LettersChris Patten is right about the dangerous legacy of the Iraq war

Readers discuss the repercussions of the Iraq war on US-China relations today, how Hong Kong can boost organ donation, and the importance of the city’s Mid-Levels escalator

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U.S. Marine Corp assaultman Kirk Dalrymple watches as a statue of Iraq’s president Saddam Hussein falls in central Baghdad on April 9, 2003. Photo: Reuters

Published: 11:30am, 18 Aug 2023

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The 2003 US-led invasion of Iraq has proved to be one of the most consequential and damaging conflicts of the 21st century. As astutely analysed by Chris Patten in a recent commentary for Project Syndicate, this war continues to haunt global politics and imperil collaborative responses to transnational challenges.

From a Chinese viewpoint, several aspects of Patten’s incisive piece warrant underscoring.

First, the Iraq war represented a frontal attack on the international rules-based order by its chief architect. In launching a war not sanctioned by the United Nations Security Council, the United States signalled its contempt for the UN framework designed to prevent interstate war. This undermined broader norms of state sovereignty and non-intervention. From a Chinese standpoint, this validated suspicions that the existing international order serves as a tool for Western imposition, not as a neutral framework for global cooperation.

Not only did the war flout international law, the US’ failure to find weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, after invoking their existence as a casus belli, also damaged American credibility.

When other countries use similar false pretexts to occupy foreign territory, the muddy ethical waters surrounding the Iraq invasion leave the US without any standing to condemn those violations of sovereignty. The lack of a united global response to Russian aggression in Ukraine represents one of the most dangerous legacies of the Iraq war.

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Readers discuss the repercussions of the Iraq war on US-China relations today, how Hong Kong can boost organ donation, and the importance of the city’s Mid-Levels escalator

Readers discuss the repercussions of the Iraq war on US-China relations today, how Hong Kong can boost organ donation, and the importance of the city’s Mid-Levels escalator