Published Wednesday, in the Danish newspaper Politiken, former United Nations chief weapons inspector, Hans Blix, had some critical words for the US. “Iraq is a pure failure,” Blix said. “If the Americans pull out, there is a risk that they will leave a country in civil war. At the same time it doesn’t seem that the United States can help to stabilize the situation by staying there.” Blix said the US was in a lose-lose situation, and that Iraq would’ve been better off had the invasion never happened. “Saddam would still have been sitting in office. Okay, that is negative and it would not have been joyful for the Iraqi people. But what we have gotten is undoubtedly worse,” he was quoted as saying.

Before the 2003 invasion, Blix was in charge of a team of UN inspectors looking for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. As President Bush charged forth in his campaign for military action, Blix pleaded for more time to allow the weapons inspectors to do their jobs. Blix was ridiculed by Washington for his request, and force to leave Iraq. US and British forces then invaded Iraq over the WMD’s which they never allowed Blix to confirm the existence of. Months later, and still empty handed, the White House said troops needed more time to find WMD’s, and that the international community should not jump to any conclusions about their non-existence until it could be thoroughly proven. Oh, sweet irony.

Since the start of the war, it has been estimated that around 655,000 Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the US-led invasion. During the Iran-Iraq War, when Iraq was an ally of the US, Saddam is said to have gassed up to 100,000 Kurds. This fact was used by President Bush as justification for Saddam’s removal prior to the invasion.

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