Did the U.S. Withdraw from Iraq Too Soon? >
We Should Have Left Iraq Far Sooner
The United States should never have invaded in the first place
January 23, 2012
About Christopher Preble:
Christopher Preble is the vice president for foreign policy studies at the Cato Institute.
Leaving Iraq was a wise decision; we should have left far sooner. The United States has gained little from the war, and the benefits will never approach what we expended in blood and treasure. Indeed, the war likely undermined American security, and would continue to do so if we had left our troops there for another decade, or more, as some of the most fervent advocates for war wanted us to do.
[Mort Zuckerman: Barack Obama's Middle East Miscalculation.]
Of course, the United States should never have invaded Iraq in the first place. The war was sold on false pretenses, but the most serious flaw in the war advocates' case was their reckless cost estimates. Some claimed that the war would be cost-free, paid for by revenues from Iraqi oil. Others ventured guesses ranging between $50 billion and $200 billion. These absurdly low estimates were sustained by the belief that Iraqi citizens would embrace a foreign military presence. They didn't.
The direct costs of the war totaled nearly $1 trillion, and the costs to care for those injured in the war is likely to exceed $2 trillion. The final tally won't be known for years. We could have spent this money elsewhere—at home, or in the hunt for al Qaeda and other terrorists in countless other places. Withdrawing from Iraq allows us refocus our attention and resources on building our nation here at home, and on addressing the few legitimate security challenges we face.
[See pictures of soldiers returning home from Iraq.]
The troops and their families have paid the dearest price. Over 4,400 Americans were killed in Iraq; nearly 32,000 more were wounded. Many more will carry psychological and emotional scars that don't show up in the official casualty statistics. We do not honor their sacrifice by clinging to the fiction that this mission was vital to U.S. security. It wasn't, but that is the fault of those who sold the war, not of those tasked with fighting it.
No amount of additional sacrifice by our brave men and women in uniform would change the final fundamental truth about Iraq: The Iraqis wanted their country back. Now they have it. I wish them well.
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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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#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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#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
