At risk of being controversial, I offer the following thought points:
If there can be such a thing as an "official end" to a war, it was apparently today, as the last US troops left Iraq to cross the border into Kuwait. Was it all worth it?
Barack Obama, who voted against the war, had this to say today:
Quote:
President Barack Obama stopped short of calling the U.S. effort in Iraq a victory in an interview taped Thursday with ABC News' Barbara Walters.
"I would describe our troops as having succeeded in the mission of giving to the Iraqis their country in a way that gives them a chance for a successful future," Obama said.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/mid...?p1=News_links
|
Let's try and summarise what it achieved:
- deposed Saddam Hussein in 26 days, ending his dictatorship and eventually executing him, ridding the world of a tyrant
- showed the world that the US military is unstoppable in direct symmetrical combat mano-a-mano. M1A1 Abrams, stealth fighters, all the high tech was pretty much way out of Iraq's league, with their biplanes and pickup trucks with machine guns at the back. After all as Dubya said on a visit to Australia back in 2007: "We're kicking @ass." (this was at a time when Iraq was a more dangerous place than Afghanistan)
- plunged Iraq into a nine years of civil war and insurgency, with warring Sunni-Shia-Kurdish factions, with the US military unable to completely subdue an assymetrical force that they could not find or engage on the battlefield, until David Petraeus came up with the novel idea of bribing the tribal leaders to support the US (yes, money talks anywhere)
- hoped to find WMDs. None were found
- cost 100000 Iraqi and 4500 American lives and US$1 trillion (Dick Cheney said the war would be a "cakewalk" and would only cost $60bn - US debt skyrocketed during this period as Dubya cut taxes by $3 trillion during the same period)
- provided plenty of business for the corporate reconstructors who were to "rebuild" Iraq (Haliburton, etc)
- gave Iraqis democracy (the freedom to vote for who they want to), albeit without the checks and balances and institutions that democracy needs to work - that's for someone else (the Iraqis) to sort out presumably
- trained the Iraqi army, police force, etc. to hold a gun properly and more importantly point it at the right person
- made America's enemies hate it even more, and some of its friends to stop being friends, reduced American influence in the Middle East. Paul Wolfowitz envisaged Iraq as another Israel in the Middle East, today Iraq is closer to Iran than it is to the US
Some useful source material, including the statistics I quoted:
-
http://www.boston.com/news/world/mid...?p1=News_links
-
http://globalspin.blogs.time.com/201...he-middle-east
-
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com...e-kicking-ass/
-
http://articles.cnn.com/2002-09-27/p...PM:ALLPOLITICS
So was there actually anything good that came out of the war? I'm sure there was, but I struggle to think of much right now. Hindsight is 20/20. Was it the right thing to do? Where to now for the Iraqi people?
Here's what one of the last US soldiers leaving the country had to say:
Quote:
Capt. Mark Askew, a 28-year-old from Tampa, Florida who was among the last soldiers to leave, said the answer to the question of whether the Iraq war was worth the cost will depend on what type of country and government Iraq ends up with years from now, whether they are democratic, respect human rights and are considered an American ally.
"It depends on what Iraq does after we leave," he said, speaking before the final convoy departed. "I don't expect them to turn into South Korea or Japan overnight."
http://www.boston.com/news/world/mid...nds/?page=full
|