What Have We Won?

One year ago, 1,500 Harvard students, faculty, staff and community members walked out of lectures and seminars, day jobs and high school classes, forgoing business as usual on the first day of the bombing of Iraq. As bombs rained down on Baghdad for a 24-hour straight saturation bombardment to kick off the U.S. “shock and awe” campaign, a crowd gathered in front of the John Harvard statue for one of the largest rallies in Harvard history, followed by a march into Boston.

On that day, there were many good reasons to oppose the war, and today, there are even more. In the year since, no weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq. It is now clear that the primary justification for going to war was based on flimsy and contrived evidence. The “humanitarian” justification is equally suspect. Though Iraqis are now free from the despotic rule of Saddam Hussein, their country is in a state of turmoil. Occupation has failed to provide any sort of security and is probably doing more harm than good. As a result of the presence of American troops, the country has become a magnet for terrorist groups which have been carrying out deadly attacks on civilians. The American corporations with contracts in Iraq have also failed to improve the state of the economy or rebuild the infrastructure. And in the gravest of Iraq’s losses, an estimated 20,000 Iraqi civilians and 30,000 Iraqi soldiers have died so far.

The United States has also suffered many losses on account of the war. six hundred soldiers have lost their lives, and the death toll is still climbing, with new deaths reported every day. Almost $200 billion have been spent at the expense of important domestic programs, and we are currently facing the largest deficit of our generation. The American government’s unilateral efforts and contempt for international law have also distanced the U.S. from the international community. There are no signs that the world is a safer place today than it was a year ago, despite the invasion of Iraq being a part of Bush’s “war on terror.” One of our closest backers going into the war, Spain, recently suffered the most extensive terrorism attack in its history, in which close to 200 people died and thousands more were wounded.

Whether we like it or not, we are all tied to this conflict in tangible ways. As members of the Harvard community, we are inadvertently benefiting from the other war going on in Iraq, the struggle between international investors and corporations to stake out their piece of the Iraqi economy, which has been entirely restructured by the United States in the course of the occupation. The United States has made it possible for Iraqi resources and banks to be owned and operated entirely by private contractors from every country other than Iraq itself.

It comes as no surprise that a significant slice of the Harvard endowment is invested in defense contractors who are making increased profits as a result of the war. As much as one-third of the monthly $3.9 billion cost of the occupation of Iraq is going to independent contractors, and Harvard has tens of millions of dollars invested in companies including Halliburton, Northrop Corp. and JP Morgan Chase & Co., among others.

It is important that we act with the same dedication and conviction that motivated us to walk out on our daily routine one year ago. Although the brunt of the destruction is over, the necessity to voice our concerns regarding the responsible reconstruction of Iraq is just as urgent now as it was during the first days of the invasion. What happens in post-war Iraq will undoubtedly have repercussions the world over, for better or for worse.

Tomorrow, hundreds of thousands of anti-war activists, including Harvard students, will again be coming together in New York City, this time to protest the colonial occupation of Iraq. It is as important to keep our sights on the future as to remember what has passed. We must not forget that the conflict continues despite the rhetoric of the war being won. Our responsibility as citizens of the occupying country, as well as of the world, is far from done. Until self-determination and economic sovereignty are established in Iraq, we must keep our efforts strong.

Nicole A. Salazar ’06 is a visual and environmental studies concentrator in Currier House. Kevin P. Connor ’04-’05 is a history and literature concentrator in Dudley House. They are members of the Harvard Initiative for Peace and Justice.