COMMENTARY: Looking Ahead And Learning Lessons From Iraq

With the arrival of spring, it’s a time for looking ahead - to blooming flowers and baseball and outdoor activities.

But, as we look ahead, it is sometimes necessary and important to look back. In recent days there has been a lot of looking back to what was happening 10 years ago when we were in the early stages of the Iraq war.

It’s particularly appropriate now because there are those who are beating the war drums for military intervention in Syria and Iran, two of Iraq’s neighbors.

Compelling as the case for action against the governments in Syria and Iran may appear at first glance - given their troubling behavior in a troublesome neighborhood - intervention in either would be fraught with high costs and complexities, not to mention unintended consequences.

And, not to mention the lessons that should be learned from our tragic misadventure in Iraq.

It wasn’t just the misinformation about weapons of mass destruction, though that ranks among the most damaging unfounded assertions ever propagated on the American public.

Remember also the reckless rhetoric - the threat of “mushroom clouds”; the implied but non-existent “link” between Saddam and al-Qaida’s 9/11 attacks;

claims that we would be “greeted as liberators”; and that it would be “quick and cheap.”

That led to a sadly premature “mission accomplished,” followed by a series of shifting rationales, all too mindful of Vietnam, as we became bogged down in what was in essence a sectarian civil war. We bumbled into a domestic situation our leaders didn’t comprehend. We were ill-prepared for what came after the invasion.

Neoconservatives were thirsting for military action to “reshape the region.” Though thoroughly discredited, some of the more prominent neo-cons are still given prominence in the media.

More than 1.5 million Americans served in Iraq and we paid a high cost in blood and treasure - in addition to the ghastly Iraqi casualties. Let it be said the U.S. forces who served there were placed in an extremely diftcult situation as a result of unwise decisions made in Washington.

Noting an “evil tyrant” was deposed in Iraq,Arkansas Rep. Tom Cotton, who served in Iraq, says the war was “a just and noble cause.”

Looking at the record and considering the casualty tolls, the trillions of dollars in costs, and such developments as the current cozy relationship between the Iraq government and Iran, it is hard to make a case that the war was in U.S. interests or that it paid dividends in international relations.

Despite the false pretenses and the arrogant miscalculations, all the blame can’t be placed on the Bush administration.

Congress, with a few notable exceptions, deferred to the administration, consistent with a continual ceding of its responsibilities. These days, the congressional role in foreign policy mostly involves attempts to score political points. Had Congress taken its role more seriously and held hearings to probe the administration’s claims, itwould have generated more media attention.

On the day the Iraq war began, the late Robert Byrd, former Senate majority leader, one of the few who attempted to sound the alarm about the march to war, told me he feared we were headed down a tragic road but there seemed to be no turning back.

There were also voices of opposition in the media, but, collectively, the media failed to ask and pursue the right questions. Too many in the media and, in turn, the public, succumbed to the rally-round-the-fl ag fever the administration so eff ectively exploited.

Journalists such as Walter Pincus of the Washington Post, who doubted the case being made for going to war, were either ignored or saw their reporting buried in the far corners of the media.

The public too readily swallowed to red meat being served.

And those of us who diddoubt the dubious assertions and unsubstantiated claims being made should have been more vociferous in expressing our doubts.

Simply put, the Iraq War was a colossal blunder. The current situation in Iraq is shaky at best. As noted, Iraq is now closely tied to the dogmatists in Iran. Violence remains endemic and the country is a tinderbox.

So, as we look ahead and face the need to get our own economic/budgetary house in order, it is also important to look back at our costly misadventure.

The United States does not need to abandon its global leadership role, but to establish clear priorities and to use our resources and power wisely. There are undeniable and explicit lessons from Iraq that we should apply to any calls for future U.S. military engagements.

HOYT PURVIS IS A JOURNALISM AND INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS PROFESSOR.