Five Years after Invasion of Iraq Bush Regrets Nothing

The American president continues to consider Iraq a “major strategic victory.” His fellow citizens don’t believe him.

Five years after appearing on television screens to confirm that the United States had started bombing a “regime of outlaws that threatens peace with weapons of mass destruction,” George W. Bush declared on Wednesday in a discussion with the Pentagon that despite the price paid since then, “to chase Saddam Hussein out of power was the right decision.” For the American president, the war in Iraq, which Americans will mark the fifth anniversary of on Wednesday, is a “fight that America can and must win.”

In his speech, George W. Bush deemed it “understandable” that the debate continues on whether the war is ill-advised, but delivered a familiar argument: Americans must fight al-Qaeda in Iraq in order to not fight them in the United States, that to withdraw too quickly would sow the seeds of “chaos” and toughen “terrorists” and neighboring Iran. He argued, in particular, that the progress had been accomplished since last year, when violence was close to reaching “the level of genocide,” thanks to a new strategy and the deployment of 30,000 additional Americans. According to him, this change “did more than reverse the situation in Iraq. It opened the door to a major strategic victory.”

Impossible victory for a majority of Americans

The American president is up against “those in Washington (who) still call for fighting by withdrawing.” He accused them of basing their argument on the conflict’s financial cost because they “are no longer credible if they say that we are losing the war.” The administration has quite a bit of trouble convincing Americans of these improvements in conditions in Iraq.

The democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, Bush’s opponenets, promise, on their side, withdrawal from Iraq, but by different means. Republican John McCain, like the current president, warns the public of the “chaos” that a major retreat would create. On Wednesday Barack Obama estimated that this war only causes problems for the United States’ national security by setting al-Qaeda, the Taliban, Iran, and North Korea against the U.S..

The war in Iraq has killed tens of thousands of Iraqis and nearly 4,000 Americans. It has caused millions of people to relocate. It has cost the United States hundreds of billions of dollars. It has reinforce Iranian influence, ruined the American administration’s credit, and has deeply divided Americans.

On Wednesday, opponents to the war hoped to assemble crowds in Washington, New York, Miami, Chicago, Los Angeles, and San Francisco. Sixty-four percent of Americans believe that the war is not worth the trouble it is causing, according to a survey carried out by CBS. Another survey by NBC and the Wall Street Journal indicates that, for 53% of those surveyed, victory is no longer possible.