Iraq | End of a forced marriage: US army leaves Iraq

The last US soldiers have been withdrawn from Iraq, is this the beginning of the withdrawal from the entire Middle East? Photo: AFP/Delil Souleiman It is the end of a forced marriage: The USA has withdrawn all of its soldiers from Iraq, and the government in Baghdad now has to stand on its own militarily. The involuntary liaison began in 2003 with brute force and bold lies. At that time, the US government reached deep into the toolbox of its propaganda machine and dug out imaginatively designed documents and graphics - all of them fake - that were supposed to prove that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Then-Secretary of State Colin Powell blatantly lied to the United Nations; some followed his “reasoning,” and one of the biggest war lies of all was born. The attack on Iraq, which violated international law, followed on March 20th. Tens of thousands of Iraqis died and US soldiers tortured them in the Iraqi prison Abu Ghraib. The alleged weapons of mass destruction were never found.

Is the withdrawal already the beginning of the end of US power projection in the Middle East, as some commentators dare to predict? The British magazine "The Economist" opens this week with the title "When America turns away." It could be a blessing for the region: the wars since 1991, largely initiated by the US government, have left behind an incredible amount of suffering and failed states. Even if not all of the Middle East's troubles can be blamed on the USA, the answer to the question of positive results of US intervention is sober: Nothing comes to mind spontaneously. At best, perhaps, the defeat of the terrorist group of the "Islamic State", which, however, was primarily dealt with on the battlefield by the Kurdish self-defense units.

And let's not forget: According to most experts, IS is the delayed consequence of the US attack on Iraq and the subsequent decisions in Iraqi politics with the marginalization of the former Sunni elite loyal to Saddam Hussein. US government officials never considered it necessary to apologize for the illegal war against Iraq, which was justified with lies.

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