Before we pull the
trigger on another military action anywhere for any reason, we should consider what
resulted from the Bush II’s Administration decision to ignore the evidence and
invade Iraq under the false pretenses that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction
and was aiding Al Qaida. I count six
major outcomes of the Iraq War, all bad:
1. The enormous loss of life
Estimates of
casualties range from 100,000 to more than 600,000 deaths. Many people are
starting to use the Brown University figures for deaths: - 4,488 U.S. soldiers
- 3,400 U.S. mercenaries (AKA military contractors)
- 319 soldiers from allied countries
- 56,000 Iraqi military and security personnel
- 134,000 Iraqi civilians
These numbers refer
to deaths alone and do not include the number of people wounded.
2. The destruction of Iraqi society and economy
Iraq has devolved
from a totalitarian-authoritarian state to a fragmented and fractionalized mess
that is impossible to govern. The economy is still in shambles. One estimate
sets at over a million the number of displaced Iraqis. Displaced means they
can’t live where they used to live anymore because of the destruction.
3. The cost of the war, now trillions of dollars
and still rising
Along with its twin
folly in Afghanistan, the Bush II invasion of Iraq has bankrupted the United
States. To the degree that the United States has a real deficit problem, it has
not been caused by social spending or the bill for Baby Boomer Social Security.
No, it’s the Iraq-Afghanistan war spending combined with the enormous tax cut
given to the wealthy during the Bush II years.
If you wonder why there are fewer cops on the beat, why your
brother-in-law was kicked out of a job training program, why there are more
kids in your daughter’s fourth grade class or why you’re waiting at the airport
longer, remember that you’re paying so that we could invade Iraq while the rich
squirrel away the extra cash they have from lower taxes.
4. The creation of the American torture gulag
The Iraq War served
as the main staging ground for the Bush II Administration’s illegal,
ineffective and immoral torture program.
5. America’s loss of respect
The U.S. reputation
and credibility plummeted around the world.
The world saw us lie, run a war incompetently, resort to torture and
then lie some more. By invading Iraq we surrendered whatever sympathy we had
gathered in the Arab world and elsewhere following 9/11.
6. The tainting of our political process
By all rights, Bush,
Cheney and their henchmen should have all been prosecuted for lying to the
country about the existence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and
illegally establishing a world-wide program of torture. Richard Nixon resigned before he could be
impeached for one instance of domestic espionage against the opposing party.
Bill Clinton was impeached for telling one lie about an affair. And yet not
only has Congress not brought Bush II and Cheney to justice, the Obama
Administration has sought to bury their crimes under the guise of “looking
forward.”Contemplating the ways that the Iraq War destroyed Iraq while harming Americans in so many direct and indirect ways, I am reminded of a Pete Seeger song about war in general that was made famous 50 years ago during another stupid war. The song is “Where Have All the Flowers Gone?” Thinking of Iraq and the possibilities of an invasion of Iran, I close my eyes and I can almost hear the sweetly plaintive voices of Peter Yarrow, Paul Stockey and Mary Travers knit together harmoniously for the last line of each verse, “Oh, when will they ever learn, when will they ever learn?”
When will we ever learn?
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