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Did the U.S. Withdraw from Iraq Too Soon? >

We Should Have Left Iraq After Saddam Hussein Died

Mission to promote "democracy" in Iraq was an unobtainable objective

January 23, 2012

About Daniel J. Gallington:

Daniel Gallington is the senior policy and program adviser at the George C. Marshall Institute in Arlington, Va. He served in senior national security policy positions in the Office of the Secretary of Defense, the Department of Justice, and as general counsel for the U.S. Senate Select Committee on Intelligence.

If anything, we stayed way too long...

To begin with, the Bush administration should not be faulted for the initial decision to invade Iraq. We should remember that most of the world's intelligence services had determined that there were substantial weapons of mass destruction programs underway there. And, the removal from power of Saddam, his sons, and their dangerous regime was a necessary step to make objective determinations about the WMDs. However, the subsequent change of mission--to promote "democracy" in Iraq--was not at all realistic and extended the war for an unobtainable objective.

[See pictures of soldiers returning home from Iraq.]

At its best, post–Saddam Iraq is an uncomfortable association of three semi-autonomous regions, deeply divided along religious, tribal, and ethnic lines--with massive corruption at all levels of government and public administration. Accordingly, our "democracy" mission was simply not achievable without fundamental social, economic, and educational reforms that never happened. Furthermore, this degree of internal reform is probably unrealistic without wide-scale popular uprisings such as have occurred and are occurring in other countries of the region.

[Why America Is More Violent Than Other Democracies.]

In a word, I have long argued that we should have left Iraq after Saddam and his thugs were dead--and after we were satisfied beyond all doubts that there were no WMDs. While our motives to stay after that may have been pure, our logic was deeply flawed and reflective of our political naïveté. "Democracy" in Iraq--and in many nearby places--will continue to be impossible absent radical internal change.

 

Tags:
military strategy,
military,
Saddam Hussein,
Iraq war (2003-2011),
Iraq
Other Arguments
#1

Yes — The U.S. must pressure Iraq to avoid a new sectarian civil war

ROBERT ZARATE, Policy Director of the Foreign Policy Initiative

#2

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

#3

No — The United States should never have invaded in the first place

CHRISTOPHER PREBLE, Vice President for Foreign Policy Studies at the Cato Institute

#5
#6
#7

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

#8

Yes — The real winner in the Middle East will be Iran

HELLE DALE, Senior Fellow in Public Diplomacy Studies at the Heritage Foundation

#9

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

#10

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

#11
#12

No — The Iraq War cost the United States 4,421 lives and $806 billion

DENNIS KUCINICH, U.S. Representative, Ohio's 10th District

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