Your Stories: Lessons from the Iraq War

Ten years ago this month, the United States invaded Iraq, launching the Iraq War. Throughout the week, we’re looking at lessons from the war from scholars, soldiers, translators – and you.
Many of you told us that 10 years later you’re still trying to make sense of the war and the motivations behind the United States involvement. Chuck from Denton, Texas says: “For a long time I’ve wondered why in the world we have to be policeman of the entire world and go around and resolve everyone’s problems except for our own here in the United States. It makes no sense at all when we have problems of our own.”
Lewis in Boston is thinking about those service members who lost their lives and the leaders he believes failed them: “On the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, I’m trying to figure out what these leaders and those people who sent those young people to die with no explanation feel about the death of so many young Americans.”
Lee, a veteran of the war, wants to acknowledge the Iraqis who risked so much to assist the coalition forces, “Let me just say that the interpreters had the most difficult job of anyone in the war because a lot of those interpreters who were not U.S. interpreters had to live and go home and be with their families and then come back and work with US forces and then try to juggle their safety and family’s safety and then try to make it work for the U.S. objectives as well.”
Hugh Sykes has spent the last ten years reporting on life inside of Iraq for the BBC. On this tenth anniversary of the U.S. invasion, he spoke to Iraqis who were caught up in the war and their lives have been nothing short of tragic.
One Iraqi woman lost seven of her family members in one day when an American shell accidentally struck their car during a battle with insurgents. When asked if Iraq would have been better without the change, she replied: “I don’t care about Sadaam. I care about my family. Without the invasion, I wouldn’t have lost my family. It might be better for other Iraqis now, but for me it isn’t.”