Iraq, Five years later

The Iraqi-American War started five years ago today, and the end is not in sight.

It seemed that nothing could be more unnecessary and insane than Saddam Hussein's invasion of Kuwait, until George Bush II trumped it by invading Iraq. Truly the world seems to be run by lunatics. Just about every reason or excuse George Bush gave for invading has proved to be false. There were no weapons of mass destruction.

American apologists for Bush's insane behaviour like to say that the Iraqis are better-off than they were under Saddam Hussein. But how much better off are they?

Analysis: Iraq, Five years later, a hidden crisis: Report of the IRC Commission on Iraqi Refugees, Field Reports: Iraq, Five years later, a hidden crisis: Report of the IRC Commission on Iraqi Refugees:

The war that was launched in Iraq five years ago has produced one of the largest humanitarian crises of our time. Yet this crisis is largely hidden from the public and ignored by the international community. More than four million Iraqis of different religions, ethnicities and backgrounds are estimated to be uprooted by horrific violence and death and are in dire need of help. About half have fled to Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and elsewhere in the region.

Because they are not huddled together in a camp or traveling as a group across a windswept plain, these refugees are not receiving the attention and help they deserve from the international community. Much of the reporting about them has been wrong, perpetuating myths that they are wealthy or that the crisis is over and that many are returning to their homes in Iraq. The solutions put forward by major donors have been wholly inadequate. Meanwhile, many of the refugees have been severely traumatized and now lead desperate lives in foreign cities such as Damascus, Amman, Cairo and Beirut.

There is one other thing that the invasion seems likely to achieve, though -- the eradication of Christianity from large parts of the Middle East. It survived Zoroastrianism, it survived under Islam, it survived under Saddam Hussein, but will George Bush finally finish it off? Perhaps that will be George Bush's legacy, and what he will be remembered for in time to come.
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This posting is part of a Blogswarm on the fifth anniversary of the beginning of the war.