The Republican Presidential debate in Florida Jan. 24 was indeed civil and gentlemanly as described. As tame as it was, it was at least illuminating to see all five top candidates participating. While most issues aren't addressed beyond a surface level at these debates, one moment did stick with me.
That sticking point was the question to the candidates: "Was the Iraq war ultimately 'worth it' in cost and treasure to the US?" And all five save one said "Yes", faulting not the decision to go to Iraq, but the long term strategy of the military action. Yet when Ron Paul as the sole dissenter said "No" to applause, I felt like someone was finally telling the truth.
To add insult to injury, the four other candidates who answered yes to that question talked a lot about "success" in Iraq. Well, what the hell is success in Iraq? Can we even get close to an agreed-upon definition of success? I ask you, the poll is below.
Frankly I wonder how we succeeded at anything over there. We took down a malevolent dictator who we were told had weapons of mass destruction and didn't. For that, I imagine, there are at least some happy Iraquis. Is this success? If removing Saddam Hussein from power was our goal, why did we stick around so long afterwards?
We made what may have been a stable, protected hide-away for terrorists an unstable place to live. Are there no other hide-aways for terrorists and Al Qaeda? (Syria? Saudi Arabia?) Besides, are we really convinced terrorism is our biggest problem right now, or ever was? (see my previous diary).
Even if our leaders were to admit we went to Iraq for none of the above reasons, but purely to defend our oil supply, since it'll run out in 30-40 years, is protecting our petroleum interests success?
It seems the criticisms by both Republicans and Democrates are true - we had no hope for "success" in Iraq because whatever the original objective was, it was never followed up by an actual plan for completion. One "success" yielded future objectives until we were entrenched in a dangerous game of dominoes falling faster than we could shore them up.
I stand corrected. In Iraq, here's what we did succeed at. Killing thousands of US troops and creating one big cluster-fuck of a mess. The only question remaining is how do we salvage any semblance of success at this point?
Stop pouring gasoline on the fire. Throw down some ultimatums to whoever is the ruling party in Iraq, and make plans to get the hell out by the end of this year. We need to withdraw before we do even more harm - to ourselves and the Iraqis - than we already have.