Iraq Four Years Survey

My friend Treasure of Baghdad kindly included me in a survey of Iraq and U.S. bloggers concerning the invasion of Iraq by the United States four years ago. Following are my responses. I encourage anyone to take part and answer any and all of the questions.

1) What was your opinion when the US decided to invade Iraq in 2003?

I was not in favor of the invasion to begin with, but I must admit to not being against the invasion. I was of the opinion that the decision has been made, we are going to war so you may as well pray for success and hopefully it will be over fast and to everyone’s benefit, Iraq and the United States, the latter being my country.
I also have memories of heated discussions with people concerning the invasion, but most people I know simply hate President Bush and cannot have an intelligent argument unless it has to do with America bashing or Bush bashing. There is no discussing specifics. This I have no time for and as a result act in a very defensive, negative bullying style that makes me sound conservative and a supporter of the war and the President, of which I support neither.
I HONESTLY believed that my country would not go invade another country, topple its government and install another without a well thought out plan. I mean, we have been dealing with this country since the first Gulf War. Surely we know the lay of the land, the major players. Why didn’t I notice that there was pretty much one voice for Iraq outside Iraq, and it was this guy Ahmed Chalabi. How could I have missed that he had not been in Iraq in, say, 20 years or more? And he speaks for the Iraq people and knows what it will be like when we go in? But then I also believed Mohamed El-Baradai and Hans Blix that the case for WMD was shaky. I guess I tried to believe it all and none at the same time.
I spent too much time on the fence, and my balls got busted.
Before the Gulf War of 1991, the U.S. Congress at least had an honest debate about going to war. At that point we were only 16 years removed from the ignominious retreat from Saigon. I was in college afraid of being drafted and can remember vividly thinking “I don’t want to go bleed all over the desert in some far away land so we can have cheaper oil and to put a KING, a KING mind you back on his throne. Didn’t we fight a war to put an end to that type of tyrannical rule?
The strangest part is that back then in 91 it seemed more real, as if it were affecting me personally. In 2002/03 they tried selling the Iraq 9-11 connection as a big reason and I didn’t buy it, yet still was silent. Was I asleep? Am I that stupid? My first reaction is yes, I was. But I also get annoyed at people who were so smart; they knew exactly what was going to happen.
I am ashamed of myself. I never considered just exactly what it means to unleash the Dogs War.

2) It has been four years since the invasion. Has your opinion changed since then? Why?

Yes. My opinion has changed with respect to the United States and its ability to effect change in the world, to help out other countries. How can we help those poor people in the Sudan when the full weight of the U.S. military cannot even keep the power on in Baghdad?
I can remember having a conversation about the war and its aftermath. I remember saying they will bring every able bodied Military Policeman, as well as International Police, the kind that are trained go in to post conflict areas and help keep the peace. How can I support people who didn’t even have that sense of forethought, when a slacking kid like me did? How can I support and have confidence in the very same people that caused this out of control situation?

3) Whom do you blame for the insecurity in Iraq? Why?
I put the blame squarely on the United States. The day the Saddam statue fell in Firdos Square, the United States under international treaties the U.S. is signature to, became the government of Iraq and from that day was sole entity responsible for the safety and security of the people of Iraq.
Therefore, if there were peace and stability the U.S. would have been responsible for the success and all the credit due accordingly.
Unfortunately the opposite conditions exist in Iraq, where death and murder and sorrow accompany every muezzin’s call to prayer.

4) What do you think should be done to quell the violence there?


I do not personally know any people from Iraq. I am in contact with one blogger from Iraq who currently is studying in the United States and I personally know only one person that has been to Iraq and he is an American reporter and therefore I am reluctant to make recommendations on what should be done in Iraq.
Until the people have confidence in the government to provide security the violence will continue. And what level of security would be acceptable to the Iraqi’s I have no idea. I know if it were my country I would want 0 car bombs and no drill hole corpses any more. I would want to be able to send my children to school and know that the cops on the street will make sure the street is safe enough for them to walk alone without fear of a stray ball bearing severing her artery because some young man feels so strongly in his position to strap a vest of plastic explosives lined with ball bearings and set it off at the entrance to a university. Why should anyone expect any less than that?
The people must also feel that their government of Iraqi’s is in control of their country, not a foreign ignorant occupier.

5) Do you think the US should withdraw its forces from Iraq now or not? Why?

No, I do not think the U.S. should withdraw its combat forces now. Having invaded and occupied Iraq, creating chaos and death on an unimaginable scale only to leave these conditions behind while not at least trying to help make it better, albeit late, the U.S. has an obligation to stay.
Again, this is difficult for me to make recommendations as I am so far removed from the situation, and we have the President to thank for this as he never asked anything of the American people. Wait, he asked loyal republicans who never had a passport to go to Iraq and create zip codes. ZIP CODES!
But I digress. Is the U.S. presence in Iraq only making it worse and if we simply left all the drill-holed bodies would stop showing up in the morgue? If we left would that mean the Sunni woman could go look for her dead husband at the Shiite morgue without fear of being raped? Will the Shiite pilgrims mourning Imam Hussain ibn Ali feel safe to walk with piety to Karbala without fear of being burned beyond recognition?
6) Do you think the war was worth it? Why?

No. All for one man? That guy in the rat hole who needed his teeth brushed? That guy? All those dead people for THAT GUY? An orgy of death and destruction on a scale rarely seen. As an American I am complicit and feel ashamed at what we did to the peace loving people of Iraq.

Guns or Butter

Every freshman macroeconomics student is familiar with the theory of “guns or butter,” a simple economic model that illustrates the balance a nation must make between military production and civilian needs. The model shows that as you add from one side of the ledger sheet, you must subtract from the other. With his current policies with regard to the War in Iraq, President Bush is attempting to have to have both guns and butter.

While waging a full scale war without putting any burden upon the civilian populace, Mr. Bush has cut taxes and sent roughly one million Americans, out of a total population of 300 million Americans, to Iraq. That number represents less than one percent of the total populace of the United States.

Unlike the state run planned economy of the Soviet Union, the United States is very diverse and global and hence can survive, even grow, during a sustained military campaign on foreign soil. This fact is striking given the current climate of tax cuts favored by the Bush Administration.

Thus the resilience of the U.S. economy to sustain a terrorist attack upon its very financial heart and then wage an all out war involving the full weight of the U.S. military while continue to grow makes it highly unlikely it will crack under the pressure. So the true economic model of guns or butter may not apply to these times involving this economy.

Societal, not Economic

The model guns and butter then is an allegory for what Mr. Bush was attempting to accomplish with his War in Iraq. He was trying so hard to have a full scale war while placing absolutely no burden on the nation as a whole. Thus, he was trying to have both sides of the ledger sheet rise at the same time. This is an impossible task, as his former Yale economy professors may tell him.

This lack of carrying any burdens has not been lost on the soldiers serving in Iraq. A constant refrain heard goes something like this “The nation is not at war, the U.S. military is at war.”

That statement shows perfectly the absurdity of a country attempting to fight and win a war without actually involving the whole country.

Think of that. We invaded and replaced a foreign government without ever having a debate, a declaration of war or involvement by the full weight and influence that a united nation can bring to bear, as the U.S. has done in previous successful wars such as World War I, or WWII.

Indeed, Mr. Bush speaks of this war in context of a struggle for freedom and our very way of life, much like World War II.

Imagine if Mr. Bush was President during those times. He
would cut taxes, have no draft and most likely be adamantly opposed to such socialist ideals as collecting rubber tires for the war effort. Don’t change your way of life or the Nazis win, one can almost hear the President saying.

This is why I get very confused, almost angry when I hear people like Vice President Dick Cheney and House minority leader the Honorable John Boehner say that the only way we can lose this war is if the American people lose their will for the fight.

Lose the will for the fight? How can we lose the will for something we have no stake in and have no idea what the reason for going to war was in the first place since it changes biannually?

Furthermore, an even worse point to consider is how a nation can expect to win a war when the leadership of that nation fails to include the entire populace and its vast resources in addition to its military might? Those brave men and women In Iraq deserve nothing less.

Political Settlement

British and Iraqi forces raided the headquarters for the National Iraqi Intelligence Agency in Basra, finding evidence of torture and abuse. This operation illustrates how difficult a political settlement will be to reach in this war ravaged country.

The raid was condemned by the Prime Minister of Iraq, Nuri Kamal al-Maliki as being illegal, while making no mention of the alleged torture or abuse by members of his own Shiite dominated Interior Ministry.

The P.M. seems more put off about not being informed of the operation prior to it being carried out than the conditions found by the joint Iraq U.K. raid.

This situation shows just how difficult a political settlement will be to attain in Iraq. The Prime Minister of Iraq was either complicate in the knowledge of the conditions at his government agency in Basra or he is unable to do anything to change those conditions in the south, where Shiite Militias including the powerful Mahdi Army of radical Shiite cleric Moktada al-Sadr hold most of the power.

Conditions in the south are significantly different than the one the Americans are dealing with in the capital city of Baghdad. In Basra there are few Sunni Arabs and the resulting sectarian blood letting that comes from the 1500 years old scab that was removed with the invasion by the Americans and their allies. Rather there is a myriad of Shiite groups vying for power, including the less publicized but no less lethal Badr Brigades of the leading religious Shiite party, the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, or SCIRI.

In what appears and attempt to keep the operation secret and the surprise element in place, the P.M. of Iraq was not informed. This was due to previous operations that were undermined by members the P.M.’s office tipping off the torturers, or having them released soon after capture.

This action then forced the Iraqi P.M. to condemn the raid and the raiders, the very members of his own government and the British, his ally in the fight to control his country.

Furthermore, the need for this operation and the way it was carried out brings into doubt the rosy scenario U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney and U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair recently illustrated as the factors for accelerated withdrawal from the south of Iraq of British troops.

This raid in Basra is a prime example how difficult a political settlement will be in Iraq when torture and abuse are overlooked while the people that rescued these victims from the ubiquitous drill hole in the knee cap are condemned as criminals.

The conflict between the forces of the Mehdi Army of Moktada al-Sadr and the Badr Brigades of SCIRI in the south of Iraq could well be a harbinger to the inevitable power struggle between the dominant Shiite parties for control of the entire nation of Iraq.