ten years ago today the u.s. launched a full scale invasion of iraq millions watched the initial shock and awe bombing of baghdad as was televised uninterrupted around the world so how did this all start wall of take a quick look back in time. the iraqi regime. has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade this is a regime that has already used poison gas to murder thousands of its own citizens leaving the bodies of mothers. huddled over their dead children now that conflict has come the only way to limit its duration is to apply decisive force and i assure you. this will not be a campaign of half measures and we look separate no outcome but victory. my fellow citizens the dangers to our country and the world will be overcome president

george w. bush has launched a war against saddam hussein we can tell you that these targets of opportunity have been hit it all started about four hours and twenty minutes ago at nine forty two pm eastern time that would have put it at five forty two am baghdad time just as day was breaking the law the bush officials said the war would last a month six weeks and then finally this. major combat operations in iraq have ended in the battle of iraq the united states and our allies have prevailed oh yes who could forget the mission accomplished aircraft carrier photo op less than three months after the invasion and of course that leads us to where we are today ten years on there are estimates of up to three trillion

dollars bill loans and see invasion with over a million human beings dead and countless others left traumatized or disabled for life in iraq is now riddled with sectarian violence yes this was a post nine eleven world and people were terrified remember it was a period of freedom fries jingoistic propaganda and lists fear mongering during this time of strife people look to the media to cut through the noise because in times of war that's when the tough questions are needed the most but that didn't happen instead the administration set their agenda and the media diligence. he followed suit but not only was the press completely and questioning the administration they were practically reprinting government press releases as breaking news instead of being the watchdogs that practically became the propaganda arm of the pentagon and government lies became national news headlines first we

were told that saddam had ties to al qaeda it check out this article from c.n.n. bush iraq al qaeda linked yet just quoting bush and reprinting his claims instead of real investigative reporting think c.n.n. and then there's the guardian saddam talks on alliance with al-qaeda which of course also turned out to be false so when this life l. through we were told about iraq's infamous stop piles of weapons of mass destruction again from c.n.n. white house iraq bass destruction weapons once again quoting the white house way to dig deep guys and from fox d.-i a intelligence report supports w m d claims again parroting the establishment narrative but when no w m d's turned up a news stories started to surface just saying that saddam had purchased enriched uranium from niger and n.b.c. reports bolster bush iraq you're raney him claim interestingly enough the new york

times considered one of the most liberal of publications was also instrumental in helping sell the war here they are saying bush aides now claim now it's a claim on your rainy and was accurate. no because apparently if you can't trust bush aides are the next best source for intel well new york times embarrassingly published a mc culpa apology later on for the role they played in perpetuating these lies look with all this media parroting is it any wonder that even after all these claims were debunked after three years of war that half of americans still believed that w m d's were found in. iraq well if you're a fox news watcher you might believe that these were found even today with stories like these that are somehow still making air time turns out president george w. bush was right about saddam hussein hiding weapons of mass destruction new photo evidence just surfaced showing chemical weapons confiscated by u.s. troops just after the two thousand and three invasion the photos are among the four

hundred thousand pages of classified war documents released by the website wiki leaks some of the stockpiled weapons were supposed to have been destroyed after the one nine hundred ninety one persian gulf war but as president bush warned hussein was defining the united nations and keeping those w m d's. of course they failed to mention that these weapons were master in the gulf war and never he was defying the united nations on them look after all that's been said and done i think we all know that without these baseless claims that should have been debunked by the media from the onset there would be little support for an attack. even former secretary of state colin powell said it himself after his award winning performance at the u.n. take a look. less than a teaspoon of dry anthrax a little bit about this amount this is just about the amount of a teaspoon less than a teaspoon full of dry anthrax in an r.v. shutdown the united states senate iraq declared eighty five hundred liters of

anthrax but unscom estimates that saddam hussein could have produced twenty five thousand liters it should come as no shock then that since saddam hussein forced out the last inspectors in one thousand nine hundred eight we have amassed much intelligence indicating that iraq is continuing to make these weapons we know that iraq has at least seven of these mobile biological agent factories i think it is doubtful that without the weapons of mass destruction case the president the congress the united nations and those joined us in the conflict the british. and spanish the australians would've found a persuasive enough case to support the decision to go to war yes without the administration's unfounded propaganda nobody would have supported the war thanks for doing your part mr secretary but you know as much as we like to place the blame on bush officials we now know that the corporate media is really who has sold the

war and the public a war against a sovereign nation that poses no threat to us and that my friends is the real weapon of mass destruction. well the iraq war may be officially over but for millions of iraqis citizens there may be no return home the u.n. estimates that over four point two million iraqis have been displaced many of which have applied for refugee status right here in the u.s. since two thousand and three the u.s. has admitted approximately ninety thousand iraqis as refugees special immigrants and asylum seekers but the journey hasn't been easy for them in fact advocates of iraqi applicants say that the resettlement process has been shamefully slow and complicated to see aside from the ninety thousand refugees there are thousands of iraqis who actually aided the u.s. during the occupation as translators or linguists and it's an association that has

put their lives at risk as enemy collaborators in their country many of these iraqis were hopeful in two thousand and eight after congress created a special visa program allowing for up to twenty five thousand new immigrant visas so far only a fraction have been issued in this program is scheduled to end in september so to talk about the plight of iraqi refugees i'm joined now by b.t.s. producer amir david i have thanks for coming on so we're talking about ninety thousand iraqis that have been granted refugee status here it sounds like a lot i mean but doesn't pale in comparison to other countries just pale in comparison you have to remember that most of them were leaving at the height of the conflict so this is in two thousand and six they were leaving at a rate of three thousand a day which is kind of insane to think about that but they were obviously going mostly to neighboring countries so of course syria took in the most set about a million refugees and then jordan not far behind even though it is

a country that is only the size of the state of indiana and has a population fifty times smaller than that of the united states they took in seven hundred thousand so between those two that's one point seven million it's far exceeds of course how much the united states is taken in of course you know when the united states is responsible for initiating. the war keeping this occupation going for a decade. it isn't part of responsibility to take some refugees back here and of course the ones that were eighteen are intelligence there who really have no place to go and let's talk about the special visas that are happening already congress approved twenty five thousand of them yet only four thousand have been issued i mean it's not so good up here it's really sad there were supposed to be five thousand approved every year that was the idea for about a five year period and only four thousand have been approved total so it's really kind of a travesty because there are a lot of people that are awaiting approval on this are about one hundred ten thousand people that could be targeted as collaborators right now in iraq and many

of them are waiting for what they've been promised because they did help they were linguists they were translators and their association with the united states is very very dangerous and is really putting their livelihood at risk so it's truly unfortunate. you did mention that the process has been painfully slow the obama administration basically added a whole host of new layers of security and background checks and interviews and just made the process much much more difficult the screening process of getting people in and not to mention that you know we're in a post nine eleven world so arabs and muslims are already intensely scrutinized so that's adding another degree of difficulty and unfortunately as you mentioned the program is ending in september in order for the program to continue it would have to be voted by congress it would have to reauthorize it unbelievable let's talk about the ones who are granted refugee status what are they experiencing when they do come here i mean are they able to acclimate to it professionally you know it's

it is really difficult for them because you're talking about in a typical refugee as far as refugees come they have exceedingly higher skills than refugees that have preceded them these are people that in their host country in iraq were were doctors were lawyers were engineers have. you know higher education degree is and so they they've come here you know looking at america as the land of prosperity the land of opportunity unfortunately they've met a lot of closed doors you know many of them ended up taking minimum wage jobs at fast food restaurants so as you can imagine that's a very very hard pill to swallow for someone who's in vision america you know being able to give them so much and really this was what they were promised to help out with the war effort what about emotionally i mean and psychologically i mean yes professionally is one thing but as you said you know with the islamophobia going on

now in this country i mean how are they able to it is now it is difficult and you know the the resettlement process is so quick it's so it's a ninety day process they're given you know you housing and anguish school classes and that sort of thing but they don't really help them in the long term and of course psychological issues is something that is affecting them in the long term these are people that just like iraqi war veterans are coming back seeing these traumatizing images of people that have died even some of them have seen some of their family members murdered right in front of them so unfortunately these are the facts that are going to you know undoubtedly you know play out years down the road well thank you for shedding some light on this very important issue david b.t.s. producer of the. welfare wondering what i'm doing when i'm not on the air check me out on twitter abby martin thank you so you can follow me there and find all my tweets linking the segments from the show as well as random thoughts i have to go through the day and also please help us get

a break in the set when. folks. go to get out because they are going to run being on the twitter sphere really with your help head to twitter and check me out. and i took a break from my preaching but stay tuned to hear perspective of the iraq war. he's someone who is there for the very first bombings next. wealthy british soil it's time to rise. markets why not. find out what's really happening to the global

economy in the kinds of reports. they've been living this way since the seventeenth century. their rituals are strict. their communities are the salafis. they clearly distinguish between their own and the alien. and guard their family and think there's a treasure. go

live nation and free credit taken three times for charges free. range and free. free. to tide free. download free broadcast quality video for your media projects a free media dog hearty dot com you. love. to do if you've never seen anything like that. so today marks the tenth anniversary of the u.s. invasion of iraq and although the occupation has officially ended there's still a war ongoing in the streets in fact just today dozens of car bombs and blasts from suicide bombers left nearly seventy people dead these deadly attacks are nothing new in the war torn country in recent years the turmoil has escalated to

a mass an unprecedented wave of sectarian violence that's something that my next guest knows very personally as someone who witnessed the first bombs being dropped in baghdad in two thousand and three and ever since he's been charged in the evolution of his country so joining me now is roger our communications director for the american arab anti-discrimination committee and former iraq specialist for the american friends service committee thank you so much for coming on ron thank you for having me so you were actually living in iraq in two thousand and three we were told here at the time that we would be greeted as liberators that the army was that people really wanted us to go in and free them from saddam's reign was that the reality on the ground what were iraqis being told at the time iraqis were told that they would be looking to this baby fast swift operation. and then the u.s. would help them be. people had very high expectations from my experience

there was a split in public opinion some people actually believed the screams and they did want to give us a chance to go and change the dictate to other people including myself thought that iraq should be given a chance to change to change that but then you know have the u.s. . to help them to pace themselves and even though there was a split in public perception at the time when did it kind of shift because obviously there was a lot more opposition very quickly as we realize that the war was not accomplished in the three months that bush had claimed it to be i think a few months. specially when the command was shifted from north to pole there was a complete shift in. this meant to. start the infamous. process and the country to complete the action so people.

from that time because them until that moment everyone thought that the u.s. is leaving within three months level of destruction wasn't that bad people thought you know maybe they can fix what was damaged and they can move on but i think by the end of two thousand two thousand and three it was very clear that the us. and that's why there was more violence in the country there was more. distance to the us presence i would imagine the split was in part because of the sanctions that had been imposed for for the decade prior i mean all the previous years some estimates say that five hundred thousand children had died from previous u.s. imposed sanctions on the country so i can imagine that there was. just trust for the us at that time but let's move on i mean interesting that you've said that you're half sunni half shia was this an issue for you before when you were growing up and how did this different ideology really play out in the iraqi society at

large after the u.s. occupation it was not that she would not discuss these issues before two thousand and three. affiliations or ethnic backgrounds were not. life so i actually never knew who from my family was a sunni or a shiite or from my friends or some niece or shiites your people in the u.s. have distorted perception of these things they think there's like one tribe or one group called this sudanese and they're shiites doesn't really exist to be on the ground people look the same sound the same they live in the same neighborhood. they have the same names the same last names so it wasn't as the by did as no unfortunately a decade after the u.s. invasion these ethnic and sectarian divisions became the core of the new iraq identity and they are threatening the territorial integrity of iraq and the national unity it's one of the legacies of the us invasion and occupation. and i

don't think that people even understand what the difference is here to tell you the truth when they hear these terms as you just said we kind of throw them out in the media can you briefly explain what the factions are fighting about i mean the factions actually be very slight differences from a long time ago and the difference is. political parties that were signed by the u.s. mostly after two thousand and three played on these differences took some legitimacy for their role their only political capital came from political. divisions so the exaggerated these issues but you know most of the fights between iraq you know have to do with natural resources with relationship to foreign powers you know there's nothing about oil and gas you know foreign policy in the.

bible and these are not religious fights that have been very political fights but unfortunately they have. religious and. a let's talk more about the sectarian violence i mean what factions are involved other than what you kind of briefly just talked about who are there fill it with and could this potentially deteriorate into a full on civil war here it might actually be it keeps on getting wars and wars five years ago the divisions were not as deep there were more political divisions then six thirty i'm so five years ago you could point out to some sunnis and some shiite. it's. against. the shiites it wasn't hugely security and now it's worse i think the demonstrations that iraq has witnessed in the last three months were more security and what iraq have experienced in the last decade. pressure on the government is coming mostly from iraq you soon you saw the iraqi

courts and most of the. not really supportive of the demonstrations it is more sectarian then how would it look like for many people are very what it about c.d.'s scenario in iraq especially with the lack of capacity of the iraqi government to deal with these issues so there is so much what are you in the in the country on what is going to happen next but we can see definitely but the situation is a million times worse than it was five years ago and it was ten years ago and that's what people are what about that what will happen five years from now absolutely let's talk about the effects of the occupation i know that you yourself helped initiate one of the first casualty counts on the ground i'm still seeing the highest death toll push from the establishment at around one hundred thousand civilians i'm sure that were both aware of a very comprehensive study done by opinion research business that found the number was well over a million why and this is in two thousand and eight i mean why do you think it is

that we're still seeing this estimate being pushed forward i mean it's a very political issue the us government and many politicians use these casualty numbers as unfortunately as a talking point so if they want to focus their attention to some conflict say in sudan they exaggerated the numbers intentionally to give it more attention in iraq there is a tendency to underestimate the numbers and i want to actually do something because there is some confusion regarding the numbers that are two numbers as you mentioned there is one hundred thousand. number four civilians and that is the one million number for that are civilians and they sound like in contradiction with the each other and you had to be about actually one of them is the number it's the number of iraqi civilians who are reported by english speaking media so it's the documented

number the other one is the estimated number of course not everyone who dies is supported by just speaking media so there is a discrepancy of. ten fold spits me and the number being reported i'm going to put an estimate to it but i think the one million figure out a one point two million figure by this time is agreed upon when it comes to experts . and let's talk about the people responsible you wrote an excellent article talking about how we would need to start making amends in and repairing the damage that's been done i want to play a quick clip of cheney being asked in two thousand and four about whether invading iraq was a good idea let's hear what he has to say. or u.n. forces should have moved into baghdad no one because if we'd gone to baghdad we would have been all alone there would have been anybody else with us it would have been a u.s. occupation of iraq under the arab forces that were willing to fight with us into a willing to invade iraq. once you got to iraq and took it over and took down

saddam hussein's government the money going to put into place that's a very volatile part of the world i mean if you take down the central government of iraq you can easily end up seeing pieces of iraq fly off for part of it. the syrians would like to have the west part of eastern iraq the iranians would like to claim fought over for eight years in the north you've got to search the kurds spin loose and join with the kurds in turkey then you threaten the territorial integrity of turkey it's a quagmire if you go that far and try to tell. them that cheney knew exactly what was going to happen with the invasion of course they knew you said in an article that the steps that would need to be taken to rectify the wrongs involve the prosecution of politicians i mean would you. to see the bush officials who knowingly lied be put on trial we have about a minute of course i mean i think many americans including myself would like to see all the decisions we took the us to war and we have to come to it because these things should not be you know that is this we have to give them to everyone who

took us to war and i think many americans of what that tax dollars were used to kill people in iraq and so people have to be held accountable i think on the eve of the tenth anniversary so with a fortune if you look at these issues thank you so much roger our communications director dan american and the arab anti-discrimination committee appreciate your time and thank you so much that's all the time we have for today we'll see you tomorrow.

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