THE accusation comes from a politician who has been referred to as the ‘senator’s senator’. Retiring after six terms as a member of America’s upper house, Senator Carl Levin on Thursday said the Bush administration misled the nation to justify the 2003 attack on Iraq.

The basis of his criticism of the Republican administration was a declassified CIA letter which said the agency’s field agents had serious doubts about reports that Mohammad Ata, the man behind 9/11, had met an Iraqi intelligence officer in Prague — one of the pretexts used by the Bush administration to make a case for attacking Iraq because it claimed Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction.

Also read: Letter shows CIA had doubts about Iraq link to 9/11 attacks

The truth is that Ba’athist Iraq had been defanged after the Iraqi strongman’s Kuwait misadventure in 1990. A US-led coalition, crafted by then president George Bush Sr., had annihilated Saddam Hussein’s war machine, banned the flying of Iraqi planes within parts of Iraq and imposed crippling sanctions.

Such was the comprehensive nature of the sanctions that Iraq was denied the import of certain categories of pharmaceuticals and was unable to filter water that contributed to the death of half a million civilians, something which secretary of state Madeline Albright later justified.

The truth was that the very basis of war fizzled out when the Iraqi dictator agreed to let the UN’s inspection and verification team, led by Hans Blix, operate without hindrance.

Mr Blix later told the Security Council he had found no “smoking gun”. That Mr Bush and British prime minister Tony Blair still chose to attack the oil power was one of the 21st century’s great tragedies.

The results of the Anglo-American invasion are before us. Iraq has almost ceased to exist as a state and the so-called Islamic State has created anarchy that has the entire Levant in its grip.

While millions have been killed, maimed and displaced, America, too, suffered over 50,000 casualties. Perhaps future US governments will not commit, as hoped by Carl Levin, America’s “sons and daughters to battle on the basis of false statements”.

Published in Dawn, December 15th, 2014