The five year American occupation of Iraq has been a glorious success... according to Dick Cheney.
U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney on Monday declared the 2003 U.S.-led invasion of Iraq a "successful endeavor", pointing to security and political progress on a visit ahead of the fifth anniversary of the war.<span id="midArticle_1"></span>
"If you look back on those five years it has been a difficult, challenging but nonetheless successful endeavor ... and it has been well worth the effort," he told a news conference in Baghdad after meeting Iraqi leaders.
Oh really? Let's take a look at some recent developments in our "successful endeavor," shall we?
Not counting the just shy of 4000 soldiers who have died there, the War in Iraq is doing wonders for American military morale:
Five years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, the US military is flagging under long and repeated deployments that have taken a toll on troops and hurt its readiness to deal with other crises.
"People are tired," is the way Admiral Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, summed it up at a congressional hearing last month.
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Shot through it all is the human fallout from combat and the stress of repeated deployments: record suicide rates, rising divorces and mental health problems, according to army health reports.
Some troops are in their third and fourth combat deployments.
"What it means is that the army coming out of Iraq will be a shadow of its former self," said Lawrence Korb, a former Pentagon official and senior analyst at the Center for American Progress.
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"Our soldiers are deploying too frequently. We can't sustain that," General George Casey, the army's chief of staff told Congress recently. "It's impacting on their families, it's impacting on their mental health. We just can't keep going at the rate that we're going."
Oh, I guess that's not it. Well, we have drastically improved Iraqi living conditions, right?
Five years after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, the humanitarian situation there is still among the most critical in the world, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Monday.
Because of the conflict, millions of Iraqis now still have insufficient access to clean water, sanitation and health care, the Geneva-based agency said in a report.
"Better security in some parts of Iraq must not distract attention from the continuing plight of millions of people who have essentially been left to their own devices," said Beatrice Megevand Roggo, the ICRC's head of operations for the Middle East and North Africa.
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Health care, water and sanitation services and electricity supplies remain largely inadequate. Hospitals lack qualified staff and basic drugs, and therefore struggle to provide suitable care for the injured.
The water supply has continued to deteriorate over the past year. Millions of Iraqis have been forced to rely on insufficient supplies of poor-quality water and sewage systems suffer from a lack of maintenance and a shortage of engineers.
"To avert an even worse crisis, more attention must be paid to the everyday needs of Iraqis," said Roggo.
Ok, so that's not it. How about political reconciliation? That's still working out great:
Iraqi leaders have failed to take advantage of a reduction in violence to make adequate progress toward resolving their political differences, Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said Thursday.
Petraeus, who is preparing to testify to Congress next month on the Iraq war, said in an interview that "no one" in the U.S. and Iraqi governments "feels that there has been sufficient progress by any means in the area of national reconciliation," or in the provision of basic public services.
Well, then, you can't question General Petraeus. So much for progress within Iraq. Maybe the "success" of the Iraq invasion is coming in the form of support from other countries:
America's image has perhaps suffered the most in the Arab world, according to Arab League Secretary General Amr Moussa.
"The situation is going from bad to worse when it comes to the image of the U.S. The feelings, the friendly feelings that prevailed for so many years in the Arab world vis-à-vis America and vice-versa -- but the recent developments in fact have derailed those relations and those feelings," Moussa said.
Tens of thousands of Iraqi deaths, the documented abuse of Iraqi prisoners, and the emergence of a Shi'ite-dominated government alongside Shi'ite-led Iran have made Arab allies uneasy about U.S. policies in the region. By all accounts, America's image as a champion of the rule of law and human rights has suffered as a result.
But the damage extends well beyond the Middle East. Mamadi Kaba is a human rights activist in Guinea.
"The reputation of the United States of America has been affected by the war in Iraq, [and especially] because of Abu Ghraib [prison abuses]," Kaba said.
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The Washington-based Pew Research Center monitors global perceptions of the United States through surveys conducted in dozens of countries. Pew President Andrew Kohut summed up the Iraq war's impact. "It has been one of the, if not the principle reasons behind the worldwide rise in anti-Americanism since 2001," Kohut said.
At least we know that the Brits will always stand by us:
Gordon Brown has promised that the Government will hold a full-scale inquiry into the mistakes made in Iraq before and since the invasion five years ago.
His concession marks a significant break from his predecessor, Tony Blair, who steadfastly refused to hold a wide-ranging inquiry into the war.
Mr Brown, however, insists it is not the right time for an immediate investigation as the situation in Iraq remains "fragile" and British troops are still trying to bring stability to the country. The Prime Minister said: "There is a need to learn all possible lessons from the military action in Iraq and its aftermath."
Fine, but I'm sure that we can still count on religious support for our Holy Crusade against Islam:
[Pope] Benedict [XVI] said [murdered Iraqi Archbishop Paulos Faraj] Rahho's dedication to the Catholic Church and his death compelled him to "raise a strong and sorrowful cry" to denounce the violence in Iraq spawned by the war that began five years ago this week.
"At the same time, I make an appeal to the Iraqi people, who for the past five years have borne the consequences of a war that provoked the breakup of their civil and social life," Benedict said.
He urged them to raise their heads and reconstruct their life through "reconciliation, forgiveness, justice and coexistence among tribal, ethnic and religious groups."
The Vatican strongly opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. In its aftermath, Benedict has frequently criticized attacks against Iraqi Christians by Islamic extremists. Last year, he urged President Bush to keep the safety of Iraqi Christians in mind.
So this is what a "successful endeavor" in Iraq looks like. The soldiers who aren't coming home in pine boxes are tired of fighting. We've failed in our humanitarian obligations to the Iraqi people. The Iraqi government refuses to put aside its internal divisions and work for progress. America's credibility is shot, even among our allies, and is possibly beyond repair.
This nation can barely withstand one more year in Iraq, let alone one hundred.
(Cross-posted at CrazyDrumGuy)