Iraq war a bitter lesson for US

On March 20, 2003, former US president George W. Bush joined hands with Tony Blair, then British prime minister, to invade Iraq without declaring a war, saying that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction and was harboring al-Qaida.

Although the US-led coalition overthrew Saddam Hussein, it got entangled in a long "counter-terrorism" and "counter-insurgency" war that not only claimed tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis' lives, but also eroded US hegemony. It was left to Bush's successor Barack Obama to get the US out of the mess by withdrawing American troops from Iraq by the end of 2011.

By wantonly demonizing Saddam Hussein and waging an unjust war against Iraq, the US wanted to dominate the Middle East and consolidate its hegemony over the world. Colin Powell, then US secretary of state, even gave false testimony before the UN Security Council and presented fake "evidence" to prove Iraq had unconventional weapons in an attempt to get the council's authorization to launch an attack on Iraq.