Death & Suffering in Iraq a Bitter Legacy of September 11 Attacks
The terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the U.S. changed the lives of Iraq’s residents forever with deaths of loved ones and other sufferings as the U.S. invaded Iraq in 2003
The terrorist attacks of 9/11 in the U.S. changed the lives of Iraq’s residents forever, but they have no roles in those attacks. After the attacks, the United States attacked Afghanistan, rapidly overthrew the Taliban insurgent regime. Osama bin Laden, the head of the al-Qaida group, was the mastermind behind the attacks, and he was hiding under the government of the Taliban.
Afterward, the former U.S. President George W. Bush invaded Iraq and declared Iraq’s President Saddam Hussein a brutal dictator and accused him of being tied with al-Qaida and armed with weapons of mass destruction. But the U.S. forces found no evidence of those allegations. An Iraqi Kurd, Mohammed Agha, said that initially, he was happy with the American invasion, and everyone was happy and filled with hope for a better future.
But the results were totally opposite to the expectations, the U.S. forces destroyed the institutions of the country, and still, they are unbuilt. There was no planning for nation-building and the day after. The remarks of Agha reflect the lasting anger and unpleasantness felt by several Iraqi nationals over what they perceive as a lost opportunity to reconstruct Iraq following the dismissal and assassination of Saddam Hussain, who ruled the country with an iron grip for approximately thirty years.
The Invasion of the United States Reshaped Iraqi Politics
The U.S. invasion reshaped Iraqi politics and shifted the country’s power from minority Arab Sunnis to majority Shias, and Kurds gained their own autonomous region. However, several citizens welcomed the ouster of the former president, and they expected the United States to bring security, good governance, and consistent essential daily life services such as electricity. Failure to achieve any of those targets drove anger and led to an insurgency that eventually devolved into civil war, with Sunni and Shiite militias battling the U.S. for control of the country.
After several years of war, Iraq today has a comparatively stable government, and the suicide attacks, car bombings, and death squads lessened. However, the country’s economy is in strips, its infrastructure is dying, and corruption is rambling. Moreover, the current government is unable to control many influential Iran-backed militias groups that exercise huge control. Baghdad fell on 9th April 2003, and in return, several Iraqis praised as American Marines pulled down Saddam’s statue in Firdous Square of Baghdad.
A pic in which U.S. troops were pulling down Saddam Hussein’s statue in Firdous Square of Baghdad Source: Web
But actually, the euphoria was temporary because more daily death & destruction increased as Americans dissolved the Iraqi army. Moreover, the U.S. move resulted in the rise of al-Qaida and, afterward, the Islamic State group in Iraq. Furthermore, the following four years were stamped with images of horror and fear. In those years, in March 2004, the bodies of four American security contractors were hanged from a bridge over the Euphrates River. Previously, U.S. President Joe Biden announced to end the combat mission in Iraq.
Iraqis and Afghans Paid the Price of the U.S. Invasions after 9/11
Later, the former U.S. President Barack Obama withdrew its last combat forces from Iraq in December 2011. But the war results in the death of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians along with 4487 Americans. Bassam al-Qazwini, a political analyst, said that the citizens of Iraq and Afghanistan paid the price of American invasions by their blood after the attacks of 11th September.
The people of Iraq and Afghanistan paid a heavier price.
To be honest, they will continue to pay for it for generations to come.
Further, he added that, instead of building democracy in Iraq, the U.S. supported a political class that eventually made networks of militias groups and corruption that continue to rob the country. Even though Iraq is rich in oil country, it still suffers long-lasting blackouts and destroying infrastructure because of mishandling, graft, and profiteering. Many students earn their graduate degrees every year with no hope of finding jobs.
