We have now gotten to hear every Republican who has ever thought of running for president has been asked whether or not he or she would have invaded Iraq 12 years ago "if we knew then what we know now." It's a stupid exercise in political theater, of course, since we obviously did not know 12 years ago what we know now. For the media, there is only one correct answer: the candidates have to announce that the invasion of Iraq was a mistake since there were no weapons of mass destruction found. But it's not that simple. Events in Iraq since 2003 have had a lot of ups and downs. There's no way to know how things would have turned out if the Iraq War had never started.
For example, would Saddam Hussein have fallen in the so called Arab Spring? Would Iraq have intervened in the Syrian Civil War to overthrow the Alawaite Assad regime so Hussein could install a puppet Sunni government in Damascus? Would the Iranians have tried to undermine the Iraqi regime (which they detested) by using the Shiite majority in Iraq? Would there have been another war between Iran and Iraq like the eight year struggle that killed over a million people in the 1980s? Would the USA have troops stationed in Saudi Arabia to protect that country's oil installations from the menace of the Iraqis? Would Saddam Hussein have overtly or covertly supported al Qaeda and other terror groups? Would Libya have given up its nuclear weapons program without the fear that Gaddafi felt as he watched the USA bring down the Iraqi regime? Finally, would Saddam Hussein have restarted his chemical and biological weapons programs or even his nuclear weapons programs if America had not invaded in 2003? The simple answer is that we just don't know.
What we do know, however, is what actually happened. Congress was asked to approve the invasion of Iraq and it did so. Democrats like Hillary Clinton spoke very strongly in favor of that war. The USA invaded and easily ousted Saddam, but then our forces were unprepared to take control of the country. We had years of insurgency and the Democrats like Mrs. Clinton turned against the war. They announced that it was lost. They opposed the surge that was ordered by president Bush. Then the surge worked and America won the Iraq War. We got a new president who made his opposition to the war (that was now won) a big part of his campaign. President Obama couldn't get American forces out of Iraq fast enough. In his rush to depart, Obama threw away all of the strategic gains that the USA had gotten in the war. Obama left a vacuum which was filled by Iran and ISIS. The disaster which is Iraq today is more a result of Obama's running from that country than it is of Bush's initial foray into Iraq. After all, we know that in 2009 when Obama took office, things in Iraq were in good shape and getting better.
So when we ask all these candidates about invading Iraq if we knew then what we know now, it might also be a good idea to ask all the candidates another question: If you knew then what you know now, would you have quickly withdrawn all US forces from Iraq and left the region open to intervention by Iran and ISIS?
Don't wait too long to hear that question. It won't be coming for the Republicans or for Hillary should she ever decide to actually answer some questions from the press.
For example, would Saddam Hussein have fallen in the so called Arab Spring? Would Iraq have intervened in the Syrian Civil War to overthrow the Alawaite Assad regime so Hussein could install a puppet Sunni government in Damascus? Would the Iranians have tried to undermine the Iraqi regime (which they detested) by using the Shiite majority in Iraq? Would there have been another war between Iran and Iraq like the eight year struggle that killed over a million people in the 1980s? Would the USA have troops stationed in Saudi Arabia to protect that country's oil installations from the menace of the Iraqis? Would Saddam Hussein have overtly or covertly supported al Qaeda and other terror groups? Would Libya have given up its nuclear weapons program without the fear that Gaddafi felt as he watched the USA bring down the Iraqi regime? Finally, would Saddam Hussein have restarted his chemical and biological weapons programs or even his nuclear weapons programs if America had not invaded in 2003? The simple answer is that we just don't know.
What we do know, however, is what actually happened. Congress was asked to approve the invasion of Iraq and it did so. Democrats like Hillary Clinton spoke very strongly in favor of that war. The USA invaded and easily ousted Saddam, but then our forces were unprepared to take control of the country. We had years of insurgency and the Democrats like Mrs. Clinton turned against the war. They announced that it was lost. They opposed the surge that was ordered by president Bush. Then the surge worked and America won the Iraq War. We got a new president who made his opposition to the war (that was now won) a big part of his campaign. President Obama couldn't get American forces out of Iraq fast enough. In his rush to depart, Obama threw away all of the strategic gains that the USA had gotten in the war. Obama left a vacuum which was filled by Iran and ISIS. The disaster which is Iraq today is more a result of Obama's running from that country than it is of Bush's initial foray into Iraq. After all, we know that in 2009 when Obama took office, things in Iraq were in good shape and getting better.
So when we ask all these candidates about invading Iraq if we knew then what we know now, it might also be a good idea to ask all the candidates another question: If you knew then what you know now, would you have quickly withdrawn all US forces from Iraq and left the region open to intervention by Iran and ISIS?
Don't wait too long to hear that question. It won't be coming for the Republicans or for Hillary should she ever decide to actually answer some questions from the press.
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