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Is This War in our Best Interest?

Peter J. Hutnick

Monday, December 1, 2003

War is bad. People die. Good stuff gets blown up. The real question in the decision to go to war is: are the costs of not going to war greater?

The U.S. invasion of Iraq was justified. We had a treaty with them under the auspices of the U.N. Iraq abandoned that treaty. We, as a nation of sovereign people, have the right and duty to defend our interests, with or without the approval of the U.N.

Moral justification is undoubtedly a prerequisite to war, but is not sufficient on its own.

There was a widespread expectation that two significant elements of this war would play out much differently than they have. First, there was the expectation that clear evidence of NBC development, in direct violation of the Gulf War Armistice, would come to light once we had general control of the territory. The so called smoking gun. Second, we hoped for a more helpful, actively supportive Iraqi people. The famous video of Iraqis toppling the statue of Hussein served as a picture–perfect fulfillment of those hopes. The continued hostilities resulting in regular death and injury to U.S. forces run contrary to that image.

There seems to have been some sort of failure of Intelligence or planning.

Did Administration officials expect a more complete level of cooperation from the Iraqis? Perhaps we projected our own values and world–view on the Iraqis. Or our own self–delusions. We were thrilled to have France's support during our revolution. Maybe we expected the Iraqis welcome us as the American Liberators as the French did in WWII. Is it possible that we didn't comprehend that we would be seen as invading infidels; the only thing worse than Hussein?

Did the administration expect to turn up a smoking gun before now? Any discovery of less than Biblical proportions at this point will be immediately labeled as a fraud intended to lend credence to an unjustified invasion.

So we are left with Nation Building. A concept that President Bush decried in his 2000 campaign. An activity in which I was personally engaged in the Balkans during my enlistment in the U.S. Army. The President was right then, and is wrong now. The only way to successfully engage in war is with the objective of total victory. When we attempt to fight a war with no sides we inevitably fail. (Vis. Viet Nam, Somalia, Bosnia) It seems we have executed a revolution on another people's behalf, with the hopes that they would sign on once victory was at hand. Another modern counter–example of how to prosecute a war.

The conclusion to the thesis of this article seems to be no; this war is not in our interest.

What Now?

We find ourselves in an awkward position. If only we could simply say, Sorry about the mess. Of course we'll pay for the damages. We'll let ourselves out. There really isn't much of a precedent as to how to proceed after executing a revolution on the behalf of an unwilling populace.

Installing a genuine Democracy and leaving the scene with all possible speed would be ideal. The primary reason we did not assassinate Hussein during Desert Storm was the fear of creating a power vacuum. Democracies are fragile things, and Iraq is a country where meaningless elections are the norm. We can't simply leave now.

No choice remains but to see this thing through.

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