The go to guy on foreign policy issues has to be Daniel Larison of the American Conservative. Today he makes it clear that the Iraq war dead enders are wrong when they claim the Middle East and the world are better off without Saddam Hussein in power.
The hawkish argument that “the world is better off” because of the Iraq war isn’t just obviously false, but it’s the sort of desperate ends-justify-the means claim that only ideologues and propagandists find compelling. If we take Iraq war dead-enders at their word that they think the world is better off, this just confirms that they have no understanding of the consequences of the war they supported. More than decade of conflict in Iraq has claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, injured countless more, displaced millions, driven millions more into exile, and has brought about the complete ruination of an entire country. The war empowered sectarians and jihadists, and exposed the country’s religious minorities to an unending nightmare of persecution. Only a fanatic could look at the devastation wrought by the Iraq war and its aftermath and conclude that the world is better place because of it.
Hawks like to pose as clear-eyed moralists, but give little or no thought to the practical effects of the policies they support. They mouth phrases about rights and freedom, and help turn other countries into lawless killing fields. Hawks tend to assume that by smashing a bad regime that the U.S. is doing the targeted country and the world a favor, but by ushering in only more violence and destruction wars for regime change wreck the country and expose the world to dangers that would not otherwise exist.
No, Saddam Hussein was a tyrant and not a nice guy but you can certainly say the same about our “friends” the House of Saud who are currently in the process of destroying Yemen and have job openings for 8 sword wheeling executioners. The invasion and occupation of Iraq did accomplish a few things including:
- Further destabilizing an already unstable region.
- Directly made possible the growth of ISIS.
- Further empowering the Iranians.
This was all predicable and in fact was predicated by many. The fact that anyone is still willing to listen to these Iraq war dead enders is shocking. That Jeb Bush has employed these dead enders as foreign policy advisers eliminates him from any consideration to be the President of the United States.