There has been no more ridiculous sight over the past week than pundits suggesting the crisis in Iraq happened because the United States withdrew its troops too soon.

No attention, of course, is paid to the ways in which US policy facilitated the sectarianism now tearing apart the country. Nor is there any acknowledgement that the US ruling class and its allies are the single worst cause of suffering in Iraq since 2003 — actually, probably since at least 1991. Claiming that there is violence in Iraq because of the absence of American troops defies comprehension.

The 2003 invasion and subsequent occupation still scar the country. American white phosphorous use in Fallujah, for example, has led to rates of infant mortality, cancer, and leukemia higher than those reported in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Ample evidence suggests the US used depleted uranium, as well. Tabulations of Iraqis killed by the invasion vary but respected organizations come up with shocking totals: The World Health Organization put the number at 151,000 by June 2006; the Lancet estimated 426,369–793,663 by July 2006, Britain’s Opinion Business Research counted over a million civilians.