Iraq War 20 years On, Yet Murdering War Criminals Go Free

Video Transcript:

About ten days after 9-11 I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Rufowitz. I went downstairs just to say hello to some of the people on the joint staff who used to work for me. And one of the generals called me and he said, sir, you gotta come in and talk to me a second. I said, well you're too busy. He said, no, no. He says, we've made the decision we're going to war with Iraq. This was honored about the 20th of September. I said, we're going to war with Iraq. Why? He said, I don't know. He said, I guess they don't know what else to do. So I said, well, did they find some information collecting, connecting Saddam to Al-Qaeda? He said, no, no. He says there's nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq. He said, I guess it's like we don't know what to do about terrorists, but we've got a good military and we can take down governments. So I came back to see him a few weeks later. And by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, are we still going to war with Iraq? And he said, oh, it's worse than that. He said, he reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. And he said, I just, he said, I just got this down from upstairs, meaning the Secretary of Defense Office today. And he said, this is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, and finishing off Iran. It's 20 years since the U.S. invasion of Iraq. And here at RT, we're beginning our special coverage of that anniversary. Throughout the coming months, we'll examine the devastation undestabilization that caused throughout the Middle East. At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people, and to defend the world from grave danger. We will bring to the Iraqi people food, medicines, supplies, and free. Free. Free. Free. Free. Well, in January 2003, U.S. President George W. Bush outlined the coming invasion of Iraq in his state of the Union address. Bush called Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein a, quote, brutal dictator with ties to terrorism, posing a direct threat to the United States. He pledged to disarm Hussein on bringing freedom to the Iraqi people, something the U.S. was already involved with in Afghanistan. The dictator of Iraq is not disarming. To the contrary, he is deceiving from intelligence sources we know, for instance, that thousands of Iraqi security personnel are at work-hiding documents and materials from the UN inspectors, sanitizing inspection sites, and monitoring the inspectors themselves. If Saddam Hussein does not fully disarm, for the safety of our people and for the peace of the world, we will lead a coalition to disarm him. Well, later, it turned out that Hussein did not have the so-called weapons of mass destruction program that Washington insisted it had. So it was in March 2003. The U.S. joined by its allies launched Operation Iraqi Freedom. The coalition started a bombing campaign directly against the Iraqi government and military installations. Despite months of massive anti-war protests worldwide, U.S. enforces evaded Iraq from Q-8 within days, three weeks after that, into the invasion Baghdad fell. The CIA's top weapons inspector in Iraq finally closed the WMD investigation in 2005, concluding there were no such weapons in the country. Well, the years of war and the subsequent rise of terrorism have given a grim toll on Iraq and its people, there are at least 180,000 documented civilian deaths in the country, while some surveys estimate the actual figure to be over 1 million. Many of those died from aerial bombing, shelling, gunshots and suicide attacks. Over 9 million people either fled the country or were displaced. The U.S. led coalition lost almost 5,000 of its own soldiers. The war scarred the lives of many Iraqis of different generations. Some of them shared their stories with us. The streets were packed with barriers and tunnels, I remember it well. Baghdad became a battlefield, tanks and security forces of all kinds have been deployed there. Our life became a living hell because as a child you're supposed to see beautiful things, but we saw bullets, tanks and cannons, tear for humanity, children and society as a whole. There was nothing but war. Most of the families lost members and I lost one of my brothers because of the bombings. The Americans were killing everything in front of them. One of my sons wanted to celebrate his success with his studies, so my wife gave him money to buy some junk food and eat out with his friends and they sat to eat near an American base. He was shot in the head by the Americans. He died on the spot. My friends were killed by the explorers at that time. My neighbor was killed by the Americans when he was going to buy a cannon of cooking gas. They thought he was a suicide bomber and killed him. These are very difficult memories for me. Our mortars shall fell at the door of our house and killed one of my playmates. We used to live in Baghdad. Our dreams were shattered. We wished to complete our studies but we could not because of the war and the killings in the streets. We had to leave our homes and go to another place. We were in Baghdad. We were in Baghdad. We stayed at home and closed the windows, covered them with blankets. We were afraid of a chemical bombardment. We saw America come to us. They told us that Iraq would become a paradise. They published news about how they were distributing food but those were all false dreams. Only after I turned 14 years old was I able to leave the house with my friends. Before that I couldn't even think about it. I was afraid something would happen outside and even now I don't want to leave without telling my family where I'm going. I remember my first day at the kindergarten. The first day at El Manter's school. The textbooks showed pictures of a former regime but they took them away. They gave us new, different books. I'll never forget the close-up of a bullet, the sound of an explosion, images of smoke and American soldier, a life full of blood. The Americans arrested my father. He did not belong to any party. He was working at the market. He was kept in prison until 2018. I didn't have a chance to know my father. After he was released, his health deteriorated. We took him to Germany for treatment. But after four surgeries, he died. A little later, he was murdered. You may say to me your childhood was stolen. And I didn't have a childhood. I spent it among war and terrorist organizations such as Al-Qaeda, among slaughter, American bombing at Qaeda, Al-Qaeda bombing Americans. When we went to school, I used to walk along the walls so it's not to be shot and killed. I lost my father, my cousin, my brother-in-law. Unfortunately, the Americans did not fulfill their promise. You heard Iraq because of you. I lost my loved ones. You heard as a lot. I was a little bit in relation with the United States. You destroyed Iraq. You weakened national sovereignty. And over 20 years, you failed to manage Iraq. I was going to copy that, Mia. Stop destroying. Stop controlling us now with resources. Let the Iraqi people live in peace. Well, I note here all that suffering for many years might have been avoided if Washington had not outright rejected the negotiation conditions that were offered by Saddam Hussein's government back in January 2000 and free. It's a detail not often spoken about, but next R.T. Steve Sweeney picks up the story. 20 years ago, US President George W. Bush tried to convince the world that Iraqi leaders Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction and that he had the evidence to prove it. The phrase WMD entered the lexicon with politicians repeating it over and over again, despite in fact knowing that they didn't actually exist in Iraq as their own intelligence services told them. While UN weapons inspectors also said that they found no evidence of WMDs. None of those turned up weapons of mass destruction and you've been surprised and said you were surprised that that was the case. Do you believe the information they gave you was good information? We got a good many tip-sets to sites to go to and we went to many of them, but in only three of those cases did we find anything and in none of these cases was it weapons of mass destruction. So that shook maybe it's admit. And while beating the drums of war, Washington ignored last ditch efforts by Iraq to negotiate for peace. The effort began in January of 2003 in which they contacted us and through my intermediary friend, he was asked by the Syrians to go to Baghdad to get unconditional terms from Saddam Hussein and the intelligence and the Iraqi intelligence at the time. And he brought them out and sent them to me as conditions that Saddam Hussein would agree to if the United States did not attack. Two of the, there were six conditions, two of which we could have implemented immediately to test the seriousness of their proposals. One was we would be allowed to take, to allow 5,000 U.S. troops to go into Iraq and look for weapons of mass destruction. There was talk at high levels almost terms because I turned them over to the Secretary's office and was basically the intermediary. Well, they decided to launch the attack on, in March of 2003. So who were the architects of the invasion? Well, it's a long list, first the politicians. And no, not only President George W. Bush. The day before the 2003 state of the Union address, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell said that all options were on the table, including military intervention. One, Iraq is in the territorial breach. Two, this is their last chance. There have to be serious consequences. And those serious consequences meant the use of force. And you've heard me say that repeatedly, repeatedly. And I've also said that if the international community to the UN, when the time comes, does not wish to use force. The United States reserves its right as a sovereign nation to make a judgment within this clear record of violation to use force alongside like-minded nations who might wish to be part of such a coalition. Back in 2002, U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney had his eyes on regime change in Iraq. In that troubled land, all who seek justice and dignity and the chance to live their own lives can know they have a friend and ally in the United States of America. Then of course came the media, which was crucial during efforts to build public support for war, pushing the narrative on Saddam and WMDs. In September 2002, the New York Times, America's newspaper of record, went big on a sensationalist story claiming Iraq was trying to get its hands on nuclear weapons. More than a decade after Saddam Hussein agreed to give up weapons of mass destruction, Iraq has stepped up its quest for nuclear weapons and has embarked on a worldwide hunt for materials to make an atomic bomb. But counter to all good journalistic practice, the only source was an anonymous one. The whole story could have been made up. And guess what? There was drums beating there and there were- we had the agency over there, CIA saying there's WMD. I personally believe to this day basically set up George Bush for failure knowing that there was no WMD. They knew it. They knew it. And they had one source that proved later to be unreliable. We presented all the information that we had, all the- and with the hope that we could prevent a war, again, not knowing at that time that there were ulterior motives. So it was just a matter of time before the US unleashed its shock and war bombing campaign. While across the pond British Prime Minister Tony Blair also sold the case for war on a lie, the now infamous dodgy dossier which claimed Saddam's non-existent WMDs could attack the country in 45 minutes. The intelligence picture they paint is one accumulated over the last four years. It is extensive, detailed and authoritative. It concludes that Iraq has chemical and biological weapons. That Saddam has continued to produce them. That he has existing and active military plans for the use of chemical and biological weapons, which could be activated within 45 minutes, including against his own sheer population. So who's to to benefit from it all the most? Well, before the 2003 invasion, Iraq's domestic oil industry was fully nationalized and closed to Western companies. Two decades later, it is largely privatized and dominated by foreign firms which have raped in billions. I'm saddened that it's politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows. The Iraq war is largely about oil. People say we're not fighting for oil. Of course we are. Hardly surprising, since oil companies spent big bucks getting former oil man Bush and former Halliburton CEO Dick Chaley into office in the first place. Private military contractors also saw their profits saw, and war proved to be a boom for the arms industry, with Lockheed Martin seeing a 47% increase in profits during the build up to the invasion, which continued throughout the occupation. Two decades on, and Iraq remains in tatters with sectarian arm militia running a mock and deep political instability, with the war blamed for the rise of Islamic state and other global G had his groups. And calls for George W. Bush and Tony Blair to be tried as war criminals still unanswered, as they enjoy the patronage of the elites that they help profit from the war launched on a lie. Steve Sweeney bringing us just some of the stories from what was a decades long conflict. We will be bringing you more indeed throughout the next number of months in our special coverage of the 20th anniversary of one of America's longest wars. About 10 days after 9-11, I went through the Pentagon and I saw Secretary Rumsfeld and Deputy Secretary Wolffowitz. I went downstairs, just to say hello to some of the people on the joint staff who used to work for me. And one of the generals called me and he said, sir, you got to come in and talk to me a second. I said, well, you're too busy. He said, no, no. He says, we've made the decision we're going to war with Iraq. This was on her about the 20th of September. I said, we're going to war with Iraq. Why? He said, I don't know. He said, I guess they don't know what else to do. So I said, well, did they find some information collecting said, I'm to Al-Qaeda? He said, no, no, it says there's nothing new that way. They just made the decision to go to war with Iraq. He said, I guess it's like we don't know what to do about terrorists, but we've got a good military and we can take down governments. So I came back to see him a few weeks later. And by that time we were bombing in Afghanistan. I said, are we still going to war with Iraq? And he said, oh, it's worse than that. He said, he reached over on his desk. He picked up a piece of paper. He said, I just, he said, I just got this down from upstairs, meaning the Secretary of Defense Office today. And he said, this is a memo that describes how we're going to take out seven countries in five years, starting with Iraq and then Syria, Lebanon, Libya, Somalia, Sudan and finishing off. So go through the countries again. Well, starting with Iraq and Syrian Lebanon, then Libya, then Somalia and Sudan and then back to Iran.