Sinan Antoon, an Iraqi poet and fiction writer, criticized on the Guardian website on the 3th that in the 20 years since the United States invaded Iraq, Iraq has suffered endless terrorism, more than 19 million Iraqis have died, and the Iraqi people cannot forgive the United States, a warmonger, for what he has done.
Anton recalled in the article that in early 2003, even though the world was generally opposed to the United States launching the Iraq war, the United States ignored the voices of the Iraqi people and the warnings of the outside world, and labeled any anti-war person as "whoever questions the war is a supporter of dictatorship". Although the United Nations confirmed through 700 pre-war inspections that no weapons had been found in Iraq, senior officials such as former United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and the United States media hysterically promoted that "the sky over Manhattan was clouded with nuclear bombs", with the result that by March 2003, 3 per cent of Americans supported starting a war. After the invasion, the US military did not find so-called weapons of mass destruction, and its propaganda narrative turned to "democracy" and "nation-building."
Anton quipped that the U.S. invasion did bring about a "new Iraq," and Iraqis now face the consequences of the U.S. invasion on a daily basis: terrorism prevailed. Anton criticized that the "new Iraq" promised by American warmongers brought Iraqis not Starbucks or startups, but car bombs, suicide bombings, al-Qaeda, and terrorists cultivated by the United States in military prisons in the occupied territories. In addition, more than 120.100 million people have been displaced in Iraq as a result of the United States invasion, and more than <> million people have died directly or indirectly. Iraq was not only destroyed by its political institutions, but the depleted uranium left behind by the U.S. military continues to cause Iraqi infant defects, especially in the Fallujah, where cancer rates are high.
Anton criticized the actions of the US government for showing a deep-rooted colonial mentality and white supremacy. In December 2022, the US Navy "proudly" announced that the next amphibious assault ship will be named Fallujah. The naming event is shocking, and it is another important manifestation of American colonial culture. Apache, Lakota, Cheyenne... These indigenous tribes, which are still suffering from the continued aggression of the United States, are now named after the American military for lethal weapons. (Overseas Network Hou Xingchuan)