This Wednesday will mark the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, one of the largest blemishes in American history.
Justified on faulty intelligence and a propaganda-led media, the Iraq War has resulted in approximately 116,000 civilian deaths and 4,474 U.S. service personnel deaths, according to the Washington Post and iraqbodycount.org.
While historic war anniversaries like D-Day and Armistice Day (Veteran’s Day) are observed yearly, the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq should hold equal weight and encourage debate about war and all of its implications.
The invasion, which was based on the premise that Iraq contained weapons of mass destruction, was faulty to begin with. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found, not by the U.S. or members of the international community. Justifying a needless war required help, and the U.S. got that from the largely ignorant media.
According to former Washington Post writer Howard Kurtz, the Washington Post ran more than 140 front-page stories leading up to the Iraq invasion that focused “heavily on administration [President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney] rhetoric against Iraq.”
Few, if any, anti-invasion stories, Kurtz argued, made it the front page of the Washington Post during that time.
Put simply, the rampant patriotism that followed 9/11 contributed to a less-free environment in which anyone who spoke out against or criticized the U.S. was seen as a traitor.
According to an episode of Bill Moyer’s Journal, entitled “Buying The War,” former CNN president Walter Issacson spoke of the criticism and pressure he received from advertisers who had threatened to pull their advertisements because of CNN’s war coverage.
Instead of questioning the president’s plans or scrutinizing the intelligence his staff publicly used to justify the war, the press effectively rolled over, leaving the tank of American war propaganda unchecked.
Whether Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction before the U.S. entered will never be fully known. The real fact is, though, that none were ever found, casting permanent shadows on the U.S. role in justifying a fruitless war.
Besides removing Hussein, what has the Iraq War achieved?
Thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Iraqis perished in a war that has left a country destroyed.
Depending on who you ask, you will find people who believe that the invasion either “liberated” or “destroyed” Iraq.
Regardless of how one feels, though, the shoddy intelligence used to justify the war should spark debate and outrage.
Justification of future conflicts should be more transparent, or else wars like Iraq will continue to afflict countless Americans, dead or alive.
Shane Newell is a sophomore journalism major and an assistant city editor for the Daily 49er.