What's likely to be the lasting legacy of the war in Iraq?
Posted at 5:00 AM on December 19, 2011
by Eric Ringham
(37 Comments)
Filed under: International affairs, Security
The last U.S. troops left Iraq on Sunday, ending a war that began more than eight years ago. Today's Question: What's likely to be the lasting legacy of the war in Iraq?
Comments (37)
Here's another legacy of the Iraq war: abandoned friends.
http://www.startribune.com/opinion/otherviews/135764293.html
@ Jerry, that was a accurate and concise summary of Iraq.
Although I would add this: Our political leaders interests are often at odds with what is best for the country and the people who serve in the military.
Folks can say what they want about Iraq. But I'll say this; The US never met it's objectives in Iraq. Period.
Although this is from Friday's questioon this response fits here too:
"@ Julia
Winston Churchill once pointed out that: "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing; after they've exhausted every other possibility"
The best government money can buy.....
Posted by Jerry | December 17, 2011 10:23 AM "
Clark, you are quite wrong. No matter how good the outcome turns out for Iraq in the coming decades, our immoral invasion will still have been a mistake, unless you agree with the Nazis' philosophy that the end justifies the means. (And just to be clear, most of the increase in the national debt since Obama was elected was due to policies already in place, such as borrowing money to fight wars while cutting taxes for the wealthy who don't fight them.)
Lots of wealth in the accounts of the owners of military contract companies and oil companies.
Sorry lefties, I simply do not believe you can make a judgement this early on the success or failure of our involvement in Iraq.
Though I did not support the war initially, it is far too early to make any judgements. At least, unlike the lunatic left, I will admit when I don't know the answert to a very diffucult question.
As far as spending is concerned, our current one term president has managed to increase our deficit by $4.3 trillion in his four years in office, most of which is not related to war time spending.
The lasting legacy is that millions of potential friends are now mortal enemies.
Yech...stupid question. If you haven't been there and experienced it you'll never really understand it. Now let flow the opinions, of which everyone seems to have one, just like something else everyone seems to have (unless you use a colostomy bag).
The possible good legacy will be a stable, prosperous, pro democracy state in the middle east. But regardless of how things turn out, it came at a huge price and for dubious reasons.
Clark - Curious...when you use ad hominem language like "lunatic left", you sound like an "I'm right, your [sic] wrong" commenter.
I'm not sure what will be the "lasting" legacy, but we're seeing the latest developments with an arrest warrant against the vice president of Iraq and renewed fears of tribal and factional violence.
The load of b.s. that Dubya and Cheney used to "sell" the American people on going to war in Iraq was mainly WMD. President Obama has used a much more thoughtful approach to our involvement in the countries in the Arab Spring. Also, he promised we would get out of Iraq and he now has kept that promise. Thank you to our military personnel for doing their best to carry out orders from the former Commander-in-Chief who unfortunately led our country into an ill-considered war.
The legacy? Pain and sorrow for the tens of thousands of family members of the 4,400 military men and women who lost their lives in Iraq -- for no good reason.
Pain and suffering, disfigurement, and PTSD for many of the tens of thousands of veterans wounded in Iraq.
800 billion dollars added to our national debt.
The legacy is that pre-emptive, deficit-financed wars fought by volunteers will be an option that otherwise reasonable people will continue to consider.
One of the reasons we were involved in Iraq was that Saddam was killing his people. This is similar to the reasons Obama is getting infolved now in the countries in the Middle East. Our military forces did what they could to help Iraq.
The legacy will be a (1) a debt of 40-70 years of military-induced injuries and related care costs (2) a destabilzed Iraq/Iran//Afghantistan block and an indigiunous population with highly negative views of the United States influence (3) an excessive burden on US debt for negative "real" gain. (4) That there are long term repercussions for arming "favorable" dictators ( we gave Saddam guns N money in the 1980's - see Donny Rumsfeld - for short term gain. We functionally created the Taliban from the Mujahdeen by indisciminantly handing out weapons, funding and training.
On the hopeful side - and primarily due to the broader national debt pressure - perhaps we'll finally cut the military cost as a %-age of GDP the global national-average. I think, in business, that's called efficiency.
I'd also like to think that the US global relations policy rethinks the limitation of remote sensing - while not abandoning it. Faux yellow-cake and aluminum tubes got us into the war. The US needs to be physically present in the world - not always as spies but more comonly as simple aid providers and business partners, to interact with, understand and develop friendships with nationals of other countries. That soft human intelligence has been reduced in the last 40 years as we defund non-military international cooperation programs.
JasonB, there is a bigger reason for the Iraq war then non-existent WMDs. It's called petrodollars and petrodollar warfare. It was a misguided attempt to boost the failing economy by a failed ex-oil executive and the CEO of Halliburton.
I am resolved to the possibility that it will just become a generic war in our collective memories, indistinguishable from any other conflict. In the future the general population will probably just think of it as a time when people fought and died for something, but not know why.
In the least I intend to revisit the subject occasionally to monitor for any historic revisionism. Maybe there is a more in-depth analysis beyond WMDs for why we invaded, but I haven't seen it yet.
Bad budget cutting policies at home to cover the war debt, GWB's failed experiment of lowering taxes during a war is already disastrous for this nation. Abroad it will probably lead to Iraq and Iran becoming strong allies and if things fall apart genocide of christians, sunnis and other sects in the country. Most likely a bad blow to women's rights if fundamentalists take over.
Within 5 years Iraq will erupt into all out civil war. We will prop up yet another dictator to reign in the peace with the agreement that the oil keeps flowing. Despite that gas will be north of $5 per gallon and the oil companies will still be showing record profits while the rest of our economy is mediocre at best. And we will continue to bicker and point fingers at each other refusing to acknowledge the real reasons for our problems.
The reinforcement of negative behavior. Connected contractors have seen a decade of reward for lobbying, political contributions, and big salaries for former officials. Unfortunately they would be foolish not to repeat the process.
I opposed the war in the first place. After the decision to invade, I was told to shut up, because I was supposedly "dishonoring" the troops by opposing what they were doing, and that it was unpatriotic to say I supported the troops but opposed the war. That's when I realized that what really dishonors our brave military personnel most is politicians sending them to fight for dishonorable causes. Our troops did their duty by the civilian leaders; the civilian leaders failed in their duty to the troops by using them for an illegitimate invasion. (BTW, I served in the military in the '80s.) I hope one legacy of the Iraq war is more restraint in American foreign policy.
Dear Clark,
A disaster, you say? How could you, left or otherwise, declare it anything else? It's a disaster for over 4,000 reasons to start. We had no business going into Iraq. It was a disaster because we allowed our President to use our armed forces to settle a personal vendetta. It was a disaster because we have yet to pay for the war, and the mounting interest is sinking our economic ship everyday. It was a disaster because we lost all integrity with most of the world, and in our meddling handed Iran, a sworn enemy, a victory economically and culturally by opening up Iraq to a Shiite majority. It was a disaster because we shattered countless lives, American and Iraqi for a very shallow reasoning. It was a disaster because we created yet another class of veteran, one who came home to a bleak economic future, and unfunded benefits.
It's not a disaster because of the political affiliation of those who took us to war, as you intimated so tenderly. It was simply a disaster, and would be such no matter who led us into Iraq.
Most wish to forget disasters, but this one is so consequential and damaging, that I hope none of us ever forget what a disaster this war has been. May it be a mistake we never repeat.
It' good to know that we can always depend on the Chinese to finance our wars.
Lasting effect,,, Debt and brave service men and women dead.
Our leaders and there war machine cronies are richer.
I vote for isolationism, and strong honest leaders.
∑
DTOM
One thing for sure, some veterans' benefits will continued to be paid well into the first decade of the next centruy.
Iraq war legacy? Waste of lives, waste of money, waste of time.
For all the reasons listed by those here who have posted comments, it will go down as one of the biggest blunders in American/World history. I'm glad we're finally out. We're not staying because unlike Japan, Germany and Korea, the Iraqis do not want us to stay. Fine with me.
Speaking as the son of Marine who survived the surprise attack from Chinese "volunteers" at the Chosen Reservoir in North Korea in November of 1950, I believe the legacy of the Iraq war will be the lasting PTSD episodes experienced by the veterans of this war. Long after our "15 minute attention span" of our society has moved on to other adventures these veterans will be dealing with this war in their memories. Minnesota's National Guard units hold the record for the length for Iraqi deployment. Is it a coincidence that it also has the highest rate of suicide in the country?
In addition to the huge costs in "blood and treasure," and the future obligations to wounded vets, there was an enormous opportunity cost. After the 9/11 attacks, there was a lot of good will toward America around the world, even among Arabs and Muslims, and we had a chance to use American power (hard and soft) for a good purpose in Afghanistan. The Bush administration squandered all of that when they lied us into war in Iraq. John Kerry was right: they took their eye off the ball to fight the wrong war. In the future, America will have no credibility if the time comes to rally our allies for truly necessary military action. I hope we never again elect a pair of chicken-hawks as president and vice president.
Hard to say yet. We gave the kids the keys to the car and said "no backs".
Yes, it was time to get out, but we need to have a bigger presence there. We are still in Germany, Japan, Korea, and we should have a somewhat bigger presence in Iraq.
With this, and the Arab Spring we will see if the Muslim world can live in the real world with personal and economic freedoms.
A very strange war.
I did not participate. Neither did any of my acquaintances, or their children.
I did not pay any of the bills. Neither did any of my acquaintances, or their children.
We deposed a nasty dictator who posed very little threat to the US and replaced him with a fragile, democratic government. Which only leaves about 50 nasty dictators who pose very little threat to the US in this world.
I suspect the Iraq war will go down as an inconsequential skirmish that set the US on the road to economic ruin, with no other real, lasting, geopolitical impact.
There is no question that the Iraq war added substantially to the federal debt. This was the first time in American history that the government cut taxes as it went to war. The result: a war completely funded by borrowing. U.S. debt soared from $6.4 trillion in March 2003 to $10 trillion in 2008 (before the financial crisis); at least a quarter of that increase is directly attributable to the war. And that doesn't include future health care and disability payments for veterans, which will add another half-trillion dollars to the debt.
As a result of two costly wars funded by debt, our fiscal house was in dismal shape even before the financial crisis -- and those fiscal woes compounded the downturn.
The global financial crisis was due, at least in part, to the war. Higher oil prices meant that money spent buying oil abroad was money not being spent at home. Meanwhile, war spending provided less of an economic boost than other forms of spending would have. Paying foreign contractors working in Iraq was neither an effective short-term stimulus (not compared with spending on education, infrastructure or technology) nor a basis for long-term growth.
Instead, loose monetary policy and lax regulations kept the economy going -- right up until the housing bubble burst, bringing on the economic freefall.
Saying what might have been is always difficult, especially with something as complex as the global financial crisis, which had many contributing factors. Perhaps the crisis would have happened in any case. But almost surely, with more spending at home, and without the need for such low interest rates and such soft regulation to keep the economy going in its absence, the bubble would have been smaller, and the consequences of its breaking therefore less severe. To put it more bluntly: The war contributed indirectly to disastrous monetary policy and regulations.
The Iraq war didn't just contribute to the severity of the financial crisis, though; it also kept us from responding to it effectively. Increased indebtedness meant that the government had far less room to maneuver than it otherwise would have had. More specifically, worries about the (war-inflated) debt and deficit constrained the size of the stimulus, and they continue to hamper our ability to respond to the recession. With the unemployment rate remaining stubbornly high, the country needs a second stimulus. But mounting government debt means support for this is low. The result is that the recession will be longer, output lower, unemployment higher and deficits larger than they would have been absent the war.
Reimagining history is a perilous exercise. Nonetheless, it seems clear that without this war, not only would America's standing in the world be higher, our economy would be stronger. The question today is: Can we learn from this costly mistake?
Hard to tell so soon.
What we do know is a President lied us into a war, in search of WMDs and then an false tie between Iraq and 9/11. We also had willing media beat the drums to war, eager it seemed to do so.
The Iraq war legacy goes back before we invaded, even before 9/11, to the Project for a New America (which included future Bush officials Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld) and their September 2000 report in which they discussed the need for the U.S. to establish a more permanent role in the Middle East, specifically targeting Iraq.
Tens of thousands of lives lost, hundreds of thousands injured, nearly $1 trillion spent, untold cost for veterans returning and a very unstable Middle East (and a very powerful Iran) seems to be the short term results.
In retrospect, it seems fair to say that unlike the war in Vietnam the war in Iraq has not tarnished the reputation of the American military. On the other hand it has not measurably elevated our country’s standing in the eyes of the world for strategic sagacity. It is unfortunate that we have ignored the wise advice of John Adams to resist the temptation to ‘go about the world in search of monsters to slay’.
To say that the U.S. military (and the U.K.) were doctrinally and materially unprepared for the nature of the conflict in Iraq is no great revelation. The rather naïve and swaggering entry into that country was a symbolic precursor to miscalculation. Mistakes were made but the substance of these errors was largely the making of pig-headed civilians and high-ranking bureaucrats. The brush of history already assigns the ownership for the largest and most fundamental errors of the Iraqi War principally to the hands of Bush & Co. and their acolytes.
Clark states: "This is a question that can be answered in perhaps 10 years. If democracy holds in Iraq than it should be judged a success."
Perhaps he is right but I doubt it. The whole enterprise from its mendacious origination was reckless and the American public has pretty much concluded so.
Personally, from the beginning I felt the war in Iraq was so astoundingly stupid that it beggared belief. It amazes me still that a sophisticated country using reason and logic would allow itself to be deceived and thrust into a tar pit for the second time in thirty years.
However, with the ending of our major military commitment in Iraq this month I am still compelled to thank those in uniform particularly the fighting troops for volunteering to shoulder this unpleasant task. In the line of duty they risked life and limb and endured long separations from their families. This commitment to duty is a reflection on the strong character and the best traditions of our armed forces.
Aside from having 4,484 Americans soldiers killed and having spent well north of one trillion dollars. Did I also mention the unfunded healthcare liabilities for the tens of thousands of our horrifically wounded war heroes?
I think we owe it to our country to reinstate the Draft. A policy that shares equally, the burden of our countries foreign policy decisions.
No one knows at this point. The lunatic left will state it was a disaster, but if it was up to the radical left, we would all be speaking Russian today.
This is a question that can be answered in perhaps 10 years. If democracy holds in Iraq than it should be judged a success.
If Iran continues to gain influence and create instability in the region, our involvement would be judged a failure.
The truth is no one knows, unless of course your a all knowing far left progressive, I'm right, your wrong politician.
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