Has America achieved its Mission in Iraq?

Operation Iraqi freedom was a military campaign that began on March 20, 2003 with the invasion on Iraq by multinational forces led by troops from United States and the United Kingdom.
Invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi troops which began on 2nd Aug 1990 was met with international condemnation and accordingly with UN Security Council intervention US President Bush deployed American forces to Saudi Arabia to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
Accordingly to US President George Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, the reason of the invasion on Iraq was to disarm it from weapons of mass destruction and Iraqi failure to take a final opportunity to disarm itself from nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons that US and British officials called as immediate intolerable threat to the world peace.
The war resulted in US losing 4400 troops and thousands were wounded.
The question under debate can be answered as, by and large America achieved its maximum mission in Iraq. But there is still uncertainty as regards the Iraqi administration since internal violence is increasing day by day in Iraq. Also there is resentment among people of the world that when the United Nations Security Counsel was not in favour of an attack on Iraq, then why did the US go for it? Robin Cook, the then the leader of the United Kingdom, House of Commons and former Foreign Secretary resigned from Tony Blair cabinet in protest over the UK decision to invade Iraq without UN resolution. Now, the US is thinking to shut down combat operations in Iraq and several factors are causing concern like Iraq's unsettled political situation with an interim govt in place even after national election and no coalition is in sight. Second is upsurge in violence including rash killings, notably a recent suicide attack on an army recruit centre in Baghdad that killed more than 60 people. More specifically, there are worries that the absence of a coalition Govt could lead to a civil war in Iraq and chances of Iranian meddling cannot be ruled out.
C Rajendran


Days passed into weeks, weeks passed into months, months into years and years into a decade. But the problem still persists, then and there.
The US-Iraq war which commenced during the Presidentship of Mr George W Bush is hanging over during the regime of Barack Hussain Obama.
United States of America, considered to be one of the most powerful nations of the world, has a permanent strength because it possesses adequate nuclear power with most deadly modern weapons and missiles which can annihilate or obliterate any nation within a short span of time. They are the weapons of utter mass destruction which if used can eradicate the whole human civilization from the face of the earth.
US policy has always been very diplomatic and not easily comprehensible for other countries. It always talks of peace but during any UN general meeting it sheds off its skin to show the weird face.
During 9/11 attack on the World Trade Center, the whole world came to its side and sympathized with it. More or less they even supported its counter attack on Afghanistan to eliminate the Taliban forces. Its prime objective was to catch its most deadly enemy Osama bin Laden, something which it has not been able to achieve.
But, its sudden attack on Iraq on false and vague grounds became indigestible to many nations. US claimed later that it had attacked Iraq because the latter possessed many destructive weapons. But, after so many searches nothing of that sort was found.
Now, has the world perceived the stubbornness and brutal face of America when it still went ahead to attack Iraq despite many requests from UN and other nations. As a result, it had to face many protests, not only from other parts of the world but also from its own people. Bush administration was severely criticised everywhere. Even his party had to lose the presidential elections. The Iraqi ruler Saddam was caught and hanged. But, it turned to be a deaf ear to all these protests.
After the elections, Obama became the President. With his arrival there was a new ray of hope in the minds of the people that he would show a soft heart to his soldiers who were fighting a continuous war in Iraq. Some of the forces were called back and a time table has been set for troops withdrawal from Iraq.
We can still perceive the problem and hear petty incidents like car bombing attack on American soldiers, Fidayeen attack etc. thus American mission in Iraq has been a failure.
Anshu Agrawal


It is laughable even to suggest that America has achieved its mission in Iraq. The US might have succeeded in controlling the oil wealth of Iraq and achieving superficial control of the territory but it has ignited terrorist flash points all over the world. No one knows whether once the US troops leave Iraq, the people in the government there will be able to hold on to power for a long time. Hardly a day passes without terrorist bombing and hundreds dying on the roads and streets. Also, sectarian schism is as sharp as ever which can accentuate struggle for power within the Iraqi people. Moreover, it has cost the US billions of dollars to keep even a tenuous grip on the country that has put tremendous financial strain on the US. Many experts blame the US involvement in Iraq as the reason for the last year's recession. Today, the US is increasingly being viewed as a waning economic and military super power. Whether the US will be able to pull back to
status quo ante is a moot question.
RJ Khurana


Unless a strong state promised on the rule of law, human rights and a credible military force emerges, Iraq is doomed to endure the ravages of a semi-colonial existence, which can be combated only by a second and more vicious wave of resistance.
Violence has existed in every society of the world and in every civilization, at a normal rate, which in a sense, fills the society with vitality and virility. But today the increasing violence has taken a pathological form. Strangely, man has today become his own enemy by unleashing the animal in him. If the brute in man is not chained, and if the violence is not checked, man may altogether eliminate himself.
Thus America does not seem to have achieved its mission in Iraq which was to establish a peaceful state there. Anti-national elements are killing hundreds of people there in suicide bombings.
PS Pawar


Yes. Definitely to some extent the US has achieved its mission in Iraq. A new elected government is in place. A section of the populace was never happy during his rule. He had adopted dictatorial tactics. One should not forget that Iraq had invaded Kuwait and was at war with Iran.
With the coming of people from all over the world here, the society has become more liberal. Otherwise the hard religious practices had virtually enslaved the womenfolk and limited the understanding the menfolk. It is hoped the tempo of reforms in Iraq gathers pace.
As per the Holy Bible history, God's chosen country, America, should have consulted Him before striking at Iraq.
Ravi


Yes America has achieved its hidden agenda in Iraq but it has miserably failed to achieve, which was openly declared by it, while going to attack Iraq. America has ruined Iraq according to its plan. Iraq was an advanced, modern sovereign country in the area of Middle East. Hence there was an apprehension in the mind of American government that Iraq in future may be a potential danger for the peace of Israel. So, the US attacked Iraq on the pretext that it has weapons of mass destruction, though it was an absolutely wrong allegation.
America attacked Iraq & totally ruined it which is evident from the facts given below.
In this war around six lakh Iraqis have been killed and a great number of them injured. There have been American fatalities also. 4200 American solders have also been injured and more than this number are badly injured. The expenses of this war have gone more than $600 billion.
Secondly, Iraq was an oil rich country, in its hidden agenda America wanted to have control on oil wells so it captured Iraq and succeeded in its motive of having control on oil. In the same way America has achieved all its secret plans.
But, as far as its open declarations are concerned America has proved totally failure because so far it can neither search weapons of mass destruction nor it can establish a peaceful democracy in Iraq. Presently law and order conditions in Iraq are worse than before, human rights violations have also gone up. Economic condition of the country is also not good. According to some critics America has lost this battle on all fronts. Due to the Iraq war America's image in the world has come down in the eyes of right thinking persons. Despite America's victory in its evil designs it could not achieve its mission.
Syed Zia ul Hasan Naqvi


I am afraid if America had any mission at all in launching an attack on Iraq excepting perhaps usurping the oil reserves of the country as well as Kuwait. The ostensible purpose or mission of attacking Iraq was preventing late Saddam Hussain from using weapons of mass destruction which he was supposedly piling up at some secret war-field. The world, specially the western world, also believed this American statement and allied themselves in the attack along wth USA. U.K. was one of the major countries which allied itself in this attack.
With no weapon of mass destruction found either with Saddam Hussain or anywhere in Iraq under his command USA did cut a very sorry figure and even had to face embarrassment both at the world level as well as in the UN for having launched a full-scale military war against Iraq. Immediate past President Bush is gone but the wounds of legacy have been inherited by Barack Obama the present President of USA. It is good that Obama had already ordered withdrawal of American forces from Iraq but it will at least take one year hence for the retreat. President Bush's unwise decision smacks of colonialism and made America an enemy of all the Muslim countries of the world. It might take a long long time for Barrack Obama to win over the Muslim world even after the American forces are withdrawn from Iraq. Even the presence of American forces in Iraq could not really restore normalcy there and the intermittent bombings and killings are continuing nor it seems any popular democratic set-up could be facilitated by the troops in Iraq.
Having stated as above I wonder if there was any specific mission at all for the United States of America when it launched a full-fledged war on Iraq years ago. USA has only burnt its fingers in the Iraqi fire and failed to douse the flames from spreading farther into other fraternal countries.
In conclusion USA only appears to have conspired with some western Nations to usurp the authority of Iraq for oil/fuel gains in which they miserably failed. US military will be returning back to their country only as a failed force and live only to narrate their miseries while in fatigues in discipline.
Krishna Chander Mouli


How to measure the Iraq war mission? Bush based it on his deceptions of `Weapons of Mass Destruction' ready to blow up America by a hedonistic sandbox dictator named Saddam Hussein. Another dozen tyrants around the globe enjoyed more power and weapons. Looking back to 1965, Lyndon Baines Johnson foisted the `Gulf of Tonkin Incident' onto the American people as his rationale for killing several million human beings in South Vietnam.
Later, the architect of the Vietnam War, Robert McNamara, who lived into his '90s, wrote his apology, The Fog of War. He admitted his huge mistake. Gee! What an epiphany 40 years later! All that death, destruction and chaos brought about by his `whim'. Iraq and Afghanistan wars continue as big, bulging lies, too. If we can't win a war against countries of sheep herders and camel jockeys in nine years what's up doc?
Somebody, somewhere in the Pentagon keeps those two wars going and the apathy of the American people allows it. Our compliant `volunteer' Army doesn't complain or march in the streets. If you look across the USA, 99 per cent of Americans could care less about the two wars: not affected one iota! In Iraq, the casus belli was a lie, perpetrated by George Bush and his meek amanuensis, Tony Blair. Saddam Hussein was accused of association with 9/11, and of plotting further attacks with long-range weapons of "mass destruction. Since this was revealed as untrue, the fallback deployed by apologists for Bush and Blair is that Saddam was a bad man and so toppling him was good. While we continue with 50,000 combat troops in Iraq, over 100,000 Iraqis died in the `Shock and Awe' created by Bush. The Iraq government runs on US military hegemony. Corruption and chaos run rampant.
Mass illiteracy in the citizens means `democracy' cannot possibly succeed. Some 4,400 US kids died and 30,000 walk around on one leg or fiddle with one hand or stagger blindly or drug themselves into a stupor daily. Worth it? To the big money men in corporate America, you betcha! To the big power brokers in the US Senate and House, for certain! To bankers making billions for `serving' the war with financial support, keep it going! The overriding lesson of Iraq comes from that dejected goddess, humility. The dropping of thousands of bombs, the loss of 4,000 western troops and the spending of almost a trillion dollars still cannot overcome the AK-47, the roadside explosive device, the suicide bomber, and an aversion to occupation. Nations with different cultures cannot be ruled by seven years of soldiering. Bush and Blair thought otherwise.
It's very clear that mission of United States particularly the mission of Bush could not be achieved even at the cost of many trillion dollars by killing Saddam Hussein and his ten thousand Iraqis.
Dr Visal A Khan


Iraq committed the biggest blunder of attacking Kuwait. This resulted in the direct participation of USA for protecting its interests in the Gulf area. What triggered the serious involvement of UN was the inputs, primarily from US sources, about the presence of WMDs (Weapons of Mass Destruction) in Iraq. Security Council was the starting point of the inspection with a view to disarm Iraq after locating WMDs. WMDs include nuclear weapons, biological weapons and chemical weapons along with conventional weapons of ranges and capabilities beyond specified limits. The inspections were called off for reasons related to non-cooperation of Saddam regime. It is at this point that President Bush decided to take direct action with support of some countries, prominently UK. Most of the other countries wanted a more active role of the UN.
USA linked Iraq to terrorist organizations like Al Qaeda and particularly Osama. Even CIA was not convinced about this. The stated rationale for the war really did not withstand serious scrutiny. Yes, America did depose Saddam Hussein and his regime. But the broader aims of the war - to establish a stable, pro-Western regime in the country and thus maintain a geopolitical counterweight to the regional ambitions of Iran - remains unfulfilled. The US for years helped Saddam Hussein fight Iran, and then turned against him. Some say that the United States doesn't need to win wars. It needs to simply disrupt things so that the other side can't build up sufficient strength to challenge it.
While Bush was criticized all over the world for his misadventure, he did not get full support within USA itself. Obama in his presidential campaign said that operations in Iraq have drained US military power. This is true to a great extent. Only technical competence allows superiority but does not guarantee total elimination of the enemy's will to fight. This it is learning in Afghanistan. The Bush administration was seen as aggressive and unwilling to listen, while the Obama administration was expected to be more easily shaped and influenced.
Today, when USA is preparing to fully hand over the administration to civil government in Iraq, it is not sure of its future. Everyday hundreds of Iraqis are being killed in ethnic attacks. Obama is making all out effort to assure Americans that it has all been worth it and that no dishonor was attached to this foreign adventure, which was opposed by many in Obama's own party and by him from the beginning. The economic scare of 2008 has made Americans to worry about their expenditure in men and materials in involvements in wars in other countries. Involvement in Iraq was a misadventure. It is doubtful that its aim of a democratic and US friendly regime there will be fulfilled or that it can remain assured of oil supply from the rich Iraqi oil fields. Of course another 'Bush' may again take such a disastrous step in future, if required!
AB Mehta


Coincidentally we debate this issue on the 9th anniversary of terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, New York today. It touched the American pride and switched on the Afghan and the Iraqi adventures.
The post-World War II history of capitalist imperialism establishes that its leader USA, assumed the role of policing the free world. Ideological difference with the Communists was its chief promoter and the western countries toed to that line.
After the World War II and again at the zenith of the Cold War, American domination in the long drawn conflicts in Korea and Vietnam resulted in their partitions into North Communist country. Despite heavy losses of military and civilian lives in heavy protracted bombings and gorilla warfare, the Americans were forced to quit and the Communists emerged stronger. These wars weakened the American economy considerably.
Despite long drawn years of struggle, the American and allies could not succeed in their mission to capture Al Qaeda leaders Osama bin Laden and clique. Now history repeats itself as America is extricating itself from Afghanistan under increasing terrorist pressure in Iraq.
In similar vein, the American intervention, with British support had been on very flimsy context ab initio. President Bush ordered his Secretary of State Colin Powell to tell a lie. So Powell, staking his credibility, told the world the blatant lie that the US has sound proof that Iraq possesses chemical weapons of mass destruction. British PM Blair also put forward fanciful arguments, in March 20003, to wage a futile war against a country that had never antagonized Britain. He went a step further to announce in Parliament that we are just 45 minutes distant from such Iraqi weapons of mass destruction! His foreign minister, realizing the falsehood, resigned but the rest Labour party leaders gambled the country's honour in the false war.
Iraqis never surrendered to Anglo-American forces, nor even welcomed them. They never accepted defeat, despite fall of Saddam Hussein and clique and fought bravely with the invincible enemy. Why? The Western armies were prepared to teach them civilized life ways and had brought the gifts of democracy. Pentagon and the Whitehall sent only the Hawks to mediate. Had they been real angels, Iraqis must have welcomed them. But these harbingers of freedom looted Iraq's museums, captured the ministry of oil and then moved on to Syria and Iran. There is law to punish defamation, but none to check and punish hallow sham and vain pride.
In fact, despite long drawn conflict and severe bombings, the Anglo-Americans never found any chemical weapons. The division of country under American and British zones only invited hateful insurgency that claimed countless lives. Ultimate capture and extermination of Saddam Hussein, Chemical Ali and clique, after a mock trial, could not justify the intervention. The Anglo-Americans are soon to withdraw, leaving Iraq in chaos and a broken economy.
Former British PM Blair at last admitted in his recently published `memoirs' that he had been telling lies on Iraq. It is a coincidence that this `memoirs' was released the same day the Americans announced to end the combat mission in Iraq. The US defence secretary Robert Gates frankly admitted that he had no reasonable justification for Iraqi war. He said that a war, whose foundation is not sound and fair, will for ever be questioned- even if the results were favourable to the US.
Thus the American Quixotic adventure has utterly failed to achieve cherished goal. It had been a big political eyewash. Is this American chauvinism and the gun-boat diplomacy in keeping with its esteemed Monroe Doctrine? In American terms, is all fair in war- from here to eternity??
Arun Sarje


To answer this question honestly, one must clearly know what was the mission of America in Iraq. The US and its allies made the world to believe that Iraq was holding WMD (Weapons of Mass Destruction). The world believed it to a great extent looking to the belligerent postures of former dictator of Iraq - Saddam Hussein.
There were reports that Hussein was planning to revive the olden glory of Babylon, converting modern Iraq and its capital Baghdad into the first universal Kingdom of Nebuchchadnezar of Babylon.
Hussein, during his more than three decades old rule, achieved a lot of progress and he was a hardcore leftist which made the US difficult to have interaction with his country. Moreover, Hussein, being a Sunni, had internecine fights with those Middle East countries ruled by the Shiites. The 8 years long warfare between Iran and Iraq was a clear proof of this. Again, Hussein suddenly attacked Kuwait. America got a golden chance to indulge in this and that paved way for the first Gulf War in 1991.
During that war, Hussein fired his scud missiles against Israel and proved that there were dangerous weapons in his arsenal. Then, there were reports of use of dangerous mustard gas in some of the war that killed many Kurds which made the International community to believe that Iraq must be in preparation of some WMD. That propaganda culminated after the unfortunate incident of 9/11 which got further boost up during the rule of President George W. Bush (Jr) in the US. After its Afghan war, US turned against Iraq in chase of WMD in which the combined attack of Britain and the U.S. made life much difficult for Saddam Hussein and after killing most of his family members, Hussein himself was captured and then hanged. By then, the US and its allies had completely ravaged Iraq and looted much of its wealth and took control of its oil wealth as well.
A puppet regime was hoisted and America continued to support that regime till a ramshackle election was held to show that Iraq was brought under democratic process. Still, America remained in that country and the current withdrawal of US forces from Iraq was only a fulfillment of the current US President Barak Obama's promise to the US electorate. In fact, America is forced to withdraw from Iraq because of domestic compulsions vis-à-vis its current engagement with NATO forces in the ongoing AfPak war in which too they are in a dire-straight situation due to multifarious reasons. Even the Afghanistan regime under President Hamid Karzai too is not in favour of the US/NATO continuing any longer in that country, as Karzai wants to have rapport with the reformed Taliban for his own continuity there. Therefore, America, in fact, achieved its mission destruction of the Hussein regime in Iraq on the guise of Iraq holding WMD which when turned out a hoax, the US people themselves wanted its forces to be out of Iraq. That is the reality.
RK Kutty