|
Townhall...
Mission
Accomplished?
By Ken Connor
October 26, 2011
After
nearly a decade of deployments,
surges, and setbacks, after thousands of lives lost and over one
trillion in
taxpayers dollars spent, President Obama has announced that – in
keeping with
the timetable originally established by President Bush – all U.S.
troops will
withdraw from Iraq by the end of the year. At a time when the economy
is at the
forefront of America’s attention and concerns about an over-stretched
military are
increasing, many will view the redeployment of our Iraqi military
contingent as
a good thing for the country. Others undoubtedly will lambast the
decision as a
short-sighted abandonment of the mission in Iraq.
In
order to evaluate the wisdom of a
total troop withdrawal, several questions must be asked and answered. A
good
place to start would be to revisit the rationale that was offered for
our
engagement and ask ourselves whether or not it was warranted in the
first
place. The Bush administration built its case for war on the claims
that Saddam
Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction, that he was engaged in
dangerous
relationships with radical Islamist terror groups, and that this
combination of
factors posed a grave threat to the security of the free world.
At
the time that this case was
advanced, both the Congress and the American people found these to be
compelling reasons to move forward with combat operations in Iraq. In
the
ensuing years, as the insurgency exploded, casualties rose, and the
evidence of
WMD waned, public and political support for the war tanked. But then
there was
the Surge, which seemed to reverse our fortunes and offer hope that
Iraq was
not a lost cause after all.
Now,
as our engagement draws to a
close and we review the roller coaster ride that has been the last nine
years
in Iraq, what takeaways do we have that can inform our decision making
the next
time we are confronted with an apparent call to arms abroad? What,
precisely,
have we accomplished? Is America safer and more secure today than we
were
before the Iraqi intervention? Have our efforts succeeded in
establishing Iraq
as an anchor for democracy in the notoriously repressive region? Have
we
provided a framework for Sunnis and Shiites to resolve future conflicts
without
resorting to violence? Do the Iraqi people appreciate America for its
role in
liberating them from the tyranny of Saddam? Will the country descend
into chaos
without an American presence to maintain order and stability? What
return on
America’s investment of blood, sweat, toil and tears did the war yield?
The
American people deserve straight
answers to these questions, but so far no politician has stepped up to
offer a
candid assessment. Will Mr. Obama answer these questions? Will the
Republican
aspirants for President offer anything more than sound bites in
response to
them? Are they capable of addressing anything other than the economic
issues of
our time? They better be, because the so-called War on Terror has not
only
drained our treasury, it has taken an enormous physical, mental, and
emotional
toll on the young warriors and their families who’ve born the brunt of
this
war. For them, the price of our engagement has been far more than
economic.
During
military conflicts, the fog of
war often obscures the combatants’ vision, but now that our troops are
returning home, we must engage in a clear and sober assessment of
whether our
mission was really accomplished. We don’t need photo ops of the
President in a
flight suit on the deck of a carrier with a banner declaring “Mission
Accomplished,” we just need the cold hard truth. Was it worth it – why
or why
not?
Do
we have the courage to ask this
question given all that has transpired? More importantly, will our
leaders
answer it?
Read
this and other columns at
Townhall
|
