We Did it Wrong

The U.S. made the wrong plans for Iraq. We didn’t have enough allies. We didn’t have the “right” allies. We used too few soldiers. We didn’t use the “right” soldiers. We didn’t find the WMD (yet?). We didn’t plan “right” for the occupation. We didn’t anticipate the looting. We anticipated too many starving refugees. We didn’t pick the “right” people for the CPA. We didn’t schedule elections fast enough. We scheduled elections too fast. We spent too much money. We didn’t spend enough money in the “right” places. We killed too many civilians.

The U.S. made the wrong plans for Iraq. We didn’t have enough allies. We didn’t have the “right” allies. We used too few soldiers. We didn’t use the “right” soldiers. We didn’t find the WMD (yet?). We didn’t plan “right” for the occupation. We didn’t anticipate the looting. We anticipated too many starving refugees. We didn’t pick the “right” people for the CPA. We didn’t schedule elections fast enough. We scheduled elections too fast. We spent too much money. We didn’t spend enough money in the “right” places. We killed too many civilians. We didn’t impress upon the Ba’athists that they lost the war; i.e., we didn’t kill enough of them. We didn’t spin gold out of straw – oh wait, that was Rumplestiltskin.

As we approach the first anniversary of the final stage of the 1991 Gulf War, what we did wrong is beginning to be exceeded by what we and the Iraqis have done right – or at least done better than it has been done before.

Political development: The very existence of a draft constitution is a victory because it involved compromise – the single indispensable element of a free society, acknowledging the validity of views other than one’s own. Americans can be justifiably cynical about political compromise, but Iraqis have known only the exercise of absolute power by authorities that routinely kill their opponents. For them, compromise on elections, minority rights and the role of religion in society is historic and praiseworthy.

Human Rights: In Baghdad there are more than 100 newspapers, the seeds of unions and political organizations, and the CPA held the first-ever “town meeting.” Journalists don’t need “minders” or live in fear. A recent front-page story in a major American paper told of an Iraqi baby who died because the hospital had no incubator. It was a sad story, and tragic for the family. But this stands in marked contrast to the enormous suffering of every Iraqi family during Saddam’s rule. Sanctions, according to the UN, were responsible for 375 preventable deaths EVERY DAY for a decade (see JINSA Report 382). Saddam’s killing fields contain more than 300,000 bodies. Worrying about sufficient incubators for fragile babies is a HUGE step in the right direction.

Iraqi participation in Iraqi life is the main reason to have hope in the future of Iraq. Terrorists have largely turned their attention from American soldiers to those Iraqis whose participation is crucial to the development of a peaceful society – soldiers/police and Shiites. Despite the attacks on the Iraqi police and even the abomination of multiple bombings in mosques on a Shiite holy day (so only they were affected), both groups have refused to be intimidated or pushed into revenge killings.

Any serious critique of Iraq one year later would acknowledge American and allied errors of omission and commission. It would acknowledge that Iraq is far from a democracy and that political and security problems abound. But it would also acknowledge the fundamental improvement in life for the vast majority of the Iraqi people and their surprising willingness to engage in their own future.