The report does not paint a pretty picture of the war at any stage. Then Secretary of State Donald Rumsfeld's pre-war plan was
"...to conduct a quick, lightning-like operation in Iraq, followed by a swift handover of power to the Iraqis. He did not want a large-scale, ponderous operation like Desert Storm, which he saw as wasteful and outmoded. He also did not want U.S. Troops unnecessarily bogged down in an endless postwar peace operation."
How ironic to read that Rummy didn't want a Desert Storm like war-fighting force because it would be "wasteful", when that's exactly what we've got now to the tune of $10 BILLION (or as my husband puts it $10 THOUSAND MILLION) per month.
The post "Mission Accomplished" phase of the war can be summed up this way:
"In May, 2003, war "A" was ending, but war "B" was about to begin. We had a complex, flexible plan for war "A" but no such plan for war "B". War "A" was a rapid, high-tech, conventional battle, war American style, but war "B" was a protracted conflict, an insurgency with high levels of criminality and sustained sectarian violence, just the sort of ambiguous, asymmetric conflict that the American public finds hard to understand and even harder to endure.
From 2003 to 2007, reconstruction and stabilization activities...did not drastically improve under the CPA or the new Iraqi government in either of its forms. Indeed, many billions have been wasted and electricity and oil production still only match pre-war levels. There remains to this day a very limited capacity to execute meaningful reconstruction."
It is unbelievable to me that having recently "celebrated" 5 years of war in Iraq, the Iraqi people are about to suffer through their sixth summer of less electricity than they had before we invaded. Having lived in Cairo, Egypt in August, allow me to sum up what it's like in the middle east in the summer: IT'S FUCKING HOT. The temps in August in Cairo were as high as 120*. Luckily, we had air conditioning, pools, cool drinks and ice cream. Plus, we American women did not have to cover like Egyptian women did and do. The thought of living in Cairo in the summer without A/C and a pool is unimaginable to me, although I know the vast majority of Cairo residents do not have such amenities. It's even hotter in Baghdad, and I cannot imagine the misery of living in slums like Sadr City, with piles of garbage on every street corner and not enough electricity to run the generator more than 6 hours a day.
I would encourage you to read the "Errors in Decisionmaking and Execution" part of the report. It's long, and the laundry list of mistakes made is too much for my little fingers to type. But I will provide you with the conclusion to this report (which is actually at the beginning, not at the end):
"Measured in blood and treasure, the war in Iraq has achieved the status of a major war and a major debacle. As of the fall of 2007, this conflict has cost the United States over 3,800 dead [ed. note: 4,039 as of today] and over 28,000 wounded [ed. note: more wounded than we thought]. Fifteen percent of the Iraqi population has become refugees or displaced persons [ed. note: that would be the equivalent of 4,500,000 Americans]. The Congressional Research Service estimates that the United States now spends over $10 billion per month on the war, and that the total, direct U.S. costs from March, 2003 to July, 2007 have exceeded $450 billion, all of which has been covered by deficit spending. No one as yet has calculated the costs of long-term veterans' benefits or the total impact on Service personnel and materiel.
The war's political impact has also been great. Globally, U.S. standing among friends and allies have fallen. Our status as a moral leader has been damaged by the war, the subsequent occupation of a Muslim nation, and various issues concerning the treatment of detainees. At the same time, operations in Iraq have had a negative impact on all other efforts in the war on terror, which must bow to the priority of Iraq, when it comes to manpower, materiel, and the attention of decisionmakers. Our Armed Forces - especially the Army and the Marine Corps - have been severely strained by the war in Iraq. Compounding all of these problems, our efforts there were designed to enhance U.S. national security, but they have become, at least temporarily, an incubator for terrorism and have emboldened Iran to expand its influence throughout the Middle East."
That is the most upsetting and discouraging assessment I've read about Iraq to date. It is also probably the most accurate. We are in such a bind in Iraq it is almost not possible any more to figure out a way out. Either we leave Iraq in the state it is today - the most dangerous place on Earth with its elected leaders closer to Iran and less able to govern than we would have ever thought possible, or we stay in Iraq, spending billions every week, losing more Americans every month, watching our image as the "beacon on the hill" sullied daily with every errant bullet and every corrupt leader we support. We should have NEVER gone into Iraq, and despite what the Democratic political candidates say, we will be there in Iraq fighting George Bush's war for decades to come.
1 comment:
Well written article.
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