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The Iraq War is Finally Over. And It Marks a Complete Neocon Defeat
Thanks to the toppling of Saddam Hussein, Iran's greatest enemy, Tehran's influence in Iraq is stronger than America's
The Iraq war is over. Buried by the news from Libya, Barack Obama announced late on Friday that all US troops will leave Iraq by 31 December.
The president put a brave face on it, claiming he was fulfilling an election promise to end the war, though he had actually been supporting the Pentagon's effort to make a deal with Iraq's prime minister Nouri al-Maliki to keep US bases and several thousand troops there indefinitely.
The talks broke down because Moqtada al-Sadr's members of parliament and other Iraqi nationalists insisted that US troops be subject to Iraqi law. In every country where they are based the US insists on legal immunity and refuses to let troops be tried by foreigners. In Iraq the issue is especially sensitive after numerous US murders of civilians and the Abu Ghraib scandal in which Iraqi prisoners were sexually humiliated. In almost every case where US courts tried US troops, soldiers were acquitted or received relatively brief prison sentences.
The final troop withdrawal marks a complete defeat for Bush's Iraq project. The neocons' grand plan to use the 2003 invasion to turn the country into a secure pro-western democracy and a garrison for US bases that could put pressure on Syria and Iran lies in tatters.
Their hopes of making Iraq a democratic model for the Middle East have been tipped on their head. The instability and bloodshed which the US unleashed in Iraq were the example that Arabs sought to avoid, not emulate. This year's autonomous surge for democracy in Egypt and Tunisia has done far more to galvanize the region and undermine its dictatorships than anything the US did in Iraq. And when the Arab spring dawned, the Iraqi government found itself on the defensive as demonstrators took to the streets of Baghdad and Basra to protest against Maliki's authoritarianism and his government's US-supported clampdown on trade union activity. Maliki hosted two Syrian government delegations this summer and has refused to criticize Bashar al-Assad's shooting of protesters.
But the neocons' biggest defeat is that, thanks to Bush's toppling of Saddam Hussein, Iran's greatest enemy, Tehran's influence in Iraq is much stronger today than is America's. Iran does not control Iraq but Tehran no longer has anything to fear from its western neighbor now that a Shia-dominated government sits in Baghdad, made up of parties whose leaders spent long years of exile in Iran under Saddam or, like Sadr, have lived there more recently.
The US Republicans are accusing Obama of giving in to Iran by pulling all US troops out. Their knee-jerk reaction is rich and only shows the bankruptcy of their slogans, since it was Bush who gave Tehran its strategic opening by invading Iraq, just as it was Bush in the dying weeks of his presidency who signed the agreement to withdraw all US troops by the end of 2011, which Obama was hoping to amend. But Senator John McCain was right when he said Obama's announcement would be viewed "as a strategic victory for our enemies in the Middle East, especially the Iranian regime, which has worked relentlessly to ensure a full withdrawal of US troops from Iraq". A pity that he did not pin the blame on Bush (and Tony Blair) who made it all possible.
The two former leaders' memoirs show they have learnt no lessons, even though their reputations in history will never be able to shake the disaster off.
Whether the lessons have been taken on board by the current US and British leaders is more important. NATO's relative success in the Libyan campaign is already being used to draw a veil over the past. Indeed, the fortuitous timing of Gaddafi's death has knocked the news of the US withdrawal from Iraq almost entirely off the media's agenda.
But the past is still with us. A key lesson from Iraq is that putting western boots on the ground in a foreign war, particularly in a Muslim country, is madness. That point seemed to have been learnt when US, British and French officials asked the UN security council in March to authorize its campaign in Libya. They promised there would be no ground troops or occupation.
This should also apply to Afghanistan where Obama claims to be fighting a war of necessity, unlike the war in Iraq which he calls one of choice. The distinction is false, and the question now is whether he will pull all US troops out by 2014.
On the pattern of the aborted deal with Iraq, his officials are trying to negotiate an arrangement with the Karzai government which will authorize the indefinite basing of thousands of US troops, to be described as trainers and advisers, after combat forces leave. This would continue the folly of fueling the country's long-running civil war. Now that al-Qaida has been driven from Afghanistan, Washington should support negotiations for a government of national unity that includes the Taliban and ends the fighting among Afghans. Iraq is no haven of guaranteed stability but, without the presence of US combat troops for the last 15 months, it has achieved an uneasy peace. If talks in Afghanistan are seriously encouraged, it could go the same way once foreign troops at last withdraw.
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Show AllI saw on network news the comments of a mother who lost her son in this war. "Over all, " she said, "I think our boys have done a pretty good job of defending the freedom of Iraqiis." Meanwhile in one of the many DP camps in Syria or Jordan the resentment and anger burns and the next terror plot against the US is being hatched. Oh. it may not actually happen for years, long after we have declared victory. The American public desperately wants to declare Iraq is a victory. So does the establishment elite which has engaged us in this war. But they are not taking the long view.
On behalf of the millions (dare I say billions?) all over the world who marched in the streets demanding that the US NOT invade Iraq in the fall and winter months preceding the March 2003 'mistake'...guess what? We told you so. War is obviously not an effective way to solve economic problems. It is, quite simply, a bad investment of the public purse. There is no fruitful return. The return is only in lost and shattered lives, and economies, the world over.
What we need is a defeat of the United States agenda. It goes by many names, and it is what hurts so many. The sheep are blind, but many people know the truth. The corporatist, globalist agenda is abusive, unsustainable, and mankind's cruel burden until we become free. OWS is our biggest hope yet to stop the shadows that keep this agenda alive for nefarious, selfish, narcissistic purposes.
The people who have made billions off these wars (and their distraction) are hardly "defeated". This proposition is so divorced from reality it must be propaganda, the idiocy presented here is not plausible.
Not even a nice try, this is like a 20 year old bootleg thesis, purchased off the net at a discount.
As long as there are US troops in Iraq, the war is definitely not over -- because Iraqis never stopped resisting. In fact, in 2011 the US has suffered more KIAs than in 2010 (according to the Pentagon's own data). Secondly, Obama is also still waging war against Afghanistan, Pakistan, Libya (the bombing of which was also secretly expanded into parts of Algeria), Somalia, Yemen, and now Uganda. The Neocons still rule the USA, just as Democrats rather than Republicans.
"You're not soldiers anymore, you're diplomats."
Too soon to say. The military, media, and universal surveillance aspects of our increasingly hard core fascist empire have all been advanced in both parties. On the other hand the popular resistance is deep and broad with 65 % wanting out of all wars. A third supporting the Occupy Wall Street insurgence against the corporations and 58 % sick of US politics. The majority is not as docile or trusting of the MSM as some here suggest.
The global resentment against the empire of banks and guns is also spreading. The neocon picture of how change might come to the greater Middle East and the false neo-con picture of the the people of that region has also been badly damaged. No war crimes trials yet ,though. That is what I would call complete defeat.
I do not think the families of those killed as a result of our unprovoked, criminal war(s) of aggression would agree with your jingoistic nonsense.
^^ troll
I disagree with Steele. It is not a complete defeat for the neocons.
There are reports the US will maintain control of Iraqi airspace which might include the use of drone attacks as currently conducted in Pakistan and Afghanistan amongst other countries:
http://www.desmoinesregister.com/article/20111023/NEWS09/310230066/1056/NEWS09/Paul-U-S-likely-keep-presence-Iraq
http://news.antiwar.com/2011/09/26/maliki-aide-iraq-agrees-to-buy-18-f-16-warplanes-from-us/
The US will also keep a large contingent of troops in nearby Kuwait and Turkey according to Panetta and Hillary:
http://news.antiwar.com/2011/10/23/panetta-assures-us-will-keep-large-numbers-of-troops-around-iraq/
http://old.news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111023/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_us_iran
By reducing Iraqi Oil production we kept the price of gasoline much higher than prior to launching the war. Remember the sub $2/gallon prior to 2003?
This chart says it all:
http://www.randomuseless.info/gasprice/gasprice.html
Keeping the wars going on has kept Iraqi production low and gas prices high which has helped all oil companies (incl. BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, ConocoPhilips, Koch Brothers etc.) make record profits.
Last I heard some of these companies got no-bid contracts to extract oil from Iraq:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/19/world/middleeast/19iraq.html
US based Oil service companies are doing very well in Iraqi contracts, see:
http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/tag/haliburton/
http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/tag/schlumberger/
Chevron is doing well also:
http://www.iraq-businessnews.com/tag/chevron/
I would anticipate hostilities would subside in the new Iraq by 2014. Whenever that happens, gas prices should start to come down but likely not to pre-war levels.
The Debt Commission was not reducing our current military expenditures, only saying they won't grow as much as forecast-ed. Our national debt is through the roof and is being used as an excuse for cutting social and job creation programs in the US (austerity).
The NeoCons have won!
The Iraqis are now fighting amongst themselves for their future. Hopefully they will settle their issues via free and fair elections.
Most US soldiers are happy to stop killing innocent elderly, women and children. Some will miss the fun and might continue here at home, ala:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Valley_of_Elah
The NeoCons have won again!
Excellent post.
as michael parenti points out, it was not at all a defeat. iraq was all but destroyed, the ruins privatized,- it's oil under friendly control, operation and exploitation. the giant embassy is going forward on schedule, the u.s. forces have been replaced by mercenaries, and above all, iraq is no longer an active threat to israel...
permit me to disagree. iraq oil must be sold to anyone at market price. the iraqi oil revenues , like the rest of the neareast countris, are the lifeline of these countries. all their budgetary plannings were and are based on the oil revenues. they can't survive without it.bringing oil availability to consumers as a factor into neareast politics is a destraction.
this either misses the point or is deliberate disinformation. the problem is to whom the oil is sold, and under what terms...
Billions were effectively laundered and 'lost'. Many many ancient artifacts, stolen, and placed into private collections. Trophies for the 'champions' who still hold sway over the globe.
mr steele, with all due respect, the neocons have a decisive victory in iraq. the primary reason for going to iraq is to destroy the country. and the agreement of the pundents today is that was done. the reason for the war wasn't the WSD, nor the mobile germ labs, nor the involvement of iraq with alqaeda, and nor to export democracy. the reason was the israeli neocons wanted war on iraq for sometime during the clinton administration when a letter signed by ten of them showed.israel demanded hegemony on the middle and near east, and that includes iraq demise. and it happened. they found a willing lacky to do their dirty war: the US. in my opinion, 18 months prior to the US election, a deal between bush and israel sharon was made when bush had a chopper tour of palestine with sharon.re, bush presidency for iraq demise, a quid pro quo.
looks like this "gentleman" has made a lifelong career out of "reporting" on the worst of humankinds tendencies. Perhaps he should have stayed home.
if eveyone ignores "it", won't "it "go away?
This is nonsense because the neocons have not been defeated but have simply joined the Obama administration. We have forgotten that the democratic party is filled with neocon warmongers like Hillary Clinton, Leon Panetta and the president himself all of whom have been busy expanding the American Empire all over the globe using drones and killing American citizens. There is no difference between Obama and Bush and even this news from Iraq is the Bush plan being put into action.
Exactly. The Neo-Cons still rule. They won.
A Complete Neo-Con Defeat... right.
How many neo-cons went to jail for war profiteering, or war crimes?
Zero?
I wouldn't call that a defeat.
How many made countless millions taking this country and all its people along for the ride in their war(s) of adventurism in the Middle East?
Pretty much all of them.
Neo-cons are smoking cigars and sipping fine scotch in their mansions and chateaus, they're buying up and hoarding their wealth, and are busy bestowing their billions upon billions of newly acquired dollars upon their familial and ideological beneficiaries — oh, and they're investing heavily in weapons manufacturing corporations!
They're also laughing their asses off in gratitude to articles like this (the very few who would read them). They're laughing right at you on prime-time television. Laughing right at us all, standing at the side of the president in solidarity, and cutting up and cavorting with their friends from both sides of the aisle.
Got this email from DNC
---------------------------------------
Democrats
Richard --
On Friday, the President announced that, by the end of the year, all servicemen and women in Iraq will be home. The war in Iraq will be over.
Watch the President's announcement -- then share this good news:
President Obama on Iraq
http://my.democrats.org/End-of-the-War-in-Iraq
As we reflect on how we arrived here, it's a time to honor the men and women who served in Iraq during the last eight years -- and be proud of our president, who kept his commitment to bring this war to an end.
Thanks,
Patrick
Patrick Gaspard
Executive Director
Democratic National Committee
--------------------------------
Sent this one back.
---------------------------------
Patrick Gaspard,
I beg your pardon, the US is being kicked out because it would not agree to Iraq's requirement to be able to prosecute US soldiers for crimes committed in Iraq we those soldier to remain there. Will Iraq be able to prosecute the mercenaries being left behind?
Thanks - Rich Smith