The U.S. Confronts the Limits of Power

The candidate was in a good mood despite wearing the bulletproof vest. When the Republican presidential candidate John McCain arrived last weekend in Iraq, his visit served one primary purpose: he wanted to showcase his credibility and experience in military affairs. The fact that he happened to pick the most controversial military adventure in recent American history as a platform for this rests on the fact that the Vietnam war hero has chosen national security as the number one campaign issue.

No End in Sight for the Conflict

Five years after the invasion of Iraq by US troops on March 20, 2003, even the war’s most ardent supporters see the mission as a failure. And there is no end in sight for the conflict despite the improved security situation and the campaign promises by the Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, that they would quickly end the war should one of them make it to the White House.

The Iraq War is the legacy of President George W. Bush, and threatens to remain America’s destiny for some time to come. Of course, the President harbors the hope that some day “history will show it was the correct decision” to launch the war. But even the most enthusiastic supporters don’t view this war as a success. The results of this second longest military engagement in US history have been too bitter; former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright has labeled it “the greatest US foreign policy disaster since Vietnam”.

The central justification for war with Iraq-–the supposed existence of weapons of mass destruction-–has long since been shown to be a grand deception; Bush’s vision of democracy blossoming in the Islamic world has faded along with the hopes for stability in the Middle East. And the dream of a new world order under American leadership has receded into the distance. “The war has confronted us with the limits of our power” was the conclusion of a well-known policy think tank. The big winner in region is Iran, the aspiring nuclear power and avowed enemy of “US imperialism”. None other than Teheran’s President Ahmadinedjah was recently received warmly in Baghdad by Iraq’s leaders.

Meanwhile, Washington is coming to terms with the war’s mistakes, where the “coalition of the willing” was never greeted as liberators. There were too few troops in the 2003 invasion to guarantee security after the rapid overthrow of the dictator, Saddam Hussein. The disbandment of the army and the Baath Party left a dangerous power vacuum. The ancient tensions between the Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis were underestimated, as were the forces of insurgency and terror.

Finally, the reputation of the American troops was destroyed by the human rights abuses, such as the Abu Ghraib scandal. Iraq and the US have paid an enormous price for toppling the dictator Saddam Hussein: many thousands of Iraqis and nearly 4000 Americans have been killed. America’s reputation in the world as a force for freedom has sustained lasting damage.

Cautious Optimism

Not even the recent success of the troop surge in quelling terror has changed the attitude the American public. Polls continue to show that two-thirds view the war as a mistake.

Still there is some cautious optimism in Washington that Iraq will not turn out to be another Vietnam. But even among conservatives, only a few still believe that this traumatized population will ever really become the “Beacon of Democracy” that Bush envisioned.