Iraqi War Can Teach Us... If We Let It

When President Obama promised that he would withdraw all American troops from Iraq by the close of the year, I must admit that I was highly skeptical.  After all, the opposition our President has faced from the opposing political party makes any Executive proclamations difficult to bring into fruition.  So, needless to say, when December 15^th rolled around and the Iraqi War was officially ended and when the last of our troops passed from the Iraqi border traveling back home (or to Kuwait for the nearly 4,000 American troops who are only partially done with the deployment term) I was pleasantly surprised and, quite frankly, overjoyed. My feelings of joy quickly dissipated, however, after I realized that the end of the war was, well, anti-climatic and overshadowed by many more pressing issues.  Our country is currently dealing with a severely weak economy, a shockingly high unemployment rate, an unprecedented amount of political partisanship and polarization in Washington and a growing ‘threat’ in Iran (not to mention the recent death of Kim Jong Il and its implications).  The problem with an overshadowing of the end of the War in Iraq translates to a lack of proper reflection on the war and an assessment of the lessons learned.  In sum, I would argue that we are suffering from a ‘so what?’ attitude toward the end of the Iraqi War. 

For evidence of this ‘so what?’ mentality, one needs not look any further than television media.  Coverage of the Iraqi War ending is virtually nonexistent.  Instead, the media is focusing on the GOP primary and the struggling U.S. economy (understandable since both of these events help determine the future of our country).  What isn’t quite so understandable is the recent intense focus that has been placed on Iran and the promises of various GOP Presidential candidates to invade or strike Iran if they deem it necessary.

The question is, “Is war with Iran necessary?”  Well it seems that the answer is no.  Though it has been acknowledged that Iran has nuclear capabilities, there is no evidence that they are close to securing a nuclear weapon (to clarify, reports indicate that Iran is anywhere from 1 year to several decades from securing a weapon… also note that the 1 year estimates are toted and advertised mainly by Fox News and members of the Republican Party).  If we should learn anything from Operation Iraqi Freedom, we should learn that rushing to war is a big mistake, especially since our economy is so broken. Hopefully we will take some time to divert our psychic energies from our struggling economy and high unemployment and to the important lessons learned from Iraq.

Finally, I would like to address the critiques from the GOP regarding the withdrawal of troops.  The idea that the war should be ongoing or that there should be a continued military presence in Iraq is laughable.  Are these critics even qualified to make these comments?  President Obama is being advised by the top military minds in the country.  Surely our President wouldn’t push for a withdrawal unless he had reason to believe that it would make good sense militarily.  On the opposing end, we have Sen. John McCain and others saying that pulling troops out at this time is a huge mistake and puts our National Security at risk.  What credentials does McCain have?  Yes he is a war veteran, but he was never a general nor did he have any significant role in planning large scale military campaigns. 

In conclusion, we must get over this ‘so what?’ attitude regarding the war in Iraq.  According to the Iraq Body Count, over 100,000 Iraqi civilians were killed as well as thousands of U.S. troops.  Further, information from the UN suggests that 16% or roughly 4.7 million Iraqis are now refugees and approximately 35% of Iraqi children are orphaned.  Finally, consider the enormous amount of money we have spent on the war (according to a Brown University Report, $3.2-4 trillion spent on wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan).  When considering these numbers, hopefully we move from the question of ‘so what?’ and instead begin understanding the horrible costs of war and the importance of diplomacy in addressing international crises.  The Iraqi War can teach us to plan an exit and post-invasion strategy fully before engaging our enemies, and, most importantly to exhaust all diplomatic resources before planning military action.

~KJSW