Press TVEven the most cursory reading of history immediately reveals that imperial powers are free, if not uniquely entitled, to engage in massive crimes against humanity without fear of retribution or legal punishment.
Examples of this essential truth abound. So Belgian killers likely were not deterred from expanding their genocidal campaign in the Congo out of fear of legal action from the Congolese. British imperialists gave no thought to the idea of Indians bringing English generals to trial for their acts of mass murder and French colonialists intensified their economic exploitation of Haiti, secure in the belief that their brutal deeds would go unpunished. In fact, in the case of Haiti the only “crime” punished was when Haiti’s slave population liberated themselves, an act of disobedience for which the island’s inhabitants were subjected to harsh indemnity payments.
Likewise, the US invasion and destruction of Iraq fits quite well into this ignoble tradition and offers instructive insight about the prevailing moral culture of America’s intellectual classes. After Iraqi mother Sundus Saleh filed a lawsuit against the Bush administration for committing the “crime of aggression” in its 2003 invasion of Iraq, the Obama Dept. of Justice exonerated Bush on grounds that his predecessors “acted within the legitimate scope of their employment.”
Along with the refusal to investigate the Bush administration’s global torture regime, this was the latest iteration of President Obama’s mantra that “we should look forward and not backwards”, a tacit embrace of high crimes in violation of international law. Given this disgraceful turn of events, it’s difficult to comprehend how anyone can take seriously US pronouncements intended to “help” Iraqis, moreover how some can utter the word “Iraq” without being overwhelmed with suffocating feelings of shame.
Since the militant group ISIL mobilized its forces to the northern Iraqi city of Mosul, articulate opinion has ranged from urgent appeals that the US not entangle itself in a bloody war, which it cannot “fix” to equally impassioned demands to unleash the wrath of the US military to eradicate the militancy. US Senators Lindsey Graham (R) and John McCain (R) have been some of the most vocal cheerleaders in the latter category, both insisting, ludicrously, that the rise of ISIS symbolizes the failure of President Obama in prolonging the occupation via a “residual force.” Conspicuously absent from these narratives is an acknowledgement of US responsibility in the creation of this humanitarian crisis, a crisis that merits a humanitarian, and not military, solution.
Though seldom noted, the Obama administration did not willingly withdraw from Iraq, nor was the withdrawal motivated by perceptions that the extreme violence of previous years would subside and the country would return to a state of relative peace. As noted by several scholars, the Obama administration adopted the “zero option” policy with regard to the US withdrawal from Iraq. Basically, when the government of Nouri al-Maliki refused to grant the US military legal immunity for crimes carried out in Iraq, which resulted in Obama evacuating US forces.
In other words, the US did not leave Iraq so Iraqis could “make decisions about [their] own future” – President Obama’s words in a recent Brussels speech – but because Washington elites realized they could no longer proceed in the criminal project that constituted the primary barrier to a fully sovereign Iraq.
Instead of the daily reports mourning the unraveling of US “sacrifices” in Iraq, (as a thought experiment, imagine the Tokyo press in the early post-war period lamenting the undoing of Japanese “sacrifices” in Nanjing) this vital and highly consequential backstory should be highlighted. For instance, Right to Heal, a civil society coalition of Iraqis impacted by the 2003 invasion, human rights organizations and Iraq war veterans, has been petitioning the US government for reparations in the form of “medical and psychological care”, “monetary compensation”, “rebuilding/repairing critical infrastructure” and “prosecution of the perpetrators.”
Predictably, these legitimate demands have eluded the radar of some of the nation’s most prominent media outlets from theNew York Times and the Washington Post to television networks like MSNBC and CNN. But this is where anyone serious about ameliorating the suffering of Iraqis would direct their energy. The same can be said for Britain, whose former prime minister Tony Blair recently whitewashed the British military’s role in devastating southern Iraq, saying “we have to liberate ourselves from the notion that ‘we’ have caused this. We haven’t.” Once again, the essential truth of elite immunity for international crimes reared its ugly head.
Long before the latest catastrophe to befall Iraq, Middle East investigative journalist Robert Fisk reported “by failing to end this violence–by stoking ethnic hatred through their inactivity–the Americans are now provoking a civil war in Baghdad.” This warning was published in 2003, yet the feigned sympathy of high government officials was nowhere to be found, presumably because the killers in this case included officials in Washington. Eleven years have passed since Fisk first penned these fateful words and we are now witnessing the reverberations of that deadly assault. A graphic photograph has now filtered out of Iraq showing ISIS fighters murdering Iraqi soldiers by firing squad.
Obviously, further militarizing the conflict through ground forces or drones would only accelerate Iraq’s descent into national decay, but “doing nothing”, as some have suggested, also skirts the enormous debt we owe to Iraqis. Ultimately, the most just solution for the United States to pursue is to abide by the prescriptions of Right to Heal and grant Iraqis the rights that the US invasion never provided (nor intended to provide), namely those rights which entail a public admission by those in Washington that they have committed a grievous injustice against Iraqis that is certain to endure for generations. Quite apart from granting Iraqis humanitarian aid, which is certainly needed, this broader policy of compensation would deliver Iraqis the justice they have long been due.
XB/HMV
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/2014/06/21/367953/beyond-isil-us-iraq–elite-immunity/default.html