ANNIVERSARIES
On Thursday, March 20, 2003, even before the sun began to illuminate the rooftops of Baghdad, a Cruise missile struck the presidential palace on the right bank of the Tigris. This was the commencement signal of Iraqi Freedom, the final offensive launched by the American administration of George W. Bush against Saddam Hussein’s Ba’athist regime. A coalition formed by the USA, the United Kingdom, and with smaller contingents from other states including Australia, Poland, Spain, and Italy.
A few weeks earlier, on February 5, speaking at the United Nations Security Council, US Secretary of State Colin Powell delivered the now-famous anthrax speech.
Powell accused Iraq of possessing biological weapons and theatrically showed a vial containing a white powder.
Meanwhile, on a large screen behind him, satellite images, graphs, and photos were displayed, “proving” the existence of a large program for the production of chemical and biological weapons. None of this was true. The great deception orchestrated by the American and British intelligence services only served to pave the way for the marines towards Baghdad.
Thus, on March 20, the coalition launched a massive air attack, named Shock and Awe, against Iraq. In the first forty-eight hours, 3,000 precision-guided (“smart”) bombs were dropped on Baghdad, a densely populated city of 5.6 million inhabitants.
According to researchers from Brown University, the total deaths, including Iraqi and Syrian civilians, military, police, opposition fighters, journalists, and media workers, range between 550,000 and 584,000. A massacre. This does not include the indirect victims of the war, i.e., all those who lost their lives due to disease, displacement, or starvation.