BOOK REVIEW                       POLITICAL
THE THREE TRILLION DOLLAR WAR 
AUTHOR: JOSEPH STIGLITZ &
LINDA BILMES
REVIEWER: RATNADEEP BANERJI

Pragmatics of the US-Iraq War dynamics

The much-touted US invasion of Iraq backfired upon the avowed saviors as well as upon their protégé procreating horrendous repercussions. This book offers a threadbare analysis of this war by derring - do masqueraders to yield humanitarian succour that fizzled out but its insidious fallouts ricocheted across the entire globe to snap existing entente and redefine international comity.

“By now it is clear that the U.S.  invasion of Iraq was a terrible mistake” is the opening sentence. ‘The notion of invading Iraq would bring democracy and catalyze change in the Middle East now seems like a fantasy’. The authors are outright to make candid confessions – ‘Nearly 4000 U. S. troops have been killed, and more than 58,000 have been wounded, injured, or fallen seriously ill in Afghanistan. One hundred thousand U.S. soldiers have returned from the war suffering from serious mental health disorders, a significant fraction of which will be chronic afflictions. Miserable though Saddam Hussein’s regime was, life is actually worse for the Iraqi people now’ blows the gaffe over the pragmatics of waging this war of attrition.

The authors make a parody of the mastermind behind the genocide and his adroit red herrings to goof up the issue. “There was something unseemly in President Bush’s gloating, little more than six weeks after the war started”. The authors assert, “Within Iraq, U.S. forces are viewed as occupiers rather than liberators, with polls showing that 78% of Iraqis want the United States to leave.” Why did the US embark on this invasion disregarding the fact that the inspectors of the International Atomic Agency (IAEA) maintained that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction?

‘The global consequences of the invasion of Iraq are far-reaching’. Prior to the US led invasion, Iraq endured ten years of sanctions nevertheless remaining a ‘viable country’. But within five years of American incursion, the country’s economy, society and sovereignty hit the rock bottom. “For most Iraqis, daily life has become unbearable – to the point that those who can afford to leave their country have done so. By September 2007, a stunning 4.6 million people – one of every seven Iraqis – had been uprooted from their homes. Half of these Iraqis – have fled from the country completely. The readers are bound to turn volte-face at the appalling situation when they read the UN High Commissioner on Refugees’ statement – ‘thousands of the Iraqis (fleeing the country) are the victims of torture, sexual and gender-based violence, car bombings or other violent attacks and are in urgent need of medical care. The majority of Iraqi children are not attending school’. This mass exodus has wreaked havoc on the neighboring countries of Jordan, Syria, Egypt and Lebanon. As a result of sectarian violence, another 2.2.million have got displaced from their homes. In 2007, the UNHCR allocated 123 million dollars that turned a measly amount while America veritably cold-shouldered his burden of the refugees. Sectarian violence and insurgency is on ever rise, 2007 being cataclysmic. In tune with the climes, ‘Iraq ranked 178th out of 180 countries worldwide in terms of corruption’.

The entire country is reeling under epidemics like cholera entailing deaths; cholera was unheard of in Iraq before the war. To add on entire Iraq has paltry electrical power making living unbearable.

Several losses are not tangible and hence remain unaccounted for and in some cases ascertaining a loss projects a dubious figure involving the considered parameters and yardsticks used for assessment. The only those who profiteered are the oil companies.

The book deals a scathing diatribe on George Bush regime. The author has culled data from bona fide sources and thereupon deliberated to surmise his implications of US invasion of Iraq. The book is a curtain raiser to the US suzerainty jeopardizing an entire nation putting human lives in the throes of excruciation.