OUR VIEW: President Obama's speech failed to grasp reality of Iraq War
Published: September 2, 2010
President Barack Obama announced the end of the American combat mission in Iraq during his address to the nation Tuesday night.
Too bad “end” is a relative term.
The president’s speech was predictable. Learning from former President George Bush’s disastrous “Mission Accomplished” speech May 1, 2003, Obama made it clear that violence will continue as a transitional force remains to assist the Iraqi security forces.
Obama failed to mention the grim details that have come out of Iraq this week, which isn’t surprising. Nobody wants the president to be a downer — that’s our job.
On Sunday, the Associated Press reported $5 billion has been wasted as projects are left unfinished in the hands of a shaky Iraqi government. That’s about 10 percent of the billions in American taxpayer money used to rebuild Iraq.
And according to audits from an independent government agency, this number is likely much higher.
The wake of this report is perhaps Vice President Joe Biden’s greatest gaffe — and that’s saying something. During a visit to Baghdad, Biden said the civilian government would be “just fine,” after U.S. combat troops leave, The Washington Post reported Monday.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
Likely more than one million Iraqi civilians have died as a result of the invasion, according to justforeignpolicy.org. Just last week, bombings in Iraq killed at least 50 people. Iraqi foreign minister Hoshyer Zebari said it was an “embarrassment” for the U.S. to withdraw when Iraq still doesn’t have an independent government, the Guardian reported Monday.
And the children’s hospitals, police stations and government buildings that stand empty as combat troops pull out — leaving a “transitional force” of 50,000 — illustrate the failure of this war.
We know the projects were delayed by civil unrest in the region. However, the blame can largely be placed on the previous administration for relying on shoddy intelligence that overlooked the likelihood of the growth of the al-Qaeda presence after Saddam Hussein’s removal.
Two examples of waste:
• $100 million went into a waste-water treatment system in Fallujah, Iraq, that can’t stem the tide of sewage flowing through the streets.
• In Khan Bani Saad, a city north of Baghdad, a $40 million prison stands empty.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers granted the $40 million contract to Parsons Corp., a global construction firm, to build the prison that would house 3,600 inmates, according to the Associated Press report. The project’s deadline was almost five years ago.
We’re sure Parsons Corp. was happy for the $40 million, but $5 billion of the American people’s money was wasted on reconstructing a country we aggressively invaded in 2003.
And Parsons Corp. isn’t the only private entity set to profit off the war. The State Department will double the number of private security contractors as the combat mission comes to an end, according to Reuters.
While this force is meant to facilitate the Iraqi government’s takeover of security, leaders are understandably angry at this announcement. Who can forget the 2007 massacre, when Blackwater guards killed 14 civilians?
And there’s nothing to suggest these private contractors won’t break the law again, even as Iraq regains its sovereignty.
Politicians and pundits will continue defending the war, saying U.S. troops removed a tyrant from power, “liberating” the Iraqi people. If liberating includes displacing millions in and out of Iraq, then we certainly succeeded on that front. The UN reports about four million Iraqis displaced as a result of the invasion.
But perhaps Iraqi civilians should have the last word.
Sheikh Nouri al-Diyaa, an Iraqi tribal leader, summed up the country’s plight perfectly in his response to Guardian reporters.
“When the Americans entered the country in 2003, we were pleased to get rid of one tyrant, but the Americans brought hundreds of tyrants instead of one,” he said. “Everything we dreamed of became a lie — a mirage in a desert.“
We’re glad U.S. troops are returning home, even if more are being sent to an increasingly controversial war in Afghanistan. However, the sad legacy of Iraq remains.
We can only hope citizens will learn from the mistakes made by our government’s foreign policy and not let our presidents aggressively invade countries in the first place.
Comments
jlevy 1 year, 5 months ago
The reality that President Obama and the overwhelming majority of Americans fail to grasp is that as long as we fought against the Iraq War at home then there was no way that we could achieve "victory." Considering how fierce opposition to the war has been I consider it an achivement that we managed to accomplish anything in Iraq. And what did we really accomplish? We overthrew a dictator, but now we are abandoning a new government in its infancy in the middle of one of the most violent regions in the world to contend with the growing super power that is Iran. The Iraqi foreign minister was right when he called this withdrawal an "embarrassment"; it's embarrassing because we quit when it got rough. It's only the second time in our nation's history that the governement allowed the public to determine foreign policy, but with troops still going into Afghanistan, we could very easily make it three. Those troops in Afghanistan are supposed to be gone by July of either 2011 or 2012, by the way, and unless we, as a nation, give our troops and our military leaders our support then we will be the generation that sees America fall to the wayside. In my opinion, that's not worth it.
dargus 1 year, 5 months ago
jlevy, you seem to fail to grasp that we are withdrawing at the request of the Iraqi government.
anonymous 1 year, 5 months ago
JLevy's comment represents the American Hubris that pervades the minds of our leaders in Washington. We must begin to ask ourselves at what cost must we continue in Iraq. We fail to ask ourselves how have come to be in this position. We accused others of being unpatriotic for not going to war. We failed to create an exit strategy, build international support, and outline concrete goals of war. Saddam Hussein was a tyrant, yet Iraq was a more stable nation that served to counterbalance the power of Iran. Today, the Iraqi government fails to meet the needs of its society. We must ask ourselves is the loss of American life worth Iraqi Democracy?
dio 1 year, 5 months ago
@jlevy
There are too many problems at home to start poking at what is wrong in Baluchistan or in Kandharachik. If you care that much about playing GI Joe and searching for invisible WMDs, well, you are free to go there... alone.
DeeinOK 1 year, 5 months ago
I agree wholeheartedly with the anonymous comment above. The entire basis for going to war with Iraq was one that was misguided to say the least. In fact, one could argue it was based on lies.
When dissecting Obama's speech one needs to examine how this administration walks a tightrope with publicly criticizing the war effort due to the loss of life that has already occurred and will continue to occur. (Can you imagine losing a child in a war and then have the Commander-in-Chief declare it was a senseless war?) Take that one step further and imagine a mother's horror if you know your child lost his or her life in vain because nothing good came of it. Think of the Iraqi loss of life as well. Dear God, I couldn't even fathom how that would feel.
I believe President Obama is making the best of a very bad situation. Thankfully, the combat missions have ended, hopefully those 50,000 troops still in Iraq will be returning home soon as well. He wasn't declaring "Mission Accomplished". He wasn't boastful, happy, energetic, and most importantly, he wasn't lying to the country. He walked a tightrope. One that was put there by the previous administration.
The huge vaccuum that is Iraq wasn't going to change overnight. Violence and loss of life are still very much a reality. At the end of the day, the President needs to continue to doing what he is doing and work to bring everyone home as quickly as possible without trivializing those brave men and women who lost their lives already.
localsooner 1 year, 5 months ago
Bush's orders to invade iraq failed to grasp the reality of war
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