The invasion of Iraq, 10 years on

Professor Tan Sri Dato' Dzulkifli Abdul Razak

Learning Curve: Perspective

New Sunday Times - 17-03-2013

 

I VIVIDLY recollect where I was 10 years ago this week. I was in Tasmania, Australia for the first time to welcome a group of Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) researchers and young scientists returning from a month-long expedition to Antarctica.

 

It was a milestone for the university.

 

Antarctica -- the largest, coldest and driest continent -- was then the buzzword at tertiary institutions in Malaysia.

 

Inspired by the then Prime Minister Datuk Seri (now Tun) Mahathir Mohamad, several initiatives to begin a protracted study of the icy continent, and particularly its relationship with the tropics, were taken.

 

After all, some 140 million years ago, Antarctica was part of the supercontinent called Gondwanaland, which also included Arabia, India, Ceylon, Australia, New Zealand, Africa and South America.

 

The expedition -- undertaken collaboratively with the Australian Antarctica Division -- not only augured well for the transdisciplinary approach to research that USM was embarking on, but was also relevant to the issues of sustainability given the threat of climate change.

 

But what made the recollection even clearer was the United States decision to invade Iraq. President George W. Bush decided to "shock and awe" Iraq by proclaiming from the Oval Office, during the same week: "My fellow citizens, at this hour American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.

 

"On my orders, coalition forces have begun striking selected targets of military importance to undermine Saddam Hussein's ability to wage war. These are opening stages of what will be a broad and concerted campaign."

 

"Weapons of mass destruction" were the basis for the dubious decision. Both the US President and British Prime Minister Tony Blair felt that the mission was "to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction". Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, who allegedly haboured those deadly weapons, was justified as the target.

 

The invasion went against the opinion of the international community, leading to protests and demonstrations around the world.

 

Saddam was given a deadline to step down and go into exile with his sons. Iraqi ambassador to the United Nations Mohammed Aldouri, who was outraged, said: "This is the first time in history that a president of one state has ordered the president of another state to leave his own country."

 

Still, the US had warned it will invade Iraq regardless of whether Saddam stepped down or not, as the US-led forces were convinced that they would stumble upon the said weapons.

 

Australia supported the incursions. A local daily reported Prime Minister John Howard's commitment to dispatch troops to Iraq. Citizens protested.

 

A "No War" slogan was blazoned on the Sydney Opera House, a former Navy officer symbolically burnt his uniform outside Australia's Parliament House and others chained themselves to the gates of Howard's residence.

 

On the morning of the attack on March 20, 2003, The Sydney Morning Herald carried an appeal from Iraq to the United Nations to do "everything possible" to stop a US-led invasion of Baghdad, describing it as "illegal, immoral and unjustifiable".

 

This is now affirmed as we approach the 10th anniversary of the invasion. Bush's proclamation "to free its people (Iraqis) and to defend the world from grave danger" is nothing more than a farce.

 

Today, Iraq is a chaotic and unstable place, to say the least. Even as late as December 2012, the US Department of State advised travellers about "civil war, or ongoing intense crime or violence, or frequent terrorist attacks" and "to strongly consider" against going to the country.

 

Indeed, the world is a far more dangerous place than it was a decade ago with Mali being added to the long list of hot spots.

The Guardian of United Kingdom reported on March 8: "Western training of Syrian rebels is under way in Jordan in an effort to strengthen secular elements in the opposition as a bulwark against Islamic extremism."

 

It quoted Jordanian security sources familiar to training operations as saying that the training effort is led by the "Americans, Brits and French with some of the Syrian generals who defected. But we're not talking about a huge operation".

 

Indeed, according to European and Jordanian sources, the Western training in Jordan has been going on since last year. It is bound to escalate.

 

Ten years on, it looks like that collapse of global security is as fragile as the melting glaciers of Antarctica, no thanks to those leaders who are now safe and comfortable in retirement, while millions of innocent people are still paying with their lives as a result of their incompetent leadership.

 

Shouldn't they be made accountable for the mess they left behind?

 

- The writer is the vice-chancellor of the Albukhary International University