Eleven Years Later

On March 19, 2003 the United States along with coalition forces launched their first attacks on Iraq. the primary mission was to disarm Iraq, free its people and the world of the great danger that Iraq pose.

Images of Iraq on the night of March 19, 2003

Saddam's message to his people

According to our leaders, Iraq had weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in their power which made them a greater threat to the U.S. and the world as a whole. If there was knowledge of the existence of these weapons in the late 90's, why no one did anything about it before?

Or maybe they did. In the late 90's the U.S. attacked Iraqi military installations on whats was known Operation Desert Fox, as way of stopping their manufacturing of WMD. After those attacks, Iraq refused the entrance of the United Nations inspectors into their country. Could it have been that our entrance in 2003 was to verify that they did have weapons? Or a response to the 9/11 attacks?

  

The invasion has been seen as the second Gulf War because history seems to be repeating itself. The question that arises is then the fact that no weapons of mass destruction were found? This is just part of what has been happening for the past 11 years, which started in Iraq and its now in Afghanistan, but what we have little knowledge of is the real cost of such invasion.

When we look up the costs of such war, most of the results will show the economical perspective of it, as if the millions of lives that have been lost do not count. 

There are many more costs then just monetary ones. Millions of lives have been lost, and many of our Veterans are returning home with Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), which severely impairs their ability to transition back into society. 

The trend seems to be that very little is ever revealed to the public about the real costs of war, while it is being waged. In the case of the Iraq War, news networks simply did not show viewers the cruel reality of ground footage, and the Defense Department did not want the citizenry to know how badly things where going in order to maintain public support. Many studies have shown not just how many billions of dollars we have spent on wars overseas, but how devastating they have been to local populations death tolls and US soldiers alike, as well as the shocking number of wounded soldiers sent back home to fight another day now just to live.  

What makes it even worse is that even today, after most of the lies have been exposed, very little has been said by the government in retrospect of what a terrible tragedy and mistake it was to pursue Iraq in a full scale war. Also most news providers have not mentioned their part in its construction on the main screen, or have done so from a minimalist perspective. Therefore one can see that keeping a low profile and letting time be the antidote for mass amnesia has benefited those controlling the news in keeping up with their agenda!

D.S.

To get a closer look please visit:

www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/war.casualties/index.html

www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/870845/Iraq-War

www.cnn.com/2003/US/03/19/sprj.irq.int.bush.transcript/

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bombing_of_Iraq_(1998)

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2003_invasion_of_Iraq

www.motherjones.com/politics/2011/12/leadup-iraq-war-timeline