A Malicious Question

The collapse of U.S. strategy in Iraq has now materialized beyond any doubt. What has ensued in Iraq from the disintegration and failure of successive governments has demonstrated, beyond any doubt, the potential for undermining democratic freedoms and human rights with corruption, violence and sectarianism. All this has led to the so-called Islamic State occupying nearly half of Iraq, after taking the town of Ramadi and all the towns in between to the western borders, adding to its dominance.

The failure of the U.S. vision in Iraq became obvious when a sharp journalist asked Jeb Bush, the son of former President George Bush and brother of Bush, Jr., a question that shook the Republican candidate for the White House, leaving him speechless and unable to provide a satisfactory answer. He claimed that the question was hypothetical and could not be answered accurately. The question was, was the occupation of Iraq a mistake and would he have occupied Iraq after it became clear to everyone that it was wrong.

What’s embarrassing about this question is the prevailing attitude in American public opinion that the occupation of Iraq was a strategic mistake, especially after the absence of weapons of mass destruction was confirmed and after it became clear that U.S. sacrifices in Iraq, both physical and moral, had been in vain; add to that the Americans exhausting all possibilities for their military presence in Iraq, and replacing this with supervision and training tasks to rehabilitate the new Iraqi forces to replace them.

The funny thing here is that American journalists, famous for their embarrassing questions, have grasped the above-mentioned question and clung to it, not only to embarrass the new Bush-family candidate, but also to embarrass any Republican candidate likely to win in the elections. It will be hard for any Republican presidential candidate to admit publicly that the decision made by the last Republican president, Bush Jr., to occupy Iraq was a mistake, one that will be difficult to correct and overcome, currently looming like a huge burden on the American people. So, this question becomes a trap for every Republican presidential candidate, as was the case with Republican candidate Mr. Marco Rubio, who was having trouble publicly admitting that his former Republican boss, Bush Jr., had committed a historic mistake in occupying Iraq. So, like his opponent Jeb Bush, he resorted to the same old explanation to justify the occupation — that the world is now a better place than it would have been if Saddam Hussein had remained in power, as if overthrowing the former leader had been a crucial goal of the invasion and occupation of Iraq, and then surrendering the occupation to the emergency authorities, which consistently pulled the U.S. administration into this dangerous operation.

What is most dangerous today is the fear of American experts that efforts to train the new Iraqi forces were in vain, after seeing how the Iraqis withdrew the moment they felt the real risk of confronting the Islamic State group militants. What’s even more dangerous for America's strategic and military future is the rush to withdraw the Iraqi forces faced with the Islamic State group militants, leading to all the equipment and arms of the Iraqi forces being surrendered and awarding them like a gift to the militants.

Thus, the question of whether the Iraqi invasion was a good or bad decision has become an unpleasant question to each and every Republican candidate who, as an Iraqi proverb says, will "swallow the razor" or hurt himself with his lies, when he tries to find a convincing answer as to whether the decision was right or wrong.