The Disaster in Iraq

Last year we were told, many dozens of times, why going to war in Iraq was a good idea. The Bush Administration convinced countless Americans that Saddam Hussein was a real threat to the world, and conveniently ignored the threats of North Korea and al-Qaeda or the promises we made to the Afghans in the Administration's first war.

The major reason that we were going to war, we were told, was because Saddam had weapons of mass destruction. Not willing to allow diplomacy a chance (yet another outrage) the Administration moved American troops in.

Over one year later, our only victory has really been the capture of Saddam. Americans soldiers are dying in Iraq, American troops designated as "prison guards" are abusing Iraqi prisoners, and Americans have yet to find any weapons of mass destruction.

It's great that Saddam is behind bars. But Iraq has turned into a major disaster. American troops simply can't keep order in Iraq. And the war that we went into to ensure "our safety" is costing us billions and billions of dollars. Pretty much everything in Iraq right now is going badly. Consider:

• The high cost of the war that American taxpayers are shouldering, when we chose to go our own path and ignore the UN,
• The damage we are inflicting upon ourselves with embarrassing, humiliating scandals such as prisoner abuse,
• The number of American troops that are tied up in Iraq, (when they could be helping in say, Afghanistan or Haiti) and dying in Iraq,
• The fact that we have so far been unable to find any weapons of mass destruction,
• That private contractors in Iraq are paid more than our nation's men and women in uniform,
  
• That we cannot quell the violence that continues to erupt across Iraq, particularly in Fallujah,
• That we went into Iraq after having invaded another country and not sustaining our commitments to that country (Afghanistan),
• We have a double standard we practice in our dealings with other countries thanks to this administration's policy of choosing to ignore the world community and world opinion,
• That the administration expects our soldiers to be treated respectfully and under the Geneva Conventions by their captors when we abuse our prisoners and refuse to recognize their rights,
• That this war was proposed, planned, and executed for the benefit of major corporations like Halliburton
• That this Administration now plans to hand over leadership in Iraq to the Iraqis on June 30th, when the Iraqis are clearly not ready for the transition

Iraq has been a disaster for America. Will it be possible to correct the mistakes we have made and ensure that we leave Iraq better than we found it? Probably not if we can't get rid of George W. Bush.