Continuing with our coverage of the global reaction to America’s departure from Iraq, this article by columnist Lucia Annunziata of Italy’s La Stampa warns that ‘America’s decline’ since the war began has brought into question ‘the entire notion that the American people have an ethical mission in the world.’
For La Stampa, Lucia Annunziata writes in part:
“Between the heroic beginning and the silent end, lies an era of decline in American history. … We will remember the Iraq conflict as the involuntary exposure of infamy – both petty and grand.
“We now know how the Iraq conflict came about: generals sold themselves to the U.S. while still swearing loyalty to their leader, a dictator who after untold murders and proclamations, ran to hide in a hole at the hour of his nation’s defeat, setting loose bands of armed terrorists bent on kidnapping, mass murder, and revenge among various versions of Islam.
We also know more than we ever did about the United States: we know about the torture at Abu Ghraib; we know about a professional army, now proletarianized and insufficient in number; we know about the massive deployment of mercenaries (contractors); and we know about indiscriminate attacks against civilians and the use of phosphorous in battle.
Seven and a half inglorious years in which, along with Saddam, a very important part of U.S. political discourse has fallen: not only can democracy not be exported, but the very ethical mission of the American people is today in question.
The second-rate war of a second-rate American presidency – the only symbol of which remains the image of a naked man, being tortured with electric cables – his face covered with a hood. A sign that not even the enemy is recognizable any longer, even if you torture him.
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