Now is the time for an Australian inquiry into the Iraq War

But that is just the start of a long list of war crimes Australian government and military officials should be held accountable for. Any Inquiry should also address the innumerable allegations of horrific atrocities committed under the command of Australian General Jim Molan by coalition forces during the brutal assault at Fallujah in 2004 (see 'The reality of Australia’s collateral damage in Iraq', 4 August 2008 in Online Opinion), and evidence that the Royal Australian Air Force knowingly and deliberately provided cover for American ground troops firing cluster bombs on heavily populated civilian areas during the invasion. It should also include Australia's disgraceful role in supporting American torture and persecution of Australian citizens David Hicks and Mamdouh Habib, and the overzealous persecution of anti-war protesters and perceived radical Islamic groups. Any inquiry should also cover Australia's shameful participation in ensuring the sanctions on Iraq continued to inflict horrific hardship, thanks in no small part to Australian Richard Butler's role as UN chief weapons inspector during that time.

Molan and other senior Australian military personnel's responsibility for Fallujah should also include what has happened to city inhabitants as a direct result of the assault in the intervening years since the city was militarily subdued in late 2004. An extensive peer reviewed study released in July 2010 found cancer, leukemia, and infant mortality rates to be higher in Fallujah from 2005-2009 than corresponding rates for survivors in the years following the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. The epidemiological study, 'Cancer, Infant Mortality and Birth Sex-Ratio in Fallujah, Iraq 2005–2009,' was published in the International Journal of Environmental Studies and Public Health. Its examination of 711 houses and 4,843 individuals revealed a four-fold increase in cancer rates since the coalition assault occurred under Molan's command. The types of cancer were similar to the cancers resulting from radiation fallout at Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The study also found heightened levels of birth defects, and infant mortality rates of 80 deaths out of 1,000 births; eight times higher than neighbouring Kuwait. Leukemia rates were 38 times higher, cancer in children 12 times more frequent, breast cancer 10 times more common than in nearby Arab countries of Jordan, Egypt, and Kuwait.

It is a sad statement of our political culture that many Australians cannot believe that their country is important enough in the doings of world affairs to matter. This is in part what allows the present Labor leadership to act as if Iraq simply never happened. Julia Gillard and former PM Kevin Rudd have continued to follow the US lead with every bit as salivating lap dog enthusiasm as Howard did, despite little having changed in US foreign policy under Barack Obama. Guantanamo Bay remains open and still houses what has now been revealed beyond any doubt innocent victims; torture still occurs; Afghanistan is a quagmire; and the US is every bit as much a sabre rattler at Iran under Obama that it was under Bush. After widespread exposure of torture, outright murder, and the near destruction of the world economic order due to its never before rivalled dedication to sheer greed, not to mention its refusal to provide universal health care to its own citizens as one of innumerable examples of the contempt America holds for most of its own people (can anyone say Katrina?), you would think any post Howard government would seriously reconsider its foreign policy alliances.

There have now been numerous attempts to hold Bush Administration officials accountable for their actions regarding Iraq, and there is now the ongoing Chilcot Inquiry in the UK, where both Blair and Brown have been forced to testily. Yet the Australian Government acts as if Iraq simply never happened.

We can't erase the past and restore those millions of Iraqis who have died as a direct result of a war that Australia is directly responsible for. We also, alas cannot guarantee that it will never happen again. But we can and we must try.