Was the Iraq war worth it?

The cost of lives is significant, but this has to be evaluated over time. A big long shot, but if Iraq becomes a stabilizing force in the region...the net lives saved through prevention of future conflicts over 50 years could be positive.
 
Too many unknowns.....you can ask the same question about any war of the 20th century and the answer is probably the same....

"who knows?"
 
It could be 50 years before we can even evaluate it. For those concerned about the immediate, I guess the trillion dollars spent on it is not good, nor the lives lost.

The only other modernized country that is relatively in that area and has a 90% Islamic population is Turkey. Although we didn't topple the regime there, it took Turkey a while to stabilize from Ataturk's reforms, and even that country still has regions that are backasswards and messed up. I don't see Iraq getting an Ataturk any time soon, either.

I'd say the war was worth it if Iraq eventually does become a stabilizing force, kind of like a Switzerland of the Middle East where we can host summits and what not.
 
I would argue that any action which takes 2 full generations to judge actually can't be judged at all. That is just too much time and too many variables to track.

If you take the reasons for intervention as stated by Powell to the UN, then I think it was a failure. If you talk about the quality of life for the general Iraqi citizen, I think it is fair to say that the improvements have come at a fairly high price.

We all have hope for the future.
 
For people living in present times, absolutely not. For future peoples, no one knows. Hopefully the end times (is that what you call it?) will not arrive before we have a chance for an ROI.
 
No.

Iraq was not much of a threat to anyone when we went in. Waiting to see what would happen after Saddam died or was assassinated costs little. There was no good reason to make the commitment we did to get rid of him.

Our invasion and poor follow up created anarchy. It also created a terrorist presence in Iraq that did not exist before we rolled the tanks in. What becomes of this terrorist presence when we leave? Does it just dissolve? I don't think so. We are leaving new violent elements in Iraq that weren't there before we invaded.

If it takes twenty years or fifty years for Iraq to become the state some hope for, it will be hard to say that is was the doing of the US even though some will claim it to be so. Further, would you commit the soldiers and money we did for the hope of some vague outcome fifty years down the line? Would the American people have bought into that pretense? I don't think so.

Too many people died on both sides. Too much was spent by us.

To me, that's a fiasco.
 
Was the Iraq war worth it? I don't know, depends on who you ask.

Worth it for me? Not sure what i gained from it. Fortunately, i didn't lose any family or friends over there.

it would be hard to sit down in a living room with a mom or dad who lost a son in Iraq and ask them: "Was it worth it?"

Worth it for the United States? May never know.

Was it worth it for the average Iraqi? They were touched by this war more than anyone else. There lives in tormoil for years, family and friends killed, destruction of cities and business and homes. A ruthless ruler is gone. Was it worth it?
 
I think that with 20/20 hindsight GWB would not have engaged Iraq. Maybe that is the answer you wanted. Not sure. Our intelligence operation dropped the ball on so many fronts during that period.
 
iraq has significant strategic significance in the region, especially with iran now developing nukes. not to mention the oil which many of our domestic energy companies are producing. it would benefit us a great deal more to have a strong presence in iraq, rather than afghanistan. with us gone, iran will try their best to destabilize iraq and they will probably succeed.
 
OIlfield
"Our intelligence operation dropped the ball on so many fronts during that period. "
and actually the intel in most of the western world dropped the ball.At least as far as we know.

was it worth it? I agree with Bear. I bet we all have mixed feelings .
It is interesting, I have several friends who lost kids and or husbands. Of them all but one say their loved one felt they were making a difference and felt they were fighting the radicals there. Perhaps that is just a way to deal with the grief.
 
I would not be surprised if we have a third war with/in Iraq. It all depends on what Iraq makes of itself after we leave.

A weakened central government could complete our self-fulfilling prophecy with Iraq becoming a hotbed of terrorist development. A strong central government in the hands of a radical Shi'ite could also create a problem in the region that we would have to create an alliance to destroy.

I know a few Iraqis, and they're good men. Maybe that type of Iraqi can prevail and make a working state that desires to threaten no one. Let's hope so.
 
mcbrett
do you think it was right for France/chirac to violate the Food for oil Un program?
Of course that had nothing to do with their position of Iraq and Saddam.
rolleyes.gif
 
Personally, I think all the comments people above have made are fair assessments - just different perspectives. So far, a good thread.....
 
At some point you have to follow through with things or everything becomes posturing and empty threats.

If you invade your neighbor, we will put the smack down. If you dont live up to the terms of the agreement when we left the first time, we'll be back.

Say what you will about the Iraq, but at least we had the backbone to take action. The next time our enemies (NK, Iran, etc) think about getting stupid they will have to factor that in.
 
Absolutely not. I would reference the Sun Tzu quote that I normally do on these threads, but I assume that by now everyone who cares already knows.
 
RC didn't offer
bow.gif

It is too easy to not want to acknowledge that no matter how much we apologize and kowtow it doesn't make everyone love us and assure they will all play nice.
In fact listening and watching the attitudes of regimes we have thought were dangerous laugh and denigrate our current Admin it looks like apologizing has, at the very least emboldened some.
 
Hells yeah, it was worth it. I didn't have to pay for it or fight in it.

So hell yeah. Who's next? What's the next country that is gonna get some?! Iran? NK? You want a piece of me? I mean, well not me, but other Americans. Not me, personally.

China, do mind if you pay for it? I am not all that keen on helping to pay for our kick *** diplomacy. Bill my children in a few years, 'k?

In reply to:
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RC Didn't offer, good points. Only problem is that we just elected the guy who built his campaign around the fact that we should have just ignored Saddam and his invasion of Kuwait and everything else he did. So, what message did that send to Iran and NK? Welcome back Carter.
 
In jailhouse interviews Saddam has said that he never thought we would actually follow through. He was surprised! His main concern was he posture enough that Iran, their real enemy next door, also suspects that they have WMD's and dont invade.

These guys, the Saddams and Kim Jongs Ill's of the world, are going to realize that in this day and age, you cant posture about these kinds of things. You cant threaten to wipe out us or our allies off the map. We can and will bring you to your f-ing knees.
 
Waging war to assuage your insecurity about how the world sees you is insane and likely murder.

In the case of Iraq, did we prove that our military capabilities are particularly effective? We can depose a government with our tank regiments, but what about when the populace takes to the hinterlands and fights with snipers and roadside bombs? Then we just linger, kill and bleed. Such cost.

I think the threat of our military was greater before we demonstrated it in Iraq. The threat of American conventional power was greater in the region prior to the invasion than it is now. Sure, we can take ground, blow stuff up and cow the civilian populace, but then what?

Protracted unconventional war. Costly and often unproductive.

The idea of waging war to strut your toughness is the kind of insecure adolescent posturing that gets us into these messes. A lot of people want to get their vicarious badass on by watching war on the TV. It would be less costly to the nation and our soldiers if you took up paint ball.
 
Um, the (war, occupation, operation...whatever you want to call it) has not ended, so this thread is a non-sequitur. 50K + armed combat troops and 100K contractors remain, and nothing has changed.
 
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