Myths, lies, deceptions, and a very long war

Having recently passed my half century as a journalist I think I know a little about the pressures the profession places on my colleagues; how often they are under the gun to produce instant analysis when a little reflection would have brought a better outcome.

I'm usually prepared to cut them a bit of slack if the facts don't quite match with reality and the argument has a few holes.

However, this view was severely tested while reading a recent comment piece by Greg Sheridan in The Australian.

Even allowing for the fact that Greg has a certain view of the world, it was hard to accept he could actually believe a word of what he had written in maintaining that the rise of the Islamic State could in no way be linked to the 2003 American invasion of Iraq.

After taking his usual swipe at the ABC, Greens and professional anti-Americans, Sheridan launched into the "myth" the US-led invasion could be linked to the current actions of the terrorist group. His grounds being that it originated in Syria, a country which the US did not invade.

"The two factors that immediately caused the upsurge of the Islamic State were the civil war in Syria and the anti-Shia [he meant anti-Sunni but let's cut him that slack] policies of the [Nouri al-] Maliki Government," Sheridan wrote.

To put forward such an argument sadly means that despite something like a quarter of a century as The Australian's Foreign Editor, Sheridan has little understanding of the Middle East and the Arab mindset.

The terms 'Iraq' and 'Syria' are not recognised by IS, and indeed by many other Muslims. They are lines drawn on a map by Western nations after World War I, carving up the Ottoman Empire to suit their own interests, installing puppet kings, emirs and potentates who quickly acquired a taste for the good life and saw it was in their interests to cooperate in this imposed status quo.

Many Arabs – and not just the radical ones – see themselves as one nation; Arab unity has been a consistent theme running down the years. Just as centuries ago, Christians also thought of themselves as one people. 'Christendom' is a rarely-used word these days, but in the distant past it had real meaning.

So when an Arab country is attacked – and despite what some of their leaders might profess – the entire Arab Street is outraged. Sheridan might have noticed a very recent example: The murder of French tourist Herve Gourdel by the Algerian Jund al-Khilafa group was not committed for anything the French were doing in Algeria, but because Paris was participating in military operations in Iraq.

Any incursions by the infidel West onto the sacred soils of Islam, and especially Arab Islam, are going to have consequences. The US-led invasion of Iraq, committed amid a welter of lies and deceptions over Saddam Hussein's supposed stockpile of WMDs was botched from start to finish.

Any hope that it could be passed off as liberation from an evil tyrant ended amid the massed civilian casualties from 'precision' bombing and the miseries that befell the population in the first few days of the occupation.

For this I can refer to the heroic work of Robert Fisk, writing for the UK Independent. While so many of my colleagues became 'embedded' with the allied forces, sending their reports dressed in battledress from atop tanks, Fisk was in Baghdad from day one, facing the same horrors of exploding buildings and innocent people being blown apart, as the citizens around him.

While most Western audiences were given gung-ho accounts of towns taken and advances made, Independent readers learnt of fly-blown hospital emergency rooms running with blood. Ali Abdulrazek (Fisk recorded names whenever possible, these were not statistics they were human beings) blinded in one eye after taking a face-full of shrapnel, Saadia Hussein al-Shomari "pin-cushioned with bloody holes" who saw her neighbours disintegrate in a shower of cluster bombs.

"They were all hit. From one of them, a leg flew off, from another, an arm and a leg went flying through the air."

And when the Americans finally arrived we saw those jolly pictures of Saddam Hussein's statue being pulled down and people carrying off pots and other valuables. But it was not just Saddam's places that were looted. The Iraqi National Archaeological Museum was trashed, 5000-year-old artefacts, once in near perfect condition, lay in pieces, what had not been destroyed had been looted. Most of it has never been recovered.

Later the National Library would suffer the same fate – priceless documents reduced to embers blowing about the streets. Then there were the Ministries housing valuable records that might have assisted in getting the country back together again. Despite Geneva Conventions saying that invaders must protect and preserve the historic and cultural sites of the lands they occupy, the allies did little or nothing to halt the orgy of destruction until it was far too late.

And when there was nothing left to take from public buildings the poor, mainly Shia looters turned their attention to the mainly Sunni middle class neighbourhoods. After being subjected to a night of rape and pillage, the residents took matters into their own hands and when the looters returned they were met by volleys from Kalashnikovs.

The next night the looters had their own Kalashnikovs – and so the ancient enmities between the two sects were reignited in Baghdad – right under the noses of the occupying forces.

Looking at the Middle East from afar it is easy to see the conflicts there in black and white – them and us, good guys against bad guys. Journalists and others who are not ideologically blind, and have experienced these sorry lands at first hand know that every cause has its effect.

Iraq was invaded in 2003 to destroy terrorism. A decade later it has become terror central.

On my desk today is the latest report on US air strikes on IS in Syria. It says that 17 militants were killed, but so were five civilians, including a child. The US says it will investigate but stresses that this was precision (that word again) bombing. IS quickly produced video footage showing bleeding women, children and old men.

Who to believe? Does it matter? When a bomb explodes it will kill and maim and no matter how 'precise' it is the risk remains that innocent people going about their business will be caught in the blast.

But every piece of 'collateral damage' has a relative – a father, brother, son, daughter or mother, who will shake their fist at the sky in blind anger and hatred and go out to get a rifle.

This is going to be a very long war.