History As It Happens: The Iraq War, Part One

This is the first in a multiple-part series of episodes marking the 20th anniversary of the Iraq War, which began on March 20, 2003.

When President George W. Bush announced the invasion of Iraq in a somber televised address from the Oval Office, most Americans could not have expected that U.S. troops would remain in Iraq 20 years later. And, after listening to their leaders spend the prior year contending that Iraqis would welcome the toppling of their cruel dictator Saddam Hussein, they may not have anticipated the massive violence to come.

Shortly after reaching Baghdad in triumph, the U.S. project in Iraq disintegrated into chaos and bloodshed. No weapons of mass destruction were found, undermining the primary justification for war. The inept military occupation catalyzed an insurgency that violently opposed the U.S. presence, and soon rival Sunni and Shia factions turned on one another in a yearslong civil war that claimed tens of thousands of lives.

In this episode, Catherine Lutz of Brown University’s Costs of War Project and historian Andrew Bacevich of the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft contend that the war’s disastrous consequences have been memory-holed. Rather than questioning the fundamental assumptions underpinning U.S. hegemony, they contend even most Americans who recognize the war as having been a mistake have simply moved on.

“There has been a willful determination to forget and put the unpleasant memories behind us,” said Mr. Bacevich, a professor emeritus of history at Boston University.

Ms. Lutz pointed to the fact the U.S. defense budget continues to grow despite decades of failed foreign interventions. “It is very frustrating to see the Pentagon budget increase dramatically over these past 20 years … the capture of our federal budgeting process by those powerful [defense contractors] has resulted in such misplaced priorities. We are really now a nation made by war, made for war.”

Listen to Catherine Lutz and Andrew Bacevich discuss the costs of the Iraq war by downloading this episode of History As It Happens.