The human toll of war
Ten years ago, television screens around the world filled with the ghostly flashes of nighttime air strikes on Baghdad. The raids on March 19, 2003, signaled the beginning of the U.S. invasion of Iraq. In December 2011, the last American troops departed Iraq, finishing what supporters call a mostly successful effort to topple a dictator and establish democracy, but what critics say left devastation behind for both the Iraqi people and thousands of U.S. military personnel who had been deployed there. On Tuesday, representatives of a number of human rights organizations gathered at Harvard Law School (HLS) to reflect on the lasting impact of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars and to discuss their efforts to hold the U.S. government accountable for problems there during the occupation and ongoing to this day. The event, hosted by the Human Rights Program at HLS, brought together representatives from Iraq Veterans Against the War, the Organization of...