ten years ago today the u.s. invasion of iraq began a decade after the war started what did the u.s. learn during their time in the country and was the war worth it. a decade later the way the u.s. fights conflicts around the globe has changed dramatically look at the evolving techniques the pentagon uses to wage war around the world. and the un is coming down on the u.s. for their drone attacks in pakistan well over a port from new york and what the united nations says about the drone strikes and why have violates pakistan's sovereignty. it's tuesday march nineteenth five pm here in washington d.c. i'm liz wahl and you're watching r t. well ten years ago today the united states

invaded iraq and on this anniversary about a dozen car bombs and suicide blast killed at least at least fifty people a deadly reminder that iraq remains a dangerous and unstable country but the bush administration launched this war there was no indication the war would last this long claimed hundreds of thousands of lives and cost as much as it has it's hard to correspond back and lopez takes a look at the promises the bush administration made versus the way it actually played out. my fellow citizens at this hour american and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm iraq to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger. a speech that laid the groundwork for years of war and strife the iraq war was described as a necessary war one that would ensure the stability of that region and the world's numerous human sources tell us that iraqis are moving not just documents and hard

drives but weapons of mass destruction to keep them from being found by inspectors we know they have weapons of mass destruction we know they have active programs there is there isn't any debate about it. the u.s. promised to unseat a rogue leader find in obtain all weapons of mass destruction and rebuild a broken nation. ten years later only one of those promises was kept a war to end the alleged deceptions of saddam hussein's regime muddied the reputation of the world's most powerful nation the iraq war was supposed to be a lot of things cost effective for one office of management and budget estimated it would be something under fifty billion dollars outside estimates say up to three hundred billion baloney but there is more meat to that argument than economists and the bush administration thought the latest estimates put the total cost of the iraq war at eight hundred twenty three billion dollars with reconstruction efforts in

the country totaling over three hundred billion but it wasn't only the financial costs the bush administration underestimated it was also the human toll some of the higher end predictions that we have been hearing recently such as the notion that it will take several hundred thousand u.s. troops to provide stability in post saddam and iraq are wildly off the mark a decade later with four thousand four hundred eighty four american military personnel dead more than thirty two thousand physical. injured and tens of thousands of others suffering the mental impacts of the iraq war those predictions proved to be right on point as for the damage this war caused the iraqi and american people do you think the american people are prepared for a long costly and bloody battle with a significant american casualties i don't i don't think it's likely not full that way tim because i really do believe we will be greeted as liberators anywhere from one hundred twenty five thousand to one million iraqis died the u.s.

went into recession that cost millions of families their jobs and homes and the notion of a noble nation right liberate a depressed people turned out to be smoke and mirrors so ten years later with the iraq war behind us did the us earn anything from this unpopular war we see that change in washington as much as what. you see how much there is concern you see you see the day you see it you see the mosquito being involved no ensued and that's when the words you see the call sort of at the local sort of people but in general is much more we if nothing else the bush administration said was true about the war in iraq perhaps as official declaration of war was a pretty lewd to what was really to come a campaign on the harsh terrain of a nation as large as california could be longer and more difficult than some predict. however not even president bush could predict how long or how expensive this war would really be. in washington meghan lopez r.t.

. well moments ago senator john mccain spoke at the american enterprise institute about the ten year anniversary here's what he told r.t. about why iraq is in the state it's in today. more you know to me that i'm curious as to what we can expect ten years later i don't really say that's right but all. that sort of transpired yesterday. fortune. united states players such. as. leave they received letters received some strange don't let anybody take. a ten years later hundreds of thousands of lives trillions of dollars spent what is the result of it all earlier i was joined by former alaskan senator mike rowe valen sara flounders co-director of the international action center she's also the author

of the book you see right there war without victory i started out by asking senator gravelle was it worth it if it was a criminal act i mean if we adhere to the nuremberg principles united states committed a criminal act we know who the criminals are and for some reason we don't prosecute them is really something wrong with our national morality now sara what do you think are we better off today than we were ten years ago and is iraq better off. iraq is much worse off and i this was a horrendous crime against humanity against the people of iraq the total destruction of iraq which had the highest literacy in the region and today the lowest the destruction of health care of the standard of living on every measure of a quarter of the iraqi people today dead disabled or dislocated millions of

refugees that is a crime and yet it was also a complete failure for us strategic interests a howling blunder on every count and these criminals who launched this war based on total lies they should be prosecuted now when saddam hussein was toppled some back of that and still today say that saddam hussein was a dictator that systematically tortured and killed his own people and those that defend the war in iraq say the world is safer and better off without senator what do you say to them. it's foolishness of saddam hussein was a question about that he killed a lot of his own people but he was not a threat to the united states and he was not a threat to the world this was part of a neo con play and could play our conservatives who wanted to one develop american her germany across the world starting with iraq

afghanistan libya now syria and we're repeating this same lead up to a war with iran and it's being led by none other than the president of the united states who who felt we don't look back so we don't prosecute the criminals and now we're about to repeat the same thing over again when the president says that. we can do anything we want with iran and everything's on the table most americans don't realize that there's a doctrine was in the presidency the white house that the president can launch a nuclear war on his own decision without the congress without anybody else he has that kind of power and it's been stated so. and you know i here are during this anniversary and a lot of times we see these things in retrospect i want to take a look at the newspaper headlines ten years ago today when the war was started the

first one there is from the chicago sun times that's war bush opens with surgical strikes at iraqi leaders from kinetic at air strikes target hussein bush describes actions as opening stages of a broader and concentrated campaign to free the iraqi people and another cover there in north carolina missiles of rain from north carolina that's as missiles rain on defiant saddam so i want to ask you sara did the media give the invasion more credibility. well the invasion the shock and awe was really on every standard terror terror against a whole population an effort to create a total collapse the very fact that it failed that is an important lesson for the people of the whole world but today is also the second anniversary of the us nato

war that destroyed libya this week it's a second anniversary of the war for regime change to destabilize syria the drone attacks that take place every single day against pakistan and a whole number of other countries caesar all assaults on the sovereignty of countries around the world and it's a crime that is continuing and the emboldened us was actually emboldened that they staged a war that was clearly criminal by its very nature and no one here was charged for it so that aggressive appetite in different form in libya different form in syria new threats on iran but very very dangerous for the people of the world and the people right here in the u.s. and we should take note along with the tyrell destruction for the iraqi people the the exposé this week of the u.s. role in torture in the death squads in the civil war openly from mentoring it

these are the kind of crimes that were committed and that there should really be a responsibility for today and the crimes continue in another way to forty percent of the more than one million u.s. soldiers who served in iraq today suffer from post-traumatic stress or traumatic brain injuries that's a horrendous toll right there the cost of the war over two trillion dollars when medical care and long term care are considered so we're paying an enormous sum. mt and the people of the world are paying highly for these criminal wars yeah we're seeing the human cost and the enormous financial cost senator here we are ten years later do you think that there should have been more alarm alarm bells before invading should we have heard more cautionary critical voices whether it be from government officials or from the media well our entire institutions the media the

congress the white house all failed the american people and the american people themselves are not free from culpability in this regard because when when we saw this violation this invasion of another country as a criminal act it didn't take long that was within a year you knew that it would this was a criminal act the american public did not react to that the american media right now which which marginalizes any thought of a serious investigation of nine eleven which triggered this and hire situation for the neo cons to be able to pursue america and her gemini in the world matched with our physical power and our control of energy around the world this is where what are americans doing you know those little cliche in that is if you kill one person it's murder if you kill a million well that's foreign policy that's exactly the way we act there's

a gap between american morality as individuals and between them or reality of the nation as a whole and we don't seem to react to that and that makes us culpable as americans into crimes that we see we just have a minute left i want to ask you i guess after all there's a what lessons have we learned none well i think we learned never to. so. good senators saying that in their lives sarah what do you think what lessons have we have we learned hopefully one are a couple something have we learned anything from all of this never never to trust the corporate media which is actually aligned with the banks sea oil corporations the military corporations in this country and to ally on mobilizing the people themselves millions of people opposed the u.s. war in iraq in huge demonstrations worldwide in the us literally millions thousands

and thousands of actions were organized i was very much part of that ten years ago and still continuing to this day we need to do that much more forcefully we can't accept this and we have to resist it and we also have to resist the lies of the u.s. corporate media that is really a public relations arm for these wars and are a appreciate you both very much for coming on and your insightful remarks on this on the ten year anniversary of the war in iraq that was former alaskan senator mike gravel and sara flounders co-director of the international action center. meanwhile islamist insurgents appear to be gaining ground in iraq in the past twenty four hours a string of car bomb blast killed at least fifty people r t international correspondent lisa caffe and is on the ground in erbil iraq to tell us what she's seeing hi lucy so over fifty people dead do you feel safe where you are. well liz the area where i'm actually located is in the autonomy region

semiautonomous region of iraqi kurdistan is probably the only area in iraq that has really benefited and seen growth and improvement since the invasion much of the country unfortunately remains mired in strive sectarian divisions as well as other political and human problems the attacks in baghdad today are quite symbolic in the sense that iraq in many ways has seemed to close the painful chapter of the past ten years much the same way that it began explosions over baghdad we have seen massive losses all across the country there have been there has been reports of sectarian strife in almost every place you go and while i feel safe here i certainly do we did spend most of the day in the city of your kook now this city is a very good sort of microcosm of the iraq as a whole there's all different types of sectarian and ethnic populations there they have lived largely in peace for many years but unfortunately they're seeing an uptick in surge in violence as well and where we went i mean it was it did feel quite dangerous not because of the people but because of the growth in the

potential of terrorist attacks and in fact some of the forces that we were with who had escorted us for safety had said that there were to expose explosions small explosions in the city of kirkuk which really shows that almost no place that you go in iraq except for kurdistan at the moment is quite safe now can you describe i know you just mentioned you were traveling around some of these air other areas of iraq what the conditions are like there does it still look like a war zone. you know it's interesting having not been to iraq before you think iraq war it must be you know terrible situation of conflict and while people do live with daily strife it's fascinating to see the resilience of iraqis the way that they've been able to move on despite the oppressive conditions that have taken place both from the invasion the occupation and the subsequent sectarian strife even in the city of kirkuk as we were driving by we saw school children walking out people walking around people sitting in cafes

and talking to some my colleagues who are in baghdad it's the same sort of situation and while it is an optimistic situation it shows that perhaps iraqis are able to deal on beyond the circumstances that have been handed to them it also indicates perhaps a normalization of the levels of violence something that something that is quite unfortunate to see you describe the resilience of the people there how would you describe their mind said would you say that they're more hopeful that things are going to change and things are going to get better or more hopeless that change will happen. today as opposed to their mindset ten years ago. i think almost every iraqi that you speak to or at least ones we've spoken to do hope that things will change but very few are pessimistic optimistic that this will happen in the immediate future iraq in the immediate moment is dealing with the numerous political problems there's tension on the ground between the sunni

populations in the shia led government there's also tensions between baghdad and those disputed region here near the kurdistan area there's conflict over oil deals frustration with the political system accusations of corruption and strife and of course the daily insurgency the attacks that of course have gone down significantly since the height of the war that still continue as evidenced by the blast in baghdad and so i think many iraqis that you speak to will say you know what yes we're free saddam hussein is gone but at what cost is it worth it to have these daily attacks this violence one man that we spoke to in the city of kirkuk just today said yes i'm free to go out of my house today the question is whether i will return alive and i think that says quite a lot about the situation in iraq faces today and yeah i mean when president bush announced that we would invade iraq one of the reasons justification was to liberate the people there but i mean ten years later do you think people there feel

any safer i think that unfortunately people don't feel much safer and people feel that they're dealing with a different set of problems they have exchanged this is one comment that i've heard as we have exchanged one yoke of oppression for another one they're not necessarily happy with the direction that the government is taking they're not necessarily happy with the services and the employment situation nearly forty percent of all iraq. of a job a quarter of the families live below the world bank's poverty line these are statistics that aren't much better than what we saw under the crippling u.n. sanctions of the one nine hundred ninety s. and so while i think everyone here wants to see the country move forward there is a lot of pessimism there is a lot of disappointment in where iraq is ten years later and not to mention the fact that almost every single person in this country has lost somebody they loved it's a nation that is moving on but is completely traumatized and scarred by ten years of bloodshed war and sectarian strife for iraq the future really remains uncertain

at the moment lucy thanks so much for your reporting there and stay safe that was our to international correspondent lucy caffein of on the ground in erbil iraq well on this day ten years ago president bush announced to the american people that we're going to war and since then there's been several several memorable and infamous moments from the toppling of the saddam statue to president bush declared mission accomplished to american flags draped over the coffins of dead soldiers we're going to take a look now at a timeline of a decade in iraq. the united nations security council. has not lived up to the sponsibility. we run. iraq continues to try to show still a view toward america and to support terror. they're nothing but a bunch of cold blooded killers and that's the way we're going to treat the gravity of this moment. is matched by the gravity of the threat that. weapons of mass

destruction pose to the world. the iraqi regime possesses biological and chemical weapons weapons of mass destruction weapons of mass destruction weapons of may have to do. i my fellow americans. major combat operations in iraq have ended in the battle of iraq the united states and our allies have prevailed. we see juba iraqis rolling up in stunning fingers and celebrating their freedom these images of liberty have been spared us.

by august thirty first two thousand and ten. our combat mission in iraq. all right ok as promised the rest of our troops in iraq will be in the field. after nearly nine years. america's war in iraq will be over. from the initial ground invasion to a small or covert war fought by unmanned aircraft the face of the iraq war has

evolved over the decade are the correspondent margaret howell takes a look now at how war tactics have changed since iraq. since the iraq invasion u.s. military tactics have switched from boots on the ground to robots in the air the cia and pentagon's first drone strike occurred in yemen in two thousand and two and sense then we've ratcheted up our drone activity under this administration the pentagon spending of unmanned aircraft has jumped from two hundred eighty four million in two thousand to nearly four billion last year the number of drones owned by the pentagon rocketed from less than two hundred two thousand two to seventy five hundred now while the bulk of these drones are small shoulder launched ravens heavily armed predators and reapers are also used to having accumulated one million hours of combat patrols in the skies over afghanistan and iraq insurgents don't have the ability to shoot them down and they're controlled remotely so even if they crash american soldiers don't this makes them quite popular for the u.s.

drones provide twenty four hour patrols over hot spots and gather intelligence by pulling in millions of terabytes of data and hours of video feeds. right now predator and reaper drones are completing fifty nine twenty four hour combat air controllers per day mostly in afghanistan and pakistan the standing order is for the air force to increase the number to sixty five a day by may of two thousand and fourteen the staffing demands the military drone use has dramatically increased we now require nearly seven hundred drone pilots and twelve hundred sensory operators to keep up with the u.s. drone activity. general mike hostage commander of air force combat command said that the current number of drones patrolling the skies over seas may already be more than the service can afford to maintain hell over the air force discussions are focused more on whether the military drones fleet is the right size and composition for future conflicts this is been an insatiable appetite within the

military for unmanned hunter killer drones particularly amid top combat commanders around the world let's face it killing by remote control is quite popular. drone warfare work for the u.s. while we own the field of aerial strikes now other countries are catching up with us we'll see just how popular the u.s. drone policy remains amid new laws that require clearance for sovereign air spaces in washington margaret how old are t well speaking of the drone campaign the highest international official is now speaking out against it the u.n. special rapid tor on human rights and counterterrorism is calling on the drone program in pakistan he's calling it a violation of the country's sovereignty to correspondent marina parr and i had joined me earlier from new york for more. well the un special rapporteur ben emmerson did say as you already mentioned that you that the united states' ongoing drone campaign in pakistan is a violation of the south asians nation's sovereignty and it is being conducted

without the consent of pakistan's elected representatives or of the legitimate government mr emerson went on to say that islam has been condemning the use of drones over its territory and mr emerson also urged an end to what he described as quote forcible military interference now the u.n. independent expert said that it's time for the international community to heed the concerns of pakistan and give the next democrat democratically elected government the support it needs to deliver a lasting peace without any outside military interference and that was a reference to the u.s. drone campaign in pakistan now emerson's comments were released in a statement at the end of his three day visit to pakistan last week during his visit he inspected the impact of drone warfare on the local civilian population and it was back in january when emerson announced that he would be investigating twenty five drone strikes that have taken place in areas such as pakistan yemen somalia

afghanistan and the palestinian territories mr everson is scheduled to present his final report to the united nations general assembly in october so this is just one of many statements that he is expected to be making as his investigation into drone strikes continues throughout the year and this is the strongest statement from an international group yet in opposite opposition to the u. the u.s. drone drone program what is the significance of this well i mean it's profoundly significant because first and foremost we've been hearing consistent criticism about america's drone campaign that's gone global and the statements coming from operator emerson's were quite profound in addition to whatever already mentioned the. independent u.n. experts said that if drone strikes continue into the next pakistani government the u.s. could further destabilize pakistan which is a nuclear power and it undermines

a key u.s. strategic goal at the allegedly at the heart of america's drone program but we should mention that special rapporteur tours like mr emerson are appointed by the un human rights council to examine and report back on situations or specific human rights themes their positions are honorary and experts don't have any legal or binding authority but nonetheless these types of statements coming from an independent un expert especially when they're critical of the us is is quite symbolic to say the least and it adds liz as you mentioned another layer to the criticism that's already been delivered for the past weeks and months over america's drone program i guess the question now is now that he's made this proclamation oh we're now why doesn't the u.s. might scale back its drone missions in pakistan as a result of this announcement or what can come of this statement from the u.n. well as i mentioned our opportune moment and released his statement at the end of

last week now after that this state department spokeswoman victoria nuland of knowledge that the pentagon the pentagon officials have seen emerson's statements his press release but she refused to speak about what she calls classified information nuland insisted that washington has a strong ongoing counter-terrorism dialogue with islam a body and zat will continue so clearly not a lot of reaction coming from washington about these quite critical statements of america's drone program in pakistan but they haven't been you know very forthcoming or transparent about their their drone program from the very beginning so it's quite unlikely that they're going to respond to such severe criticism coming from a u.n. droplets who are investigating the effects of drone warfare throughout the world maria thanks for keeping us up to.