On Mar. 18 one year ago, at 9 am (Beijing Time), US President George W. Bush made a 48-hour ultimatum to Iraq. Two days later, the United States launched "Decapitation Action" in Baghdad, formally starting the Iraq War. In the ultimatum Bush made public the two major crimes of the former Iraqi regime: Iraq still possessed and concealed some most fatal weapons human beings had invented as fully proved by information the US government accumulated; and "was funding, training and protecting terrorists including members of al-Qaeda." Bush also said: The United Nations Security Council failed to perform its duty, therefore, they must stand up to perform their duties and through military attack, they will build a broad way leading to security instead of falling into the tragic abyss.  

However, many facts over the year give contrary proofs.

First, nearly 1,500 weapon inspectors did not find in Iraq any sign of so called "most fatal weapons" after one-year-long sweeping search. Meanwhile, the US government had to admit in public that Iraq had nothing to do with the "9.11" terrorist attack. The legally doubted war was not justified in the end. Ironically, instead of building a US-promised "road leading to security", the war has pushed Iraqi people to a "tragic abyss."

Second, the war undermined the authority of the United Nations (UN) and damaged the principle of International Law, causing a certain breakup of the UN Security Council, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), the European Union (EU) and even the whole international community.

Third, the unilateral war put the United States and Britain in an isolated position in the international community. Domestically, Bush and Blair both were mired in the "intelligence gate." At the same time, there was a big gulf between the governments of European countries supporting the Unites States' dispatch of troops to Iraq, such as Italy, Spain and Poland, and their domestic anti-war masses. The defeat of Spanish Jose Maria Aznar's Partido Popular government in the general election, which seemed to be the result of the terrorist blasts, is fundamentally because of the strong domestic anti-war force.

Fourth, the war failed to deter and curb terrorist activities, but instead exasperated them worldwide. Though the Untied States was not attacked again (this seemingly should be credited to the US strengthened domestic alert, not the war in Iraq), some allies of the United States, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Spain became the substitute targets of terrorist attacks.

Fifth, until now Iraq has not turned into, as the United States claimed, a "free and democratic" model, on the contrary, it seems to have become a new den of terrorists or, as Bush put it, a "globally major anti-terrorist battlefield," or, however, in other people's words, the United States has turned Iraq to a "new source of terrorist activities."

Hans Blix, former chairman of United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMVOIC), told Italian newspaper La Stampa recently that the Iraq War did not put an end to terrorism in the world but "instead, the iron hand fomented terrorism." Spanish newly elected Prime Minister Luiz Rodriguez Zapatero also commented Iraq War as a disaster, the same as the occupation of Iraq, the consequence of which has sparked more terrorist activities.

Their words may be a bitter summary of the war in Iraq started one year ago.

(People's Daily March 19, 2004)