Ali discusses comparisons of invasions of Iraq and Ukraine

March 17, 2022 BBC Brazil

As the war in Ukraine rages on, many are making comparisons between the U.S.'s invasion of Iraq and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Javed Ali, associate professor of practice, discussed the comparison.

"It's easy to understand why people think the U.S. has no morals to criticize or punish Russia based on what we did in Iraq. We made tremendous mistakes in the Iraq War. The very decision to go to war in 2003 was a mistake, as it was not a necessary war at the time, despite the suffering of the Iraqi people under Saddam Hussein," he said. "And on top of that, it turned out that the justifications for the action were either flawed or not solid enough. There are some really painful lessons the U.S. has learned from the Iraq War, and it seems Putin is making the exact same miscalculations."