Wearing their dress whites, the 5000-odd crew members of the US aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln assembled on the ship’s vast flight deck on May 1, 2003 in front of a giant banner on the vessel’s superstructure. It read “Mission Accomplished” and was to serve as a backdrop for a triumphant speech by their President. In a dramatic swagger, the younger member of the Bush dynasty — George the Second — ditched the customary Marine Corps helicopter and landed on the carrier in a Viking jet patrol aircraft. He emerged, wearing a flight suit and immediately plunged into the crowd to pose for pictures with the sailors.

Sometime later, he returned to the flight deck conventionally dressed and delivered a speech carried on television to a waiting world. Proclaiming the defeat of Iraq’s conventional forces, Bush in essence, declared victory, a mere six weeks after his forces invaded the Persian Gulf country in an operation dubbed “Shock and Awe”.

But Saddam Hussein was still at large and guerrilla forces made up of remnants of the Iraqi army, disgruntled reservists, former Government employes and various groups holding a variety of grudges attacked each other and the invaders with equal abandon. The most cohesive and best organised group of all were the Kurds, an ancient people who occupy the country’s northern region.

If there are any winners in this disaster, it’s the Kurds. They took advantage of the invasion to consolidate their age-old demand for a country of their own. While remaining part of a federal Iraq, Kurdistan is a self-governing entity with its own democratically elected assembly and president. Its 5.3 million people, who inhabit about 40,000 square kilometres, were largely spared the violence and destruction suffered by the rest of Iraq. With the departure of Saddam Hussein, they have re-built most of the 4500-plus villages flattened by the army over the years. They have a higher standard of living than the rest of Iraq — somewhere around 25 per cent more.

Iran also draws comfort from the American meddling. For years, Iraq was a hostile neighbour which unleashed vengeance against Tehran for eight long and bloody years. The underlying reasons are cultural and religious — both countries are largely Shia Muslim, but while the Iranian mullahs took power after deposing the western-leaning Shah in 1979, Saddam led a Government which, while not religious, favoured the minority Sunnis. Now, with Saddam gone and the whole dolly-house in ruins, the Shiites have insinuated themselves into power, with the Sunnis and their allies harassing them from all sides.

Iran’s influence and power have grown in Baghdad. Iranian politicians and officials act as power brokers and pro-Iranian sentiments are prominent in public demonstrations and among the various militias.

Another big winner is what’s left of Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network and its successors in places like Yemen, Pakistan, Afghanistan and the Horn of Africa. Bush cited collaboration between Saddam and bin Laden as one of the reasons for going to war. He cavalierly ignored the fact that both men despised each other, since bin Laden was a religious fanatic and Saddam cared about religion only as it was useful to him in furtherance of his demonic schemes.

The losses are greater than these gains

When Bush launched the war against Iraq, he did so without fully engaging the population. Although the United States was an isolationist country while Hitler was overrunning Europe 75 years ago, the American population quickly swung behind the war effort after the Japanese attacked at Pearl Harbour. Almost every family had someone in uniform, they bought war bonds, endured rationing to support the GIs and paid higher taxes without much complaining. Women took the place of men on the assembly lines, producing ships, planes, tanks, trucks, rifles, uniforms, boots and field rations.

This time, Bush actually cut taxes on the most wealthy before unleashing his mighty forces and fought two wars on credit. Long after he is dead, Americans will still be paying off the trillions he incurred by the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

How many of us remember the vast quantities squandered in the early days of the Iraq war? The pictures of pallets of freshly-printed US dollar bills, shrink-wrapped in plastic, being unloaded from giant US transport planes? Many of those millions upon millions of greenbacks simply disappeared without a trace.

Bush also squandered a fairly good reputation that the US had built up during six decades of co-operating with other countries on big international problems. But Bush ploughed ahead against the advice of friendly nations like France, Germany, New Zealand and its reliable neighbour, Canada. They argued that it was not justified, since there was no evidence Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Polls among Americans at the time showed a majority preferring diplomatic solutions rather than invasion, and that terrorism was likely to increase because of war. Worldwide protests involving some 23 million people in almost 3,000 protests meant nothing to the Bushling, who was determined to take out Saddam.

Widespread death and destruction

We also have to consider the widespread death and destruction left by the invaders. No one is quite sure just how many people lost their lives — estimates run anywhere from just over 100,000 to almost a million. Not all of these deaths were from bombs and bullets. Malnutrition is a serious problem, and two-thirds of Iraq’s children are suffering some form of psychological disorder. Impure water has led to many cases of cholera and dysentery. About half the country’s doctors have fled the country along with about a million of their exasperated compatriots, who have sought sanctuary as far away as Sweden. To its shame, the United States has taken in only about 800 Iraqi refugees, in contrast to more than 100,000 Vietnamese it granted asylum during that war.

Something else that has gone largely un-noticed is the abnormally high rate of cancers caused by the use of depleted uranium — an extremely heavy and dense metal — to tip many of the projectiles fired at Iraqis. According to current studies, the rate continues to grow, and alarming rates of birth defects are also showing up.

The United States itself has also suffered grievously from the war. It has lost 4,500 of its service people, who, unlike in the Vietnam conflict, signed up voluntarily instead of being conscripted. Many of those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan have rotated through several tours of duty and a disproportional number suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder. Both serving members and veterans have been taking their own lives in growing numbers. Even as the US withdrew its forces from Iraq, more soldiers were dying by their own hand than in combat, and the same applies to the continuing Afghanistan conflict. About 18 veterans of both wars are now taking their own lives every day.

And it’s not easy to re-enter civilian life. In a weakened economy, jobs are hard to find, veterans hospitals and other care facilities are crowded and under-financed, and the bureaucratic requirements are daunting. Long after both wars have ended, the vets, their families and the society will continue paying the bills so casually and shamelessly racked up by Bush, his puppet-master, Vice-President Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and the other merry brigands of Sherwood Forest-on-the Potomac.