Home >> Middle East >> Iraq

     Email   Print 

Iraq: The Right War

Ross G. Kaminsky - 12/18/2005

"Was the war in Iraq worth it?" The Bush administration did a terrible job planning for everything after the military engagement, and probably got a bit lucky there too. But the war was just, mistakes or not. As demonstrated by the firing of General John Shalikashvili after he argued that occupying Iraq would take twice as long and twice as many men as President George W. Bush had said, it was clear that the Administration had not learned the key lesson of Vietnam: Don't let politics interfere with military decision making. To be fair, Bush & Co. did seem to learn from this fiasco and one does not hear this often.

I recently attended the annual retreat of the Leadership Program of the Rockies (http://www.leadershipprogram.org), which I'm privileged to be a part of this year where two of the speakers addressed the current situation in Iraq. First was retired US Army Major General Paul Vallely whom you might recognize from Fox News. Second was Zainab Al-Suwaij, an inspiring Iraqi woman who has been living in exile in America for most of the last 15 years and is now a major force in Iraqi education and in encouraging participation of women in Iraqi politics.

While the people they know and talk to in Iraq may be different, they both tell the same story: Things are going much better in Iraq and in the region than the media would lead you to believe. When the average Iraqi is asked what complaint they have about the American invasion, a common answer is "The Americans took too long to come here." Infrastructure repair is going well. The political situation, although very dynamic and under constant attack from non-Iraqi insurgents, does not seem to be tending toward civil war.

We may yet end up with a democratic (if not exactly liberal) country in the heart of the Middle East. Although the government will be dominated by Shi'ites, they are likely to be relatively independent of Iran. Furthermore, the Kurds will have major representation in the government. Although the Sunnis didn't participate in large numbers in the elections nor get any significant number of their own elected, the Shia and Kurds know that it is not in their interest to risk a civil war by abusing the Sunnis.

It appears that with some good planning, some luck, and some strength, Iraq may yet blossom not just democratically, but also economically. However, a good outcome for Iraq itself is not enough to make me say the war was a good idea or has been "worth it". In fact, for me it's less than half of the reason. This war was not just about Iraq (and certainly not about oil). It was about transforming the Middle East from a fundamentalist, dangerous back-water of the world to flourishing, stable democracies.

Although we can argue over whether Iraq was a substantial threat to the US or its interests, there is no doubt that many other countires in the region were, including Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, as well as Yemen, Egypt and Libya. Saudi created and harbored terrorists, as did Iran and Syria. They all funded and supported Palestinian murderers. The Saudis did so while pretending to be America's friends. Yemen had its share of terrorists including those who attacked the USS Cole. Egypt fomented Muslim fundamentalism by trying to "play nice" with them during the Anwar Sadat regime (and they paid him back with an assassination). And finally, Lybia sponsored terror while trying to build nuclear weapons.

The US had a serious problem: How do we cause changes of behavior in many countries at once, especially after we had been little more than a paper tiger for decades in the region with the exception of the first Gulf War?

There was no good answer, but the best of the lot was to invade Iraq. There was a chance that Saddam had "weapons of mass destruction" and he certainly had demonstrated a willingness to use them. But that argument was always a straw man for much larger strategic goals which the Administration probably believed were too complicated and/or too subtle for the American people to support the real reason for war: total change of the Middle East from an extremist rat-hole to productive nations.

Given the real goals for the war, which are clearly in our national interest, one can only conclude that the war has been worth it.

Saudi Arabia is curtailing the influence of militant Islam, especially in their education system where it does the most long-term damage. They are implementing local elections. Syria, while far from trustworthy, has just captured Saddam's half-brother and turned over to the Iraqis. They also seem to be moving towards withdrawal from their long-term occupation of Lebanon and the Syrian-installed Prime Minister of Lebanon and cabinet have announced their resignation to the cheers of the Lebanese people.

Yemen has handed down and upheld in court death sentences for the USS Cole bombers, while President Mubarak of Egypt announced he would allow opposition candidates to run in their upcoming election. And let's not forget the most immediate Middle East change that resulted from the Iraq War: Libya gave up its nuclear weapons program.

These countries, while still not behaving well, are far more restrained now that they see our determination to prevent threats emanating from the Middle East.

Iran is still a major problem, especially with their nuclear ambitions. But there is no doubt that even the hint of cooperation we or the Europeans get from them is due to their new-found respect for the USA's resolve in the region.

Many people forget that Bush is the most ideological President we've had since Reagan. He truly believes it when he says that freedom in the world is in our interest. Although it's going to be a long and arduous process, freedom appears to be on the march in the Middle East and militant Islam appears to be under attack by ... other Muslims and Arabs. For these reasons even more than for the liberation of Iraq, I believe the war has been worth it.

That said, I offer my deepest sympathy and profound thanks to those who have been killed or injured in the war and to those who continue to serve their country. It is due to their sacrifice that the dominos are finally falling.