Returning home from the horror of Iraq

Such a simple idea: invade Iraq, remove the tyrant and unleash democracy. Nearly ten years and a trillion dollars later, Western forces, now reduced to a sizable rump of American troops, are coming home. They will all be gone from Iraq in 19 days.

What are they leaving behind? A vast number of Western ‘mercenaries’ employed by assorted security companies; a country more divided, more insecure, and more uncertain in its destiny, and an Iran that holds a regional sway greater than at any time since the Persian Empire ruled supreme a century ago.

One senses that there will be few celebrating; indeed one wonders whether Messrs Bush and Blair will even notice the moment. History is unlikely to be generous about the Iraq adventure; the word oil is unlikely to be far from its evaluation.

I have never been more frightened in any theatre of war. To be on the ground was to be adorned in a flak jacket and to feel very personally threatened at all times. I was there perhaps a dozen times. I heard the car bombs, saw the tell tale plumes of black smoke rising into the sky.

I was there before, when the odious Saddam ruled supreme. After he’d gone, I saw the severed limbs, the blood, and the corpses of some who died. From Amman and Damascus to Glasgow and Birmingham, I met some of the millions displaced, and tried and failed to remain the objective journalist that I am paid to be.

And beyond, what of the four and half thousand American families, the hundreds of British, Dutch, Canadian, Nepalese families who lost a loved one, or the thousands who have lost a limb and their mental well being? What will history say to them?

The oil is flowing; regional defence sales are rising. But is the region a better place?

We must move on, we have new wars to fight, inside the eurozone, in the trading rooms, of Shanghai, New York and London. Oh, and there is Afghanistan still flaming, Pakistan besides; the Arab Spring still raging and uncertain.

What a time for leadership, unity, and purpose. We, the first generation in a hundred years to live life without a World War are blessed. But will history judge that we used our blessing well?

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