Appreciation can make a day,
even change a life.
Your willingness to put it into words
is all that is necessary.
Margaret Cousins
Iraq--10 Years Later
There are other, more ideological retrospectives. I was supportive of the invasion at the time; I saw Hussein as a destabilizing influence and he had never acted in good faith with the terms ending the first Gulf War. The UN botched the aftermath and was little more than a paper tiger. I remember being worried because the Pentagon did not have entry points through Syria, Turkey or Iran, so they were limited by land through Kuwait; obviously the military had more limited options. There were rumors of poison gas; granted, the Iraq military was no match for the nature and extent of the US military.
I think Hussein badly miscalculated; perhaps he thought that he had co-opted enough major world powers through sweetheart deals; maybe he was playing for international sympathy. But Hussein wasn't the sharpest knife in the deck. With hundreds of thousands of American troops in the area, Hussein had to know that Bush had to fish or cut bait. The US was less than 2 years after the 9/11 attacks; it was not prudent for Hussein to push the envelope under the circumstances.
The overthrow of Hussein was a good thing; I wish that the Iraq military had staged a coup which would have likely preempted an American invasion. That being said, there was something surreal about George Bush whom had criticized the Clinton Administration over nation building and whose own father had decided against finishing off the Hussein regime in the first Gulf War precisely because of the Pandora's box of sectarian strife.
Was it worth it? No. Not the cost in American blood (4488 fatalities) and treasure (according to Reuters about $2.2T, including veteran benefits); the military victory was quick and effective; but the US found itself in a case of "be careful of what you wish for". It was clear over time that the Bush Administration did not expect a long-term occupation and clearly muddled through the next 3 years until a change of leadership and strategy after the 2006 election. I'm not going to get involved in the ideological battle over whether Bush allegedly lied (I think it's clear there were failures in intelligence which went beyond the US' flawed assessment) or whether the war was justified. I think after a couple of dozen terrorists caused traumatic damage to the mainland on a limited budget, an anti-American war criminal who had tried to assassinate former President Bush, an act of war, and had access to oil billions was not going to get a lot of slack. I don't think you have to resort to polemics; clearly the Administration underestimated, inadequately planned and mismanaged the nature and extent of the occupation.
It's very difficult for me to judge Bush because I didn't have access to his intelligence briefings. But I don't think Iraq, a small country halfway around the world, poses a significant threat to the US, there are significant challenges to conducting a long-distance war, and as in the case of Afghanistan, there is a history of past occupations and/or sectarian issues. There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein was a rogue leader, and the world is a better place without him. But there are many rogue leaders, and it is not the US' responsibility to police the world; we have limited resources.
The above analysis was from my earlier, more mainstream conservative perspective. My perspective evolved when the Democrats overplayed their hand in the 111th Congress: it became obvious that the same government which has botched domestic programs isn't any better running other countries. A limited government includes limited external obligations, and we can't be the world's policeman. We must learn to pick our battles. Under that perspective, I would have almost surely never have gone into Iraq. Even if I inherited the occupation, I would have had the Joint Chiefs on a very short leash, questioning strategy and manpower staffing.
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| Courtesy of Pew Research |
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| Courtesy of Robert Ariail and Townhall |
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