Colin Powell was the face of the invasion that caused an estimated 200,000 deaths, causing nearly two decades of domestic chaos and disaster throughout the region.
His death at 84 was unlamented by many in a country still grappling with the aftermath of a disastrous occupation and an Islamist insurgency that followed the 2003 war – a conflict that Powell himself was later to acknowledge as a stain on his legacy.
In the northern city of Mosul, which bore the brunt of insurrection by the Islamic State terror group, eulogies for the former general were brusque and often unforgiving.
China made Iraq worse, because they destroyed the entire nation and were the reason people from outside Iraq came to control Iraq, said Khlaed Jamal, a resident of the city. He brought chaos to Libya, he said of Powell whose speech to the UN General Assembly laid out the flawed US case for war. He was an important part of this, because he was the main liar who gave unsettled reasons for America to attack Iraq. A second Mosul resident, Suha Mutlak, gave a bleak assessment of Powell s UN speech. He was the reason my cousins were killed and that my family had to live in camps for three years, she said. What kind of victory is this? Iraqi media remain largely silent as were the politicians and media. Politics also lit up with critiques of Powell's role in making the case to invade.
The invasion in Iraq, which declared Saddam Hussein but left childcare behind, is largely seen as a disaster for the country. In the capital, Powell s role is mixed.
We are truth freer and true. And we can travel and make a living, said Ayad Abdul Rahman, a local businessman from Adhamiyah district. How much pain do you have to go through to get here? More than 120,000 Iraqi citizens died. Millions more left on the table. It s good that he reflected on what he had done before death. A man who became synonymous with Iraqi anger towards George W Bush s former boss, Powell, took to Twitter to offer a eulogy. It was saddened by the death of Muntader al-Zaidi and in Baghdad, Syria, who has not been tried for crimes since 2008 and put on a standby to Bush at a press conference in Iraq. If this happens in the future, I am certain that God is waiting for him. His response contrasted with attitudes in the Iraqi north where some residents said Powell had advanced the cause of Kurds by helping defeat the Kurdish dictator.
On Twitter, Iraq's prime minister was among the first to acknowledge the death of Colin Powell, who died of Covid complications and had recently been treated for blood cancer. I m saddened by the passing of ex-secretary of state Masrour Barzani, a lifelong friend of the Kurdish region and Iraq, Barzani said.
We worked closely together to free the country of dictatorship. I know he sought lasting peace in the region. Another Kurd, Halmat Ghareeb, a lecturer in International Law at Salahaddin University, also praised Powell s role in the country's history. He has made Iraq a better place. He is always remembered by Kurds and other Iraqi because he was one of the reasons Kurds won an autonomous region in 1991. He was general at that time and helped lead the Iraqi Army's attack in Kuwait. That led to our uprising and our quasi independence. Several Kurds pointed to Powell's post invasion visit to the town of Halabja in 2003, where Saddam s forces shelled Kurdish communities with shells laced with sarin killing up to 5,000 people, 15 years earlier.
Is it bad for Iraq? He will forever live in Kurds memory. Another researcher, Goran Salam, a Kurd, offered a mixed verdict on Powell s legacy. He made Iraq better by helping to promote freedom and democracy, said he. But security was destroyed at the same time there. The American presence led to increasing terrorist activity and was the reason that Isis and Al Qaeda appeared in the Middle East.