This past week marked the 10th anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. It is a very emotional and somber anniversary. It is a terrible reminder of the tragedy of war and the inability of violence to solve problems.
The reasoning for invading Iraq was never entirely clear. There were reports of weapons of mass destruction in the country, and in addition there were some humanitarian considerations—Sadaam Hussein was a dictator who many believed needed to be toppled. We know now that the first claim was completely untrue. The second claim, though is more interesting.
As Americans, we view liberty as one of, if not the most important characteristic of a government. As such, we view dictatorships as inherently evil. Yet, we don’t try to topple every dictatorship in the world: we couldn’t if we tried, there are far too many. In fact, in many cases US diplomats are on great terms with foreign dictators; who can forget the pictures of George H.W. Bush sitting and talking with the dictator that his son would call part of the “Axis of Evil.”
Yet, in many cases, when a dictator doesn’t suit American interests, we decide it’s time to overthrow him. This is an interesting aspect of American foreign policy with far-reaching implications. One notable aspect of a war is its cost, both financial and in terms of life lost. It is estimated that the Iraq war has cost the United States $3 trillion dollars. For some reference, this is $10,000 per American, including children. If the US government had not invaded Iraq, it would have been able to give each American family of four a check for $40,000. Considering the financial turmoil of many American families, this money would likely have been a saving grace.
But more striking than the financial cost of the war is its cost in human life. Over 4000 American soldiers have been lost in the war, in addition to 3000 foreign soldiers. Statistically, those number aren’t all that large, they account for about 1/100 of one percent of Americans age 20-30. Yet, for people who knew one of those fallen heroes, that statistic can be far from comforting, knowing that their son, daughter, sister, brother, or friend was killed by gunfire or an IED in a desert thousands of miles away.
What has all of this gotten us? One would expect that having spent trillions of dollars and having lost thousands of lives, there must be some great result—that we must have accomplished something very important. Yet, we haven’t. As it would turn out, there were no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Some might say that even so, we have deposed a terrible dictator and given the Iraqi new hope for their country.
But to say that is to ignore the facts surrounding Iraq today. Firstly, it ignores the fact that over 200,000 non-combatant Iraqi civilians have been killed as a direct result of our presence in Iraq. That is nearly 1% of the entire Iraqi population and includes men, women, and countless children.
It ignores the fact that by many accounts, the quality of life in Iraq has deteriorated severely since we invaded it a decade ago. Ten years ago, the Iraqi economy was fairly strong. The Iraqi people grew most of their own food, had plenty of manufacturing plants that provided a wealth of jobs, and had a thriving oil industry that brought wealth into the nation. Now, Iraq imports most of its food, and the manufacturing jobs have all but vanished. Unemployment has ballooned.
One might expect, though, that at the very least the presence of America in Iraq has at least improved the opportunities of women in the country. But according to Zainab Salbi, an Iraqi woman and CNN contributor, the opposite has actually occurred. According to Salbi, women once enjoyed substantial rights in Iraq. Unlike in many Arab countries, they were allowed to drive cars and work outside of the home. She recalls that when she was growing up under the Hussein dictatorship, women in Iraq were factory managers, principals, and even doctors. At Iraqi colleges, one could witness young women learning alongside men. When it came to family life, women legally had equal rights when in regards to divorce, child custody, and inheritance.
Yet, in modern Iraq, things have taken a turn for the worse. The country’s government has been increasingly controlled by Islamic theocrats. The previously mentioned unemployment has hit women especially hard, and few now work outside of the home. The law that granted women equal divorce and custody rights has been repealed, and control over those issues has been awarded to Muslim clerics.
So, in summary, what has been the impact of the Iraq War? It has cost $3 trillion dollars, and over 200,000 lives, including those of 4,000 American soldiers. And its results have been to deteriorate the Iraqi quality of life (especially for women) while not improving American national security. So, in other words, it’s been a lose-lose situation for pretty much everyone involved.
Given all of this, we must ask ourselves, is war the answer. We have seen, time and time again, that wars seldom achieve their intended goal. Every war since WWII, Korea, Vietnam, and even Afghanistan, have been bloodier than ever expected and have fallen far short of their expected achievements. Perhaps one day, a lesson will be learned. War, what is good for? Usually, nothing.