Poetry and Trauma: War on Iraq in Selected Works by Brian Turner, Sinan Antoon, and Amal Al-Jubouri

Abstract

The U.S.-led “war on terror” against Iraq is regarded as another tangible evidence of the American imperialistic ambitions in the Middle East. Launched on fabricated allegations that the Iraqi regime possesses weapons of mass destruction and supports terrorists, the U.S.-led war on Iraq has undoubtedly proved to be a “war of terror” rather than a “war on terror.” Bush’s whitewashing and hypnotizing rhetoric of freeing Iraqis from Saddam Hussein, helping them exercise democracy and intercepting terrorism has dramatically belied the incalculable damage and destruction that afflicted Iraq and Iraqis. The dramatic high rate of Iraqi causalities, the destruction of the infrastructure, the exacerbation of ethnic and sectarian clashes that led to the rise of ISIS, the torture scandals at Abu-Ghraib, the heath, economic and political crises prove ironically that the U.S. intervention in Iraq was no doubt for achieving progress, peace and democracy and providing a better future for Iraqis. The U.S.-led war on Iraq has not only inflicted heavy losses on Iraq and Iraqis but also on America and Americans. America sustained losses estimated at about trillions of dollars. Most importantly, the allegations and lies that were later unveiled to be the pretexts the U.S. seized to occupy Iraq shook