It has been controversial since it began. It divided Americans: some watching as the number of troop deaths mounted, others warning that the costs were worth it if Saddam Hussein’s threat of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) had any merit. After over one trillion dollars invested in the country, no WMDs discovered at all, the capture and execution of Saddam Hussein, 4,000 dead American soldiers and over 130,000 Iraqi civilian deaths, many still wonder whether the Iraq war was worth it.
The average current college student was 10 to 11 years old when the invasion began. I remember staying up with my Dad late that night watching television and waiting for the bombs to fall on Baghdad, Iraq’s capital. I remember the “Mission Accomplished” banner after the fall of Baghdad just a few short weeks later. Then the insurgency began, for which nobody was prepared.
Bush’s claim that cutting off the head of the problem would immediately resolve it proved to be wrong as the United States found itself bogged down with al-Qaeda groups and Shi’a extremists using car and suicide bombs in hope of dominating each other through attempting to get their respective populations to hate and kill each other. It looked as though the United States was about to fail miserably, as critics said it would whenever the country attempts “nation-building”.
But then the surge happened and, after 120,000 U.S. soldiers were sent to Iraq, along with “Awakening Councils” that joined the U.S. troops to drive out al-Qaeda (whose brutal tactics had alienated large swaths of Sunnis), violence began to decline. As security increased, investments for Iraq’s oil reserves, which some argue are larger than Iran’s, helped to bring more stability to the country. Even after U.S. troops withdrew in December 2011, violence has remained relatively low. There are still the occasional bombings, such as the one that killed over 60 Iraqis on the anniversary of the invasion, but, overall, Iraq remains much more stable than it was throughout the insurgency.
However, problems remain. Iraq is a shaky democracy set up to distribute power equally among the three big ethnic groups: Shi’a, Sunni and Kurd. But after the attempted arrest of a Sunni vice president for supposedly running death squads, arguments began between the central government and autonomous Kurd regions. These debates were over who has rights to oil reserves. With numerous Arab Spring-style protests against the government of Nuri al-Maliki, a Shi’a that Sunnis accuse of becoming increasingly dictatorial, and suicide bombings continually trying to stir sectarian tensions, Americans may wonder if, in fact, the U.S. should have ever even invaded in the first place.
In the end, nobody can say that the United States made the right choice. Regardless of the critics that say it only stirred ethnic tensions, Iraq never did slip into a civil war or become a failed state. At the same time, a democracy was set up, but it remains incredibly fragile, particularly considering that for almost 11 months in 2010 the country could not form a government due to political infighting between Shi’a and Sunni politicians. Nevertheless, economically, the country has been recovering; tourism flourishes as millions of Shi’a pilgrims flock to mosques and shrines throughout the country. Foreign direct investment in the country’s oil reserves has helped to rebuild a crumbling infrastructure, and in the Kurdish regions cities bustle and commerce thrives, with virtually no violence. The Sunnis, however, claim to be finding themselves marginalized politically and economically, creating the potential for a new conflict as frustrations rise.
Whether or not you agree that it was a good idea to invade Iraq, never forget that despite the bad, many good things have happened in the country. This is a milestone for our generation and continues to be pertinent to an American foreign policy that promotes the establishment of liberal democracy around the world, as liberal democracies do not fight each other. Based on this logic, this war was in America’s national interest. A good choice? I am not sure, but it is something that will have a large impact in the Middle East for years to come.
Caleb Johnson is a third-year student with a double-major in international relations and history.