization PAX shows that the US-led coalition used about 10,000 depleted uranium bombs around Iraqi civilian areas in violation of regulations, seriously endangering people's lives and health and the local ecological environment. The United Nations estimates that Iraq still has about 25 million mines and other explosive remnants to clear today. In addition, the US military has seriously violated international humanitarian principles and caused many incidents of torture of prisoners. Iraqi media pointed out that the US military committed a series of serious violations of international law during the Iraq war, which constituted systematic violations of human rights.

Amir Saadi, an Iraqi political scientist, said: "The US military's extensive use of white phosphorus and depleted uranium bombs in Iraq has led to a surge in cases of deformed babies and cancer. The effects of these weapons will last for hundreds of years. Azavi, an expert on Iraqi radioactive contamination, believes that the depleted uranium bombs used by the United States in two military operations in Iraq caused more than 1 million Iraqis to be affected by radiation. According to statistics, up to 15% of children born in cities in Iraq today suffer from birth defects, and 5% of them die in infancy.

Amr, a university student from Iraq's Salah al-Din province, told reporters that the pain of the Iraq war accompanied him growing up. "Infrastructure has been destroyed, cultural relics looted, economic development has regressed, and the harm caused by chemical weapons such as depleted uranium bombs will continue to affect us for generations." Amre said he himself had been burned by chemical weapons and had taken a long time to recover.

Ma'ad Mezr, a member of the Iraqi National Assembly, said that at the beginning of the Iraq war, many Iraqis thought that "hope was ushered in", but they did not expect that "the United States has brought division and suffering to Iraq." Now, we have no electricity, no water, no jobs, no talent, no factories..."

"The so-called 'liberal democracy' of the United States is seriously unsatisfactory in Iraq"

The war in Iraq launched by the United States not only brought long-term chaos and profound disasters to Iraq, but also had a lasting and far-reaching negative impact on the regional and world situation. Saudi Arabia's mainstream media "Arab News" published an article saying: "The damage caused by the Iraq war to Iraq is still heavy, and the so-called 'freedom and democracy' of the United States is seriously unsatisfactory in Iraq. ”

Wang Guangguang, executive director of the China-Arab Reform and Development Research Center, believes that the Iraq war has seriously trampled on international law and international order, and the so-called "democratic transformation" imposed by the United States in Iraq has seriously damaged Iraq's political ecology and the security situation has continued to deteriorate.

Sun Degang, director of the Center for Middle East Studies at Fudan University, pointed out that the United States bypassed the United Nations to launch the Iraq War and pursued the hegemonic thinking of "power is right" and "hegemony is higher than sovereignty", which led to continuous conflicts in the Middle East.

"Say no to the endless war in the United States", "Stop the war appropriations", "Build schools instead of making bombs" ... On the afternoon of March 18, hundreds of anti-war activists held a rally in Lafayette Square, north of the White House in Washington, D.C., urging the U.S. government to reflect on the Iraq war and calling on the U.S. to shut down the "war machine."

A CNN article pointed out that "the Iraq war was the original sin of the United States at the beginning of the 21st century", which was a war under false assumptions, which not only damaged the position of the United States in the world, but also damaged the credibility of the US government in the hearts of the people.

The analysis article of the British "Guardian" believes that the United States launched the Iraq war has its partisan political factors, and the Iraq war has made the party politics of the United States more polarized.

In an interview with Microsoft National Broadcaster, Noam Chomsky, a well-known American linguist and social activist, pointed out that the war in Iraq launched by the United States is a "textbook crime against humanity." However, it is shocking that for 20 years, mainstream American society has not acknowledged this crime, but has whitewashed and beautified it.

(Baghdad, March 19 -- Reporter Guan Kejiang and Ren Haoyu)