U. S. INVASION AND OCCUPATION OF IRAQ
by Fred Shelton
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As this account of the US invasion and occupation of Iraq is being put together more than six years
after the night of “shock and awe” began that bloody quagmire, the nation’s failing economy has
replaced Iraq as the primary issue facing America. Both the war in Iraq, and that in Afghanistan
against al-Qaeda and the Taliban (which has gone on 17 months longer than the Iraq War), have
virtually disappeared from the news. Right-wing pundits and radio talk show hosts, and our other
republican friends tell us that “it is time to ‘get over’ how we got into the Iraq mess and to concentrate
on the future”. They want us to ignore the idiotic and criminal acts of the neo-conservatives
(neocons) and other radical right-wing ideologues that plunged our nation into the present abyss.
Sorry. It is not possible to ignore the most treacherous acts that have ever been taken by any
president, vice president, or their administration in the history of this nation. For that reason, the
history of how it came about that the United States of America, in the face of millions of dissenting
voices around the world, defied the United Nations and abrogated our international agreements to
invade a country that was an irritant, and had a bloody dictator, but was not a threat of any kind to
any nation, is essential to an understanding of how we came to be where we are.
Since you are most likely reading this on the internet, I assume that you have access to a computer,
so some website addresses are given so you can review additional material if you wish.
Where It All Started
New York Times reporter Dexter Filkins recently (September 2008) published a book about Iraq titled
“The Forever War”. That is an apt name for a war that began March 19, 2003, and more than six
years later still has no definite end in sight. But although the actual invasion came in 2003, its
beginnings go back more than 10 years before that. No account of the invasion and occupation of
Iraq is complete without recalling the years of lobbying and maneuvering by the republican neo-
conservatives (neocons). A good description of the neocons is given by Dr. Elliot D. Cohen in his
article “John McCain’s Chilling Project for America”: “A radical, militaristic group driven by an
ideology of global expansionism and dominance attained through perpetual, pre-emptive, unilateral,
multiple wars. The credo of this group is ‘the end justifies the means’, and the end of establishing
the United States as the world’s sole superpower justifies, in its estimation, anything from military
control over the internet to the use of genocidal biological weapons.” The entire article can be found
at: www.globalresearch.ca/PrintArticle.php?articleId=9341. Cohen’s article provides a brief history
of the neocon movement, and also discloses Senator John McCain’s (republican candidate for
President in the 2008 election) close association and participation with the neocons. (Note: If you
read more about the neocons, you will encounter the name of Eliot Cohen, a prominent neocon.
Eliot Cohen and Dr. Elliot D. Cohen are not the same person.) You can painlessly learn more about
the neocons’ “Project for the New American Century” (PNAC) by watching a video at www.youtube.
com/watch?v=1uT7kcAu4i8&NR=1. On that same webpage are numerous other videos about PNAC
and related subjects. If after all that, you want to know even more, here are some websites:
http://rightweb.irc.online.org/profile/1571.htm 1992 Defense Planning Guidance (Wolfowitz
Doctrine). This document proposed the policy of preventive war that was adopted in 2002 by
President George W. Bush.
www.newamericancentury.org/iraqclintonletter.htm January 26, 1998 letter to President Clinton on
Iraq
www.newamericancentury.org/iraq-013098.htm 30 January 1998 New York Times article “Bombing
Iraq Isn’t Enough” by William Kristol and Robert Kagan
www.newamericancentury.org/iraqletter1998.htm 29 May 1998 letter to Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott
www.iraqwatch.org/government/US/Legislation/ILA.htm October 1998. Public Law 105-338. The
Iraq Liberation Act of 1998 made removal of Saddam Hussein official U.S. policy, and appropriated
$97 million for the criminal Ahmed Chalabi, founder of the so-called “Iraqi National Congress”, to
head it. (After the Bush neocon administration took over, Chalabi distinguished himself by furnishing
false intelligence to Donald Rumsfeld’s neocon-staffed Office of Special Plans, which in turn fed it to
Dick Cheney, Condi Rice and George Bush.) Senate co-sponsors of the bill were Trent Lott, Bob
Kerry, John McCain, Joseph Lieberman, and Jon Kyl. House passed 360-38 (36 not voting). The
Senate passed the bill unanimously.
www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf September 2000. Rebuilding
America’s Defenses: Strategy, Forces and Resources for a New Century. This neocon document
provided the blueprint for failure George W. Bush and his neo-con administration adopted and has
largely followed to drive the United States of America from one catastrophic disaster to another.
http://rightweb.irc-online.org/profile/1458.html 2002. Committee for the Liberation of Iraq. Senators
John McCain, Joseph Lieberman and Evan Bayh were honorary co-chairs. The sole purpose of the
group was to build and apply extreme pressure and support for the invasion of Iraq. McCain’s
foreign policy advisor Randy Scheunemann was also a leading light in the organization.
www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/jul/17/iraq.usa “The Spies Who Pushed For War” This was an
article in the British newspaper “The Guardian” on July 17, 2003, by Julian Borger. It tells the story
of the neocon-manned “Office of Special Plans” Donald Rumsfeld set up in the Pentagon under
Douglas Feith and William Luti to re-analyze CIA and DIA intelligence reports and come up with
alternative interpretations of raw intelligence.
The Stage is Set
If he hadn’t already done so, George W. Bush sold his soul to the Devil the moment he agreed to
accept Richard B. Cheney as his vice president. Cheney brought with him a bevy of neocon
veterans from the Reagan and first Bush administrations, as well as many neophytes they had
developed during their exile to conservative think tanks during the Clinton administration. Here are
just a few familiar names: Donald Rumsfeld; Paul Wolfowitz; Elliot Abrams; Richard Perle; Richard
Armitage; I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby; Douglas J. Feith; William Luti; John Bolton; Randy Scheunemann;
Zalmay Khalilzad; Stephen Hadley; Dov Zakheim; John Negroponte. Even before the Bush
Administration took office, they were making plans to invade Iraq. The planning accelerated once
they were in office, and then became a certainty after September 11, 2001. Although there was
much pressure within the administration to invade both Afghanistan and Iraq immediately, President
Bush made the decision to attack Afghanistan first, then Iraq.
In doing research for this account, I discovered a truly amazing website:
www.historycommons.org/timeline.jsp?timeline=complete_timeline_of_the_2003_invasion_of_iraq. (If
you have trouble opening this site, {1} go to “www.historycommons.org”, {2} click on “Timelines”, {3}
click on “Inquiry into The Decision to Invade Iraq”, then {4} at the top left corner of the black box
(outline) click on “View all events for this timeline”.) I recommend you bookmark this site, because
you will want to return to it. It contains literally hundreds of articles, in date order, all relating to the
invasion and occupation of Iraq. With this timeline, and the numerous links to actual documents and
contemporary accounts, you will see again the lies, the creation and manipulation of false documents
and information, the disinformation and propaganda blitz that successfully co-opted both TV and
print media, and shut out practically all dissenting voices, and Congress’s disgraceful capitulation to
Bush’s promises and lies. A great deal of information about the “Office of Special Plans”, the private
intelligence office Rumsfeld set up in the Pentagon to second guess and discredit the CIA and DIA, is
available on the website. Appropriately, the very first entry in the timeline is an excerpt from a letter
Abraham Lincoln wrote to his law partner, William H. Herndon, on February 15, 1848, as to why the
Constitution provides that only the Congress of the United States, not the president, has the power
to initiate a war.
Note: The “historycommons.org” main website offers a vast array of historical information on many
contemporary subjects of interest.
Some General Information About Iraq
Iraq is a country roughly 2/3 the size of the state of Texas. (Iraq covers 169,235 square miles, and
Texas has an area of 268,581 square miles.) Present-day Iraq occupies the greater part of the
ancient land of Mesopotamia, the plain between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. Some of the world’s
greatest ancient civilizations were developed in this area; therefore, it is often referred to as “the
cradle of civilization”. For an extremely interesting and informative account of ancient Mesopotamia,
going back to the days of Abraham and before, visit the website: www.christiananswers.net/q-
abr/abr-iraq.html.
For an informative briefing on Iraq’s geography, population and religion differences, watch this video
at: www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17722026. It is by NBC news correspondent Richard Engel, and is titled
“Fighting for Iraq: A regional powerplay”.
The pre-invasion (2002) population of Iraq was estimated by the CIA to be 24,001,816. The present
population, after more than six years of war, is uncertain. There has been no accurate accounting of
the number of war-related Iraqi deaths (disputed estimates range from fewer than one hundred
thousand to more than one million deaths directly caused by the war). Some two and one half million
Iraqi refugees are known to be living in other countries in the Middle East (primarily Jordan and
Syria) and throughout Europe, primarily in Sweden. In addition, more than two million Iraqis are
known to have fled their homes, but are somewhere in Iraq. Only a few refugees have been allowed
to come to the United States.
Now What?
I have never been to Iraq, and certainly have not been a participant of any kind in the invasion or
occupation, so you know at least as much about it as I do, and probably more; therefore, this
account is primarily about causes and consequences, not the war itself.
Casualties
We will start with casualties. According to the Pentagon website www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.
pdf as of 15 April 2009, 4277 American military troops (including 11 Department of Defense
civilians) have been killed in Iraq and 31,193 have been wounded. The Pentagon report does not
distinguish between active duty military and National Guard or Reserves. The number of deaths the
Pentagon provides is probably accurate; the number of wounded GIs, however, is totally and
flagrantly understated. A “Democracy Now” program on 12 October 2006, (see
www.democracynow.org/2006/10/12/did_va_hide_figures_showing_1. )
featured an interview with Paul Sullivan of VETERANS FOR AMERICA. He spoke about a Freedom
of Information Act request to the Veterans Administration (VA) for the number of Iraq and
Afghanistan wounded GIs the VA had treated. The VA refused for 9 months to provide the
information, but finally acknowledged that more than 150,000 veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan
wars had been at least partially disabled as a result of that service. He stated that this translated to
at least one out of every four veterans from those wars. You might also want to read an article from
Salon (www.salon.com/news/feature/2006/05/01/coburn/print.html) by Judith Coburn titled “The
underfunded VA is being overwhelmed by injured soldiers – and the administration that sent them to
war won’t pay to care for them.”
The Pentagon website also gives the number of military deaths and wounded in Afghanistan,
Pakistan and Uzbekistan in one total and those in all other Middle East countries, Guantanamo, the
Philippines, Kenya, Sudan, and others in another figure.
Coalition Casualties
The most recent count I found of deaths of Coalition military members in Iraq from other countries
was 318. The number of British military killed was 179, and from other coalition countries it was 139.
These figures came from the website: http://icasualties.org/oif/. This website also provides a
breakdown by individual country. I have not found any statistics regarding coalition forces wounded
in action.
Civilian Contractors
Factual information regarding the number of civilian contractor personnel in Iraq under contract to
the Department of State, Department of Defense, and other U.S. government agencies, as well as
their mission, locations, supervision and oversight, and pay is murky, unreliable, unconfirmed, and
mostly non-existent. Some recent reports have stated that the U.S. civilian contractors in Iraq
outnumber the U.S. military personnel. A report: www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?
id=50398&actionid=351020202 on 5 April 2008, titled “U.S. Court Martial For Civilian Contractor”
stated “There are more than 160,000 civilian contractors in Iraq, and some 36,000 in Afghanistan,
which is about the same number of troops in those countries”
The most authoritative sounding article I found was by T. Christian Miller on 4 July 2007 (http:
//articles.latimes.com/2007/jul/04/nation/na-private4 ). This Los Angeles Times article stated that the
number of U.S. paid civilian contractors in Iraq, (over 180,000), exceeded the number of U.S. combat
troops there (160,000 plus a few thousand civilian government employees).
And just to add more confusion and uncertainty, check out this article by Peter Grier on 18 August
2008: www.bushagenda.net/article.php?id=512, “Record Number of US Contractors in Iraq”.
Just like everything else involving the civilian contractors in Iraq, the number of casualties is
uncertain. In one report, it was stated that “In November 2005, the U.S. Department of Labor listed
428 civilian contractors dead, and 3963 wounded in Iraq – none of which are ever counted in the
official casualty counts”. In a February 2008 blog,
www.democracyarsenal.org/2008/02/contractor-deat.html , Michael Cohen stated: “According to the
Department of Labor, 1123 military/security contractors have been killed in Iraq, compared to (at that
time) 3954 U.S. soldiers. That means civilian contractors represent 22% of all personnel, civilian and
military, killed in Iraq”.
Iraqi Civilian Casualties
Estimates of the number of Iraqi civilians killed as a direct result of the invasion and occupation vary
widely, from fewer than 100,000 to well over 1,000,000. The republican neocon fraternity, of
course, fought hard to prevent disclosure of the true facts of the situation in Iraq, and our
mainstream media cooperated and assisted in that endeavor, mostly by just ignoring the question of
civilian casualties. In 2006 Johns Hopkins University released a report that their research showed at
least 654,965 more Iraqis had died since March 2003 than would have been expected under prewar
conditions. That report is at:
www.jhsph.edu/publichealthnews/press_releases/2006/burnham_iraq_2006.html. For a commentary
on the Johns Hopkins study, see this website:
www.michaelmoore.com/words/latestnews/index.php?id=St...
And for an opposing viewpoint, see:
www.usatoday.com/news/world/iraq/2006-10-10-iraq-dead_x.htm.
The Johns Hopkins Magazine for February 2007 has a complete account of the study. See: www.jhu.
edu/jhumag/0207web/number.html . To see an interesting article, “Is The US Responsible for a
Million Iraqi Deaths?” see:
www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/mortality/2007/0911usresponsible.htm. Note: The www.
globalpolicy.org site offers a huge menu of information on Iraq.
By far the most interesting and coherent argument on behalf of the Johns Hopkins study was
Professor Juan Cole’s “Informed Comment” blog of October 11, 2006. You will find it at:
www.juancole.com/2006/10/655000-dead-in-iraq-since-bush.html. Just in case you have not
previously discovered Juan Cole’s blogs, he is, in my opinion, by far the best informed and factually
correct commentator today on Iraq and the Middle East. He is Professor of Modern Middle East and
South Asian History at the University of Michigan, and President of the Global Americana Institute.
His blog is at www.juancole.com.
Iraqi Refugees Are Casualties of War Too
Here is the introduction to a report by Refugees International on 18 July 2008, titled “The Iraqi
Displacement Crisis”: “According to the UN Refugee Agency and the International Organization for
Migration in 2007, almost
5 million Iraqis had been displaced by violence in their country, the vast majority since 2003. Over
2.8 million vacated their homes for safer areas within Iraq, while 2 million were living in Syria, Jordan,
Iran, Egypt, Lebanon, Turkey, and Gulf States.” You can find this report at the website
www.refugeesinternational.org/content/article/detail/9679. The San Francisco Chronicle had an
interesting article on 29 July 2008 titled “Refugees in Jordan Skeptical That Iraq is Safe”. You will
find that at:
www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/07/29/MN7512OP8B.DTL. Another interesting article,
“Iraqi Refugees Find Sweden’s Doors Closing” is at: www.commondreams.
org/archive/2008/04/10/8212. Another at:
www.metimes.com/Security/2008/09/15/egypt_grows_weary_of_iraq_refugees/89E4/ is an article in
“Middle East Times” that starts off “The Iraqi population in Egypt went from less than 500 before the
U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, to more than 120,000….” Another article in Middle East Times, on 13
October 2008, is representative of a recent spate of reports about the persecution, murder, and
flight of Christians in Iraq. See: www.metimes.
com/Politics/2008/10/13/un_concerned_as_flight_of_iraq_christians_continues/afp. Actually, if you
Google “Iraqi Refugees” you will find hundreds of relevant articles, but few recent ones.
How Has the Invasion and Occupation of Iraq Affected Our Military?
It is common knowledge that our military forces, both active duty and National Guard and Reserves
have been stretched to their absolute limits, almost to the breaking point, yet they have continued to
fulfill their assignments from the authorities placed over them superbly, with absolute courage,
dedication and perseverance. One of the strange things about our long-lasting wars in Afghanistan
and Iraq is how little effect these wars have had on those of us who have unheedingly continued our
usual lives here in America. About the only consequence we actually encountered, until recently,
was the precipitous and steady increase in oil and gas prices after the Iraq invasion, followed by the
resultant increase in most other goods and services. The only Americans to suffer real hardships
were the troops themselves, and sometimes even more so, their families. From the preceding
account of casualties, we now know that many of the 200,000+ civilian contractor employees and
their families also share in those hardships. America now, of course, is reaping the economic
consequences of the Bush neocon administration conducting two wars off-budget with borrowed
money.
Starting with their criminal, unjust, and completely unnecessary decision to invade Iraq, which
included severely cutting back the effort to catch and destroy Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda in
Afghanistan, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, along with their neocon administration,
distinguished themselves and made history by seven years of consistently and exclusively making
catastrophic decisions. Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice, of course, actually made many of
those decisions, but Bush and Cheney signed off on them. Those seven years of disastrous
decisions is what lies behind seven years of severely straining, almost to the breaking point, the
nation’s military capabilities and personnel. For an infamous statement by Donald Rumsfeld, and a
snapshot of the prevailing neocon propaganda of the time, read this 15 November 2002 report by
CBS News:
www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/11/15/world/main529569.shtml. If you are interested in
learning the background details about many of the stupid decisions of the Bush neocon
administration, Bob Woodward’s book, “State of Denial”, lays it all bare. You can find it at the Nancy
Carol Roberts Library in Brenham.
One of the factors that distinguishes the separate wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but makes it
impossible to separate them so far as their impact on our military, is that so many of the troops, both
active duty and National Guard and Reserves called to active duty, have fought in both countries,
many of them multiple times. The Pentagon has changed the rules several times as to how long a
deployment will last, but extends deployment time (both of units and of individuals) as it considers
necessary. Deployment length differs greatly between the services; the present tour length for
active duty Army and National Guard/Reserve troops is supposedly 12 months, but varies greatly.
Many have served 15 –18 month tours. Marines and sailors usually serve about seven months, and
USAF units (including ANG and Air Force Reserves) about four months. In one report, General
Peter Pace, former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the differing tour lengths “are
confusing and disappointing to the troops, but to the Washington leadership, it makes sense to have
each service doing what they conclude is best for their mission accomplishment”.
Here is the number of Reserve and National Guard troops on active federal duty as of October 2008.
Army National Guard and Army Reserves 94,117
Navy Reserves 6,205
Air National Guard and Air Force Reserves 12,101
Marine Corps Reserves 7,790
Coast Guard Reserves ____734__
Total 120,947
In January 2007 the Pentagon changed the rule that cumulative time spent (by a National Guard or
Reserves member) on active duty in Iraq or Afghanistan could not exceed 24 months to the present
rule that the time limit on any single mobilization may not exceed 24 months.
Adequate funding for the National Guard and Reserve forces apparently continues to be totally
inadequate. For a historical perspective, you might like to read a Democratic Party report of 24
August 2005 at this website:
www.democrats.org/a/2005/08/bush_has_abando.php. The title is: “Bush Has Abandoned National
Guard and Reserve”. A more recent, and very thorough, analysis of the status (May 2007) of the
Army National Guard is the Center for American Progress report “CAUGHT OFF GUARD –The Link
Between Our National Security and Our National Guard” at
www.americanprogress.org/issues/2007/05/pdf/national_guard.pdf. Here are a couple of interesting
statements from that report: “More than 417,000 National Guard and Reservists, or about 80% of
their members, have been deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, with an average of 18 months per
mobilization. Of these, more than 84,200, or 20%, had been deployed more than once.” Another:
“In 2005, 46% (about 60,000) of the troops in Iraq were from the reserve components.”
In a fairly recent statement (23 April 2008) Army National Guard Command Sergeant Major John D.
Gipe said that we presently have 43,000 National Guardsmen in Iraq and Afghanistan. He said their
tours are now set at 12 months, which includes a 60 day training period. He also mentioned that the
present Army National Guard strength is 357,000.
Here is one more report regarding the reserve components before we move on. It is from the Army
Times, “Reservist Medical Claims More Often Denied” at www.armytimes.
com/news/2008/10/military_reservesva_100108/.
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)
Both the military and the Veterans Administration health facilities are flooded with veterans from both
Iraq and Afghanistan, from both active duty and reserve components, who are suffering from extreme
mental stress. Studies have shown conclusively that the longer the deployment, the higher the
anxiety level, and also that the stress level does not reset itself with the individual’s return to the U.S;
it starts off at the same level or higher upon their return deployment to the war zone. Read this 6
May 2008 article at:
www.reuters.com/article/domesticNews/idUSN0539451520080506?sp=true.
The name of the article is “Iraq War Strains U.S. Army Mental Health System”. You might also want
to read a VA paper “WHAT IS PTSD?” at:
http://www.ncptsd.va.gov/ncmain/ncdocs/fact_shts/fs_what_is_ptsd.html.
“STOP LOSS”
The Pentagon’s use (some say “misuse”) of “stop-loss” has risen to unprecedented levels in Iraq and
Afghanistan. “Stop-loss” is the “volunteer” military’s version of “involuntary servitude”, often referred
to as a “backdoor draft”. It is the involuntary extension by the U.S. Government of a military service
member’s contractual end of term of service (ETS) date. Title 10, U.S. Code, Section 12305(a)
states in part, “The President may suspend any provision of law relating to promotion, retirement, or
separation (it also is construed to apply to permanent change of station (PCS) moves) applicable to
any member of the armed forces who the President determines is essential to the national security of
the United States. Also relevant is a statement in the Armed Forces Enlistment Contract: “In the
event of war, my enlistment in the Armed Forces continues until six (6) months after the war ends,
unless the enlistment is ended sooner by the President of the United States.”
Here are some fairly recent articles relating to the heavy use of “stop-loss”, and the anguish it is
causing among the soldiers and their families:
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2008-04-21-stoploss_Nohtm. Article on 23 April 2008: “DOD
Data: More forced to stay in Army”.
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/may/09/nation/na-stoploss9. 9 May 2008 article: “Army ‘stop-loss’
orders up dramatically over last year”.
www.Abcnews.go.com/us/wireStory?id=5049629. ll June 2008: “Admiral Mike Mullen, Chairman JCS,
said, “Stop-Loss” Won’t End Soon”.
What Happens Now?
Most likely nobody, including President Obama, knows for sure what is the future of the U.S. military
occupation of Iraq. Sometime this summer all non-U.S. coalition troops are due to have been
withdrawn from Iraq, leaving only our military there. The announced timetable for withdrawal of U.S.
troops is that all combat troops will be out of Iraqi cities by the end of June 2009, and will leave Iraq
by the end of August 2010, then all remaining U.S. forces will be gone from Iraq by the end of 2011.
One of the open questions is what about the extensive military facilities the U.S. has built there. The
Bush neocon administration repeatedly stated it had not built any permanent posts or garrisons in
Iraq, but it is now well known that was a lie, and several exist. Here are some reports that bear on
that situation:
www.fcnl.org/iraq/bases.htm. “If the U.S. is ultimately leaving Iraq, why is the military expanding its
bases in Iraq?”
http://middleeast.about.com/od/iraq/a/me080613.htm. June 2008. “Do Permanent U.S. bases in Iraq
Mean a Permanent U.S. Occupation?”
http://www.globalpolicy.org/security/issues/iraq/permindex.htm. This is a series of articles.
Only time will tell.
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