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Unravelling Iraq
by Brendan O'Neill - Spiked - 29 May 2003

UK prime minister Tony Blair's visit to Iraq is a fitting symbol of the coalition's campaign. Blair wants to thank British troops for their 'humanitarian and reconstruction efforts' in this 'noble' mission to rebuild a nation. Yet his visit will be of 'lightning' speed, because the new Iraq remains a volatile and unpredictable place where, according to one report, 'few feel safe'. Postwar Iraq is unravelling. Coalition forces chased a weakened regime out of a weakened state, with little sense of what might take its place. The war has left a vacuum, which various armed and unrepresentative groups are trying to fill. It devastated Iraqi infrastructure: 32 out of 35 hospitals in Baghdad have shut down, as illnesses like cholera and diarrhoea have risen exponentially; in Um Qasr, the one remaining hospital has 12 beds to cater for 45,000 people.

Within the coalition too, things are unravelling. Britain and America's shoulder-to-shoulder stance has given way to bickering: US soldiers accuse British commanders of war crimes, while British troops threaten legal action over American 'friendly fire'. US and UK officials clash over which side is better at peacekeeping, while the no-show of Saddam's illegal weapons has led to some seriously public buck-passing among the US elite . For all Blair's grand statements about 'reconstructing Iraq', the coalition's intervention has devastated Iraq and shown up some tensions inside the coalition camp. An operation that was intended to give America and its allies a sense of mission on the international stage has only exposed a hole at the heart of the West, and left a hole in the heart of Iraq.

posted by A Curmudgeon 8:17 AM