By Muhammad Najib Mohd Taib
Do you still remember the 9/11 incident? The incident that shook the world, the incident that started the “War on Terror”, the incident that started war on Iraq, and other Muslim countries, which cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of innocent people. It is an incident that definitely brought a negative effect on the Muslim society.
After the 9/11 incident, the efforts made by the western countries on combating terrorism has brought war to Iraq in the year 2003. Some 13 years later, the public has the chance to learn the story behind the Iraqi War through the Iraq Inquiry also known as the Chilcot Report, which was named after its chairman Sir John Chilcot.
After a lot of research and reading, I found out that the essence of the report revolved around the Iraqi War that started in the year 2003 which was supported and initiated by former Prime Minister of United Kingdom, Tony Blair, and former President of the United States of America, George W. Bush, which was considered UNNECESSARY.
It irks me when the aftermath of the war had caused the loss of hundreds of thousands of innocent lives, millions of people who were made homeless, with lack of basic needs, suffering everyday as a result of this UNNECESSARY war initiated by the two most powerful individuals in the world.
The Iraqi War started in response to terrorism on the 9/11 attack, in which the war centred on combating the Al-Qaeda, targeting Saddam Hussein who were reported hiding in Iraq, who posed as a threat to both the British and the United States of America as well as to find the so-called Weapon of Mass Destruction which allegedly reported being made and hidden in Iraq. However, the truth about the war has been kept secret from us after this long years.
In the Chilcot Report, it was presented with certainty that Saddam Hussein did not pose as an urgent threat and the intelligence report on Weapon of Mass Destruction was part of lies made up by both Tony Blair and George W. Bush to legitimise their war action in Iraq.
It also proved that the Iraqi War could be avoided as the case and the legal basis for war presented by both individuals was deemed inadequate by the United Nations Security Council, according to the report. Both individuals stood by with their decision masking with the statement “for the sake of our country” when they were accused of starting an illegal war.
The repercussions of the Iraqi War caused by these two individuals were catastrophic. The emergence of new radical and extremist groups, the aftermath of war that left nothing but a pile of rubbish and stones in the city. People were salvaging anything to survive. The efforts to develop the country were far from happening. Countless of people became refugees but ended up dead or being chased away by other countries in the process, and the cause of it. Powerful individuals’ decision for their political gain who were willing to cheat, lie, manipulate, and disregard human life, violating international law and the United Nations Charter, and the consequences that have affected everyone until today.***