IRAQ A Milestone On The Road Out Of Iraq Yesterday evening, speaking to the nation from the Oval Office, President Obama "declared an end to the seven-year American combat mission in Iraq," saying that "the United States has met its responsibility to that country and that it is now time to turn to pressing problems at home." While around 50,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, and will still engage in combat while carrying out what is now primarily a training and advising mission, yesterday's announcement by the President represents the fulfillment of a promise he made in February 2009, to have the majority of U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of August 2010. The President noted that, over the last decade in Afghanistan and Iraq, "we have spent over a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas," and that "as we wind down the war in Iraq, we must tackle those challenges at home with as much energy and grit and sense of common purpose as our men and women in uniform who have served abroad." Describing the new Iraq mission, Vice President Biden said, "We have a written agreement with the Iraqi government, signed by George W. Bush, binding President Barack Obama to withdraw all troops by the end of next year. ... But we have faith that the Iraqi troops who our sacrifices have allowed to be trained are in fact ready and will be increasingly able to supply total security to this country by the end of next year." Biden adviser Tony Blinken told reporters, "We're not disengaging from Iraq, and even as we draw down our troops, we are ramping up our engagement across the board."
DEFINING THE WAR'S LEGACY: President Bush's decision to invade and occupy Iraq remains controversial, though it's now obvious that the main justifications for the war -- Iraq's possession of weapons of mass destruction and a substantive relationship between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda -- were false. Several key decisions the Bush administration made, such as disbanding the Iraq army and the de-Baathification of Iraq's bureaucracy, fed a growing insurgency that was gathering steam even as President Bush prematurely declared in May 2003 that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended." The ensuing insurgency led to years of sectarian strife and the near-collapse of the Iraqi state. With the U.S.'s attention and resources focused on dealing with the Iraq insurgency, Iran was able to extend its influence both with Shia parties in Iraq and throughout the region, the Taliban was able to retrench in Afghanistan, and anti-American extremists throughout the Middle East drew strength from the constant images of death and destruction beamed out of Iraq via satellite. Many of these radicals gained expertise from tactics honed against American forces in Iraq.
COUNTING THE COST: While the ultimate legacy of the U.S. intervention in Iraq is still to be determined, it is possible -- and necessary, given the implications for future interventions -- to attempt to tally the war's costs and benefits to the national security of the United States. In May 2010, Center for American Progress analysts Matt Duss, Brian Katulis, and Peter Juul quantified the costs in their report, The Iraq War Ledger. While recognizing that the end of Saddam Hussein's brutal regime represents a considerable global good, the authors note that most of the war's other benefits very much remain in the realm of conjecture. A nascent democratic Iraqi republic allied with the United States could potentially yield benefits in the future, but the war's costs are very real in the here and now, with the current cost of Operation Iraqi Freedom hovering around $748.2 billion, and the projected total cost of veterans' health care and disability at $422 billion to $717 billion. As of yesterday, 4,416 American troops had lost their lives in Iraq, with more than 30,000 wounded and more than 39,000 diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Low-end estimates of Iraqi civilian deaths are around 100,000, with many more wounded, and over 4 million displaced both within and outside Iraq.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TIMETABLES: While the U.S. was bound by the terms of the withdrawal agreement signed by the Bush administration and Iraq, setting August 31, 2010 as an official date for the change in mission was President Obama's decision, and one with important implications for Afghanistan. It sends the signal that the U.S.'s deployments will not be determined by events outside of U.S. control, and that the U.S. will make the decision when it leaves. CAP's Larry Korb and Brian Katulis observed that, while the conventional wisdom holds that Bush's open-ended commitment of troops to Iraq created conditions for the U.S. withdrawal, "a closer examination of the facts demonstrates that the opposite is true -- in Iraq, violence declined because more Iraqis perceived that U.S. troops were leaving and took appropriate action." Sticking to a timetable for Afghanistan, Korb and Katulis write, "offers the best hope for us and the Afghan people because it will motivate them to take control of their own affairs and increase their own security forces."
Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) conceded defeat in her primary race against Tea Party-backed Joe Miller last night, after a count of absentee ballots made it clear she would fall short. "It's been a long week," Murkowski told reporters. "I don't see a scenario where we could win." Miller moves on to face Sitka Mayor Scott McAdams in the general election. In an address from the Oval Office last night, President Obama did not declare victory but said it was "time to turn the page" on the war in Iraq. The President also emphasized the dire state of the U.S. economy, and linked it in part to the war. "We have spent over a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas," Obama said. For a trip down memory lane, visit our Iraq War Timeline here. "The 10 banks that received the most bailout aid during the financial crisis spent over $16 million on lobbying efforts in the first half of 2010," as Congress was focused on debating its financial reform bill. The spending was 26 percent higher than over the same period in time in 2009. Deploring the suspected arson at the site of the future Murfreesboro, TN mosque, Gov. Phil Bredesen (D) said, "I would ask everybody to remember this is a country whose deepest origins are in religious freedom." The governor asked his state's residents "to please have great respect for anyone's religious preferences and their rights to practice those in the United States." Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. David Petraeus said yesterday that the Taliban is expanding its presence across the country even as U.S. and coalition forces close in on insurgent strongholds. "Levels of attacks have gone up and that's a manifestation of us increasing our resources substantially and taking away safe havens," he said, "And when the enemy's safe havens are threatened they fight back." Bomb attacks in Afghanistan killed 21 U.S. servicemembers within a 48-hour period, in what may be the deadliest year yet for American forces. Petraeus warned that the fighting will "get harder before it gets easier." The first face-to-face talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders since 2008 will begin today, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet with President Obama in the White House. Expectations are low, but U.S. officials are hopeful they can at least get the two sides to agree to a second round of talks next month. The Obama administration yesterday "formally challenged a court order barring the federal government from funding human embryonic stem cell research." The Justice Department asked U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth "to suspend a temporary injunction he issued last week blocking the funding and filed a notice of plans to appeal the decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals." And finally: Former GOP House Speaker and current FreedomWorks chief Dick Armey told the Texas Tribune that he's not interested in being the leader of the Tea Party movement because he's too busy caring for his goats. When asked if he would step up to lead the movement, Armey replied, "Oh, no, no, no, no. I've got 34 goats that depend on me daily. I couldn't be away that long." |
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"I hope he talks about the troops in a way that treats them as warriors, not as victims. I think that's an important thing for the President to do. He hasn't done it in the past ."
-- The Weekly Standard's Stephen Hayes, 8/31/10
VERSUS
"I welcomed some of our extraordinary military men and women and their families to the White House. They were just like the thousands of active duty personnel and veterans I've met across this country and around the globe. Proud. Strong. Determined. Men and women with the courage to answer their country's call, and the character to serve the United States of America."
-- President Obama, 7/10/10
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