Did the U.S. Withdraw from Iraq Too Soon? >
The Debate Over the Withdrawal Is Misplaced
Arms sales to Iraq also will provide a continuing source of connectivity
January 23, 2012
About Daniel Gouré:
Daniel Gouré is a Vice President with the Lexington Institute, a nonprofit public-policy research organization headquartered in Arlington, Virginia. He is involved in a wide range of issues as part of the institute’s national security program.
The current debate over the timing of the U.S. withdrawal of forces from Iraq is misplaced. The retention of a relatively small number of U.S. troops in that country would not have measurably effected its political stability. Conversely, the withdrawal of those forces will not particularly incentivize the various political factions to intensify their struggle for power. The U.S. maintained a very large military contingent in the Republic of South Korea even as that country went through periods of enormous political turmoil. ROK President Park Chung-hee was assassinated by the director of the Korean Central Intelligence Agency in 1979 and a short-lived military government came to power. The size of the U.S. contingent in South Korea remained relatively stable during the period of that country's transition to a full-fledged democracy. The presence of U.S. forces around the world for almost 50 years has been irrelevant to the comings and goings of governments.
[Why America Is More Violent Than Other Democracies.]
The United States retains the basis for a strong relationship with Iraq. The Department of State is operating the largest embassy in the world in Baghdad. Part of its responsibilities will be to maintain strong military-to-military contacts between our two countries through the Defense Attache's Office. Bringing Iraqi officers to the United States for advanced military education is a further way of maintaining a strong bond between our two countries and simultaneously inculcating in them the values of democratic governance and civilian control over the military.
[See a collection of political cartoons on the turmoil in the Middle East.]
U.S. arms sales to Iraq also will provide a continuing source of connectivity as well as serve as an indirect means of influence with the Iraqi government. Do not forget that the Iraqi Army is largely U.S.-trained and equipped. Iraq has signed contracts for U.S. military equipment worth at least $11 billion. These sales include F-16 fighters, M-1 Abrams main battle tanks, armored personnel carriers, and artillery pieces. Along with this equipment comes a training requirement and supply chain that will connect our two countries for years if not decades to come. This has been the U.S. experience in other countries; Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the UAE come to mind.
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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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#63026
Yes — Iraq's fragile coalition government has begun to come apart at the ethnic and sectarian seams
ILAN BERMAN, Vice President of the American Foreign Policy Council
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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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#124153
No — The Iraq War cost the United States 4,421 lives and $806 billion
DENNIS KUCINICH, U.S. Representative, Ohio's 10th District
