Photo/Illutration U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell holds up a vial that he described as one that could contain anthrax during his presentation on Iraq to the U.N. Security Council in New York on Feb. 5, 2003. (Reuters file photo)

The Iraq War started on March 20 exactly 20 years ago. As I was covering the Middle East at the time, I went into Baghdad after it came under U.S. control.

When I heard a local primary school was reopening, I made a visit. Children gathered around me.

The school’s desks and chairs had been looted in the immediate aftermath of the invasion. But some people came to return them.

The school principal continued tidying up the place as we talked. “The war has traumatized children, and some have started wetting the bed,” he said.

A pupil asked a teacher, “Are Americans good people?” The teacher replied, “Let’s wait a bit to find out.”

About 200,000 civilians were said to have become victims of terrorism and fighting. The Iraq War was a mistake.

If there was any lesson to be learned from it, the Iraq War at least proved once again that no objective can be attained by armed force. This is also clear from the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

With the passage of time, the post-Iraq War generation is growing. This means certain memories are fading, particularly of the period before the civil war in Iraq turned into a quagmire.

U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have come up with all sorts of excuses in their memoirs, but we must never forget that the “weapons of mass destruction,” which were the reason for attacking Iraq, never existed.

Because memory is unreliable, it is necessary to keep talking about the past and leave written records.

In Britain, an independent research commission in 2016 published a 12-volume public inquiry report, which concluded that the war was “not a last resort.”

In the case of Japan, which dispatched troops of the Self-Defense Forces to Iraq for reconstruction support with the blessing of the Junichiro Koizumi administration, all that was published was a four-page report prepared by the Foreign Ministry.

The Iraqi children I met 20 years ago in a classroom with broken windows are adults now. I wonder how they are doing.

--The Asahi Shimbun, March 20

* * *

Vox Populi, Vox Dei is a popular daily column that takes up a wide range of topics, including culture, arts and social trends and developments. Written by veteran Asahi Shimbun writers, the column provides useful perspectives on and insights into contemporary Japan and its culture.

Related News