In late October the media spotlight was on President Barack Obama as he announced the Dec. 31 withdrawal of U.S. military from Iraq — a spotlight that is perhaps premature.
The date to pull out was originally set under the Bush Administration as part of the Status of Forces Agreement between Iraq and the U.S. The agreement was noted to be a tentative one with room for postponement by Condoleezza Rice and others in the Bush Administration. Call it skepticism, but it’s not finished until the last troops are sent home.
You might recall a trend from the start of the war when President George W. Bush made statements that major combat operations were complete and that it would all be finished in May 2003. Or maybe you remember in May 2005 when Dick Cheney said the insurgency was in its “last throes.” Or maybe you remember that instance when Donald Rumsfeld said the war was not going to be a long one in February 2006. And then there was the time in March 2006 when President Bush said we would finish the war with “complete victory,” and then a few days later said we would remain in Iraq until at least 2009. While President Obama may have the best intentions of shutting down our military operations in Iraq, he’d be breaking a long-established cycle if he actually does.
Now it is true that President Obama has been vigilant about sticking to the deadlines set out in SOFA. He pulled troops out of cities in 2009, as was decided in the agreement, and has made statements claiming that troops will be home in time for the holidays. But it is still important that we don’t forget the cost of war on our nation and our world.
The moral capital of the U.S. has been degraded with torture and blatant lies about connections to 9/11 and weapons of mass destruction. We have spent roughly $1 trillion in the Iraq war — about 7 percent of our total national deficit. We have also lost more than 4,000 troops in Iraq and 32,000 troops have been were gravely injured. We have contributed to the deaths of countless Iraqi civilians. And most importantly, we have degraded our credibility and image across the globe.
But soon it will all be done, and we can go back to our other decade-old war in Afghanistan and listen to the news commentary on CNN, FOX and MSNBC about the impact of the war and the American heroes who fought it. So let’s hold our president to his word, but more importantly let’s remember the road that brought us here. There is no need for more death in Iraq.