Bacevich writes: "The disastrous legacy of the Iraq War extends beyond treasure squandered and lives lost or shattered. Central to that legacy has been Washington's decisive and seemingly irrevocable abandonment of any semblance of self-restraint regarding the use of violence as an instrument of statecraft. With all remaining prudential, normative, and constitutional barriers to the use of force having now been set aside, war has become a normal condition, something that the great majority of Americans accept without complaint."
Ceremonies marking the end of the US military mission in Iraq are held in Baghdad, 12/15/11.
(photo: AP)
After Iraq, War Is US
20 December 11
This post is Bacevich's response to a question posed by the Council on Foreign Relations to four commentators: 'Was the Iraq War worth it?' -- JPS/RSN
s framed, the question invites a sober comparison of benefits and costs - gain vs. pain. The principal benefit derived from the Iraq War is easily identified: as the war's defenders insist with monotonous regularity, the world is indeed a better place without Saddam Hussein. Point taken.
Yet few of those defenders have demonstrated the moral courage - or is it simple decency - to consider who paid and what was lost in securing Saddam's removal. That tally includes well over four thousand US dead along with several tens of thousands wounded and otherwise bearing the scars of war; vastly larger numbers of Iraqi civilians killed, maimed, and displaced; and at least a trillion dollars expended - probably several times that by the time the last bill comes due decades from now. Recalling that Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and alleged ties to al-Qaeda both turned out to be all but non-existent, a Churchillian verdict on the war might read thusly: Seldom in the course of human history have so many sacrificed so dearly to achieve so little.
Yet in inviting a narrow cost-benefit analysis, the question-as-posed serves to understate the scope of the debacle engineered by the war's architects. The disastrous legacy of the Iraq War extends beyond treasure squandered and lives lost or shattered. Central to that legacy has been Washington's decisive and seemingly irrevocable abandonment of any semblance of self-restraint regarding the use of violence as an instrument of statecraft. With all remaining prudential, normative, and constitutional barriers to the use of force having now been set aside, war has become a normal condition, something that the great majority of Americans accept without complaint. War is US.
Central to [the war's] legacy has been Washington's decisive and seemingly irrevocable abandonment of any semblance of self-restraint regarding the use of violence as an instrument of statecraft.
One senses that this was what the likes of [Vice President Dick] Cheney, [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld, and [Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul] Wolfowitz (urged on by militarists cheering from the sidelines and with George W. Bush serving as their enabler) intended all along. By leaving intact and even enlarging the policies that his predecessor had inaugurated, President Barack Obama has handed these militarists an unearned victory. As they drag themselves from one "overseas contingency operation" to the next, American soldiers must reckon with the consequences. So too will the somnolent American people be obliged to do, perhaps sooner than they think.
Andrew J. Bacevich is Professor of International Relations and History at Boston University.
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Comments
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In Iraq - the same in Vietnam, Yugoslavia, Afghanistan, Libya .... we COUNT dead ONLY on our site.
" Americans .. must reckon with the consequences" and it is out of real of benefits and costs analysis.
These are like "volunteer" farmers to save their farm from forclousure.
Also how many died from their injuries? YES the number is likely double the official.
WAR is FUN - buy #1 billion $$$ game - XBOX - CALL OF DUTY - WARFARE III - for Christmas - learn how to kill Russians - the best KILLER WINS.
US is SICK MILITARISTIC CULTURE.
In fact this is not true. Most people in the world -- dare I say 99% -- feel the world was much better off with Saddam in place. Let's not forget that under Saddam and the Ba'ath party Iraq achieved the best living standards, education, health of the Arab middle east. 100% of Iraqis had clean water and sanitation, electricity, schools, and healthcare. Don't take my word for it; read the reports by the Defense Intelligence Agency prior to the 1991 war.
The US war against Iraq for the last 20 years is a holocaust -- 2-3 million people dead, 4-5 million in exile, an unknown but huge number of children with birth defects caused by depleted uranium, a totally destroyed infrastructure, ethnic cleansing that broke up neighborhoods, a gangster class that now runs the country, and it goes on.
Would these mo**er fu**ers at the Council on Foreign Relations pose the question "was the WW II holocaust worth it"? They can ask this question about Iraq only because they don't call it a holocaust. Remember Madeline Albright's answer to Diane Sawyer's question "was the death of 600,000 children as a result of US sanctions worth it." Albright replied "we think it is worth it."
We must stop taking such "academic" questions at all.
We murdered "last 20 years t -- 2-3 million people , 4-5 million in exile, an unknown but huge number of children with birth defects"
For population of 28 millions - 10% killed, 20% expelled - comes close what UN defined as GENOCIDE. All World knows who are WAR CRIMINALS here ...
The question regarding Saddam Hussein is moot. Good guy or bad guy, it is nowhere the legal prerogative of the United States to run around the world splurging U.S. Troops and Treasure on an illegal "ridding" the world of "bad guys".
Bush used to justify going after Saddam because Saddam gassed his own people. Yup, he sure did. He used chemical agents made in Langley, VA, launched from U.S. made helicopters, flown by U.S. trained pilots.
All of these goodies were gladly supplied to him when he was our closest ally against Iran. There are photos from those days showing Saddam proudly shaking hands with Rummy.
"Saddam was a bad man" is the crap they sell to slow-witted children. It should not merit consideration in an adult discussion of the matter.
As you astutely point out, can we actually countenance the expenditure of trillions in treasure, and tens of thousands in human life just to "stop" ONE bad guy who is NOT leading his own Reich, and who never was the *slightest* threat to the U.S. ?
Only when we need the oil.
The Bush regime did enormous damage to Iraq, and Iraqis, so manyy dead, maimed and millions desplaced both inside and outside of Iraq.
Iraq's infrastructure in shambles. How would you like a few hours of electricity a day in the hot, hot summers? A water supply seriously damaged too
More than 4000 of our citizens dead many, many more permanently injured, a lot of returning military committing suicide,.... DAILT they die.
An enormous cost of caring for the permanently wounded.
Not to mention all the money spent, which SHOULD have been used to take care of OUR citicens, educate OUR young and repair OUR infrastructure, that greatly needs it. All of this is terrible.
I will continue
A polite way of saying the Iraq War was just a bunch of bullshit! Bunches of us knew it at the start just as we know it now. We marched and we petitioned to avoid the war, but to no avail. The boneheads said they knew better...
Now that this debacle is ostensibly over with, one would think the wounds would be healing and the resentment against the Bush administration and their f*cking lies would be eventually forgotten.
But from my point of view, the end of the military action in Iraq has ripped the scab off injuries -- emotional, mental, financial, and physical -- that will never, ever go away!
HOW DAMNED WRONG THAT IDIOT WAS. Saddam was a monster all right, but unfortunately there are too many monsters, and we can not slay them ALL.
Bush managed all by his stupid self to put the world in MUCH GREATER DANGER.
He removed the BALANCE. SADDAM was the BALANCE TO IRAN.... OF COURSE Iran wants to get nuclear weapons, we showed them that we were not going to attack North Korea, although Bush named them as part of the axis of evil. BECAUSE THE HAVE NUCLEAR WEAPONS
With that balance gone Iran is in a MUCH, MUCH stronger position, they have far greater INFLUENCE on Iraq than the US does.
And all the HAWKS are now clamoring for a war with IRAN.
While weakening our own country, we are falling way behind China, Brazil and India, and we will NOT be able to catch
up, if we get into yet another war.
THANKS FOR NOTHING BUSH, YOU HAVE MUCH ON YOUR CONSCIENCE, BUT YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND THAT.
And the actions of Obama and our treasonoous Congress just go to show that this is so. The provision slipped into the most recent military funding bill that overturn the Posse Comitatus act and allow the government to use the military for "police actions" on U.S. soil is a clear example of why a natiuon cannot long be an imperium aborad and a democracy at home.
We have been a fascist state for quite some time, (if you apply the classic political science definitioin of fascism, which is when the wall between government and big business collapses and they each become an arm of the other.) Now we can add military-powere d police state to the signs of the complete and utter collapse of democracy in the U.S. Can you say Sieg Heil? If not, it may be time to practice. That phrase looks more and more like it will come in handy.
And, of course Iraq had NOTHING to do with 911. That was an inside job, done by elements of the U.S. government. And just look at what it has been used to justify!
Here is another lesson from history that is without exceptions: "Those who would sacrifice liberty in the name of security will soon have neither."
God help us! We seem to be far too stupid to help ourselves.
Oh, and if you want proof that 911 was an inside job, here is a site that shows you where that rabbit hole is: www.anonymousphysicist.com Don't go there if you have any desire to stay asleep and in denial about 911.
You sent me to a site to buy a book???
WHF???
Our money is worth nothing. Our technology is totally destructive and our level of real education is third rate. Our leaders are corrupt. Look at the idiots in Congress, the executive and the courts. Occupy is just a baby step in the right direction. There are positive things to be done and they better get started soon before the storm.
I think you mean "War 'R' Us".
"As they drag themselves from one 'overseas contingency operation' to the next, American soldiers must reckon with the consequences."
That "next" operation is not overseas, it is "battlefield America"; that much has been made clear recently. The "barriers set aside" are habaeus corpus, posse comitatus, the bill of rights, etc. What will be the "reckoning" when our emerging fascist state turns "them" upon "US" (probably initially as "peacekeepers") because the elites can no longer manage US with lies and fear?
Mr Bacevich: "force having now been set aside, war has become a normal condition, something that the great majority of Americans accept without complaint. War is US."
I ive in a suburb of Washington D.C. and I have
been selling: "No Afghan War" buttons for
the past 2.5 years, here in the area. I bring
in between $25 and $40 an hour. With my
profits I buy yard signs, and I go out and
knock on doors, asking people to take one
for their yard. In an hour I get between
4 and 8 signs accepted.
How come I have such success if Americans
at least in our area, speak out in such
numbers?
Alan McConnell, in Silver Spring MD
Sadly, in the U.S., joining the military does guarantee a long term job/career.
Will there ever be an investigation and or prosecution for sending our troops and dollars to a war based on outright LIES?
And worse yet, it seems Obama accepts "...Washington' s decisive and seemingly irrevocable abandonment of any semblance of self-restraint regarding the use of violence as an instrument of statecraft."
Just watch the next drone attack he launches!
"Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manners and of morals engendered by both. No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
~ James Madison, "Political Observations" 1795
Securing vital natural resources wherever they exist has been the publicly unstated but actual basis of American foreign policy since at least 1948, when the Kennan doctrine was written (see PPS 23). (George Frost Kennan was a senior policy planner in the US Dep't. of State at that time.)
That policy has never changed; the result being that the US has been involved in resource ineterventions/ wars ever since. Mr. Kennan, in his policy planning study, made clear that exporting American-style democracy or raising living standards in poor but resource-rich regions was "sentimental day dreaming" that the US would have to dispense with. He further stated that the US would have to use "straight power concepts" in dealing with these regions and nations. So we have.
What I have described in this comment is a matter of record, not opinion. Whether one is liberal or conservative, these are facts that have to be faced. The US has been and remains committed to capture and control of vital natural resources wherever they exist, and by any means necessary. It is up to the American public to decide if we should continue this policy.
By the way, Jill, the John Hopkins Institute ran a scientific survey back in 2007 to estimate how many innocent Iraqi civilians had died as a result of the illegal invasion of their country by the U.S. They estimated at the time that at least 1400000 Iraqis had died as a direct result of our invasion of their country. At the same time, they also estimated that well over 4 million Iraqis were made homeless and/or countryless as a result of the war. And, that was in 2007. I don't even want to think of the number of Iraqis that have died up till now and who will continue die as a result of the continued occupation of Iraq by the U.S.
What scares me is that the world community is so afraid of us, the U.S., that we, our country, can literally get away with almost anything and no one will make any attempt to stop us.
YES - plus the regular military combat troops are "ready" down in Kuwait "to protect Iraqi people".
US generals/crimin als started CIVIL war in Iraq - the same in Afghanistan, Libya, Syria, Palestine, Yemen ...
What negates this premise, however, is the failures of both 9/11 and Iraq. We failed to foresee or prepare for even the remote possibility of 9/11 despite numerous, blatant warnings, and failed to launch interceptors or share warnings when the planes were hijacked--our first Air National Guard holiday. And Iraq was pledged to be a "blitz" with "shock and awe" (lots of Nazi imagery) and over in a year, with Iraq oil paying for the whole enterprise.
Thus we now become the world's bully, while few--based on past failures and atrocities--tak e that threat seriously. Best restart it all with a national course in Diplomacy 101 before we walk into a real bear trap.
None of the above would have been feasible or even possible without another Pearl Harbor event taking place as specified on page 51 of PNAC's "Rebuilding America's Defenses."
Reference the following URL (PDF File):
http://www.newamericancentury.org/RebuildingAmericasDefenses.pdf
What happened on September 11th, 2001, was, in fact, a false-flag event signed off and authorized by probably by both Dick Cheney and George W. Bush. Literally everything that has happened so far since 9/11 is spelled out by PNAC.
I believe that we are in the trap and bear is dying (like CCCP did) -
Hope that some OPTIMIST find way OUT of this trap. I do not see any.
George Orwell wrote a very good description about a society obsessed with yet complacent to war in his novel, 1984.
Carlos de la Barra G.
Civil Engineer (74 years old)
Obama has been a big disappointment in not changing some of these corrosive policies, but he is clearly preferable to any of the current crop of Republicans, who would only accentuate the tendencies outlined by Bacevich.
Bacevich has btw written a terrific book called The Limits of Power - a must reading.
Thank you, Professor, for your clearly reasoned analysis.
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