Did the U.S. Withdraw from Iraq Too Soon? >
Iraq Is Still A Work in Progress
Iraq's fragile coalition government has begun to come apart at the ethnic and sectarian seams
January 23, 2012
About Ilan Berman:
Ilan Berman is vice president of the American Foreign Policy Council in Washington, D.C.
Nearly nine years after the start of military operations in Iraq, the prudence of America's intervention remains a hotly-debated topic. What should not be is that, having spent nearly a trillion taxpayer dollars and forfeited thousands of American lives, the United States now has an enormous stake in post-Saddam Iraq, and a vested interest in its long-term success.
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In that context, the U.S. withdrawal from the former Ba'athist state, completed at the end of 2011, could carry enormous costs. President Obama's failure to extend our military presence can be chalked up, at least in part, to his own campaign pledge to wind down the Iraq war in favor of other priorities, as well as by domestic polling indicating that ordinary Americans have grown tired of that protracted foreign intervention.
But what might make sense on a political level is far less defensible on a strategic one. Already, there are alarming signs that, bereft of a stabilizing Western presence, Iraq's fragile coalition government has begun to come apart at the ethnic and sectarian seams. Just as troubling is mounting evidence that Iran—Iraq's radical eastern neighbor—is exploiting the opening created by a retraction of U.S. power to expand its own ideological and political influence there. All of which augurs ill for Iraq's geopolitical direction, and for the continued viability of its fledgling democracy.
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Three-and-a-half years ago, upon departing his post as commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, General David Petraeus warned publicly that, despite significant progress toward stability, the gains made by the U.S.-led coalition in Saddam Hussein's former stronghold were both "fragile and reversible." The years since have seen further forward momentum on post-conflict reconstruction, growing competence on the part of the Iraqi military, and heartening signs of real political pluralism. Yet Petraeus' admonition remains apt; Iraq today is still very much a work in progress. It is one, moreover, that requires sustained attention and support from the United States and its allies.
Without some form of a military presence in the country, the U.S. will find it exceedingly difficult to provide either. And, in the wake of withdrawal, it could easily succumb to the temptation to disengage politically and strategically as well. If it does, America will squander the gains made there over the past decade at tremendous financial and human cost.
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- Other Arguments
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#15527
Yes — The U.S. must pressure Iraq to avoid a new sectarian civil war
ROBERT ZARATE, Policy Director of the Foreign Policy Initiative
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#29068
No — The war should never have been launched--so it can't be ended soon enough
PHYLLIS BENNIS, Director of the New Internationalism Project at the Institute for Policy Studies
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#33928
No — The United States should never have invaded in the first place
CHRISTOPHER PREBLE, Vice President for Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute
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#42518
No — Mission to promote "democracy" in Iraq was an unobtainable objective
DANIEL J. GALLINGTON, Senior Policy and Program Adviser at the George C. Marshall Institute
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#53934
No — The withdrawal demonstrated to the people of Iraq and their neighbors that democracy works
LAWRENCE J. KORB, Senior Fellow at the Center for American Progress
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#73433
Yes — Iraq might take 15 or 20 years to become a functioning democracy
MICHELE DUNNE, Director of the Atlantic Council's Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East
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#73231
Yes — The real winner in the Middle East will be Iran
HELLE DALE, Senior Fellow in Public Diplomacy Studies at the Heritage Foundation
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#93031
Yes — Pulling the covers over our eyes and leaving the region is not a thought-through strategy
THOMAS HENRIKSEN, Senior Fellow at Stanford University's Hoover Institution and at the U.S. Joint Special Operations University
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#103035
Yes — The president, in his own words, wanted to fulfill a campaign promise
DANIELLE PLETKA, Vice President for Foreign and Defense Policy Studies at the American Enterprise Institute
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#11819
No — Arms sales to Iraq also will provide a continuing source of connectivity
DANIEL GOURÉ, Vice President at the Lexington Institute
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#124153
No — The Iraq War cost the United States 4,421 lives and $806 billion
DENNIS KUCINICH, U.S. Representative, Ohio's 10th District
