From Ian Livingston and Michael O’Hanlon, at Foreign Policy , ” The Damage Done “: With a wave of over a dozen bombings ripping through Baghdad just a week after U.S. troops officially pulled out, new questions are being raised about the country’s ability to stand on its own without U.S. security assistance. Before looking ahead to whether Iraq can withstand a potential new wave of sectarian violence, it’s crucial to take measure of where the country currently stands and the effect of eight years of war on its people and institutions. Shortly after the invasion of Iraq in March 2003, researchers at the Brookings Institution began the Iraq Index to keep tabs on how the war progressed. As students of counterinsurgency know, it is difficult to find the right metrics to evaluate how a war effort of this type is going. It is also challenging to obtain reliable data even if relevant metrics have been identified. The most important metrics can also change with time; additionally, some can be leading indicators of change, while others tend to lag broader improvements. In the war’s early days, the general sense of disorder and chaos and the disempowerment of many former Baathists and former soldiers were probably the most important metrics. They augured poorly for the future — while official U.S. data focused more on restoration of infrastructure and other generally positive indicators that though important may not have been quite as crucial as they seemed at the time. Then U.S. attention turned to building up Iraqi security forces, but, alas, progress in their training, numbers, and equipment could not trump the growing sectarian fissures that were widening within the government, Army, police, and country writ large. Metrics of violence were recognized as the most important indicators by 2006 and 2007, when the country was being ripped apart. The success of the surge was fairly easy to see, as these numbers plummeted in late 2007 and 2008. Since then, however, tracking Iraq’s changes has become harder as progress has slowed and politics have become at least as important as security and quality-of-life indicators. With U.S. military engagement in Iraq having come to an end, here are 10 key metrics that reveal both the damage wrought by the war and the state of the country that U.S. forces are leaving behind… Continue reading at the link .
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The 10 Big Takeaways from America’s Adventure in Iraq
At Black Five, ” Gloating About Something He Had Little to Do With “: Remember, this is someone who voted against funding for our soldiers in combat in Iraq. Also remember that this plan that has now been executed, i.e. our withdrawal from Iraq, was one negotiated by the previous administration before he ever took office. But that doesn’t at all keep him from using the event as a campaign ad. All in good taste, of course. I wrote on this earlier, ” War in Iraq Officially Over .” And at the Los Angeles Times , ” As last U.S. troops exit Iraq, they leave a troubled land behind .” It’s a good piece, despite the typically negative headline.
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As Last Troops Exit Iraq, Obama Spikes the Political Football
At Weasel Zippers, ” McCain Shreds Obama After He Takes Credit For Success of Iraq War: “History Will Judge His Leadership With The Scorn And Disdain It Deserves”… ” This is why I backed McCain in 2008. Good to hear him smack down the administration. We need to hear it. PREVIOUSLY : ” War in Iraq Officially Over .”
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Senator McCain Slams Obama’s Leadership on Iraq
A pessimistic report, at Los Angeles Times , ” Afghanistan success is in eye of beholder “: With an American troop drawdown underway and expected to accelerate in the coming year, the NATO force insists that violence is declining, that the insurgency’s strength is flagging and that Afghan forces are demonstrating a growing ability to take the lead in safeguarding the country. Many Afghans, however, subscribe to a darker view: that daily life has grown more perilous, that national and local governance has become even shakier, that the country’s police and army are chronically unable protect its citizens, and that the Taliban movement is hunkering down to wait out the Western presence. Recent months have seen escalating tension over so-called metrics that can be used to chart either progress or deterioration. RTWT. And at Michael Yon, ” Fool’s Gold & Troops’ Blood ,” ” Report to Congress ,” and ” Question for Congressman Pompeo: What is your Position? ”
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Measuring Success in Afghanistan
At National Journal , ” Iraq War Ends with Whimper, Not Bang “: The Iraq War began with Pentagon officials boasting about an initial offensive that would “shock and awe” the enemy, then-President George W. Bush flying a military plane to an aircraft carrier for a high-profile address to thousands of cheering troops, and round-the-clock coverage on the nation’s TV networks. Eight and a half grueling years later, the deeply unpopular conflict is set to end with a whimper, not a bang. Washington and Baghdad’s failure to agree on a troop-extension deal means that virtually all of the 43,000 U.S. troops now in Iraq will stream out of the country over the next six weeks, bringing a quiet end to a conflict that began with so much bombast. More at that top link.
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Iraq War Draws to a Close
A new survey at the Pew Research Center : Only about one half of one percent of the U.S. population has been on active military duty at any given time during the past decade of sustained warfare. Some 84% of post-9/11 veterans say the public does not understand the problems faced by those in the military or their families. The public agrees, though by a less lopsided majority—71%.
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War and Sacrifice in the Post-9/11 Era: The Military-Civilian Gap
At the video, an interesting clip featuring Ann Coulter and Matt Welch. And see Charles Krauthammer, at Washington Post , ” The 9/11 ‘overreaction’? Nonsense “: 9/11 was our Pearl Harbor. This time, however, the enemy had no home address. No Tokyo. Which is why today’s war could not be wrapped up in a mere four years. It was unconventional war by an unconventional enemy embedded within a worldwide religious community. Yet in a decade, we largely disarmed and defeated it, and developed the means to continue to pursue its remnants at rapidly decreasing cost. That is a historic achievement. Our current difficulties and gloom are almost entirely economic in origin, the bitter fruit of misguided fiscal, regulatory and monetary policies that had nothing to do with 9/11. America’s current demoralization is not a result of the war on terror. On the contrary. The denigration of the war on terror is the result of our current demoralization, of retroactively reading today’s malaise into the real — and successful — history of our 9/11 response. I love Krauthammer. Read it all.
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We Didn’t Overreact to 9/11
A cool discussion, with Michael Walzer: RELATED : At Dissent , from 2006, ” Regime Change and Just War ,” by Michael Walzer. And the response, which destroys Walzer’s argument, from Jean Bethke Elshtain: ” Jean Bethke Elshtain Responds .” And more Walzer, more recently, at New Republic , ” The Case Against Our Attack on Libya .”
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Just War Theory
A good clip, from Reason.tv: It’s obviously true that the antiwar movement of the early 2000s was an anti-Bush, anti-GOP campaign. But what’s not mentioned is that the ANSWER folks are an all-purpose perpetual protest organization. They latch on to any developments on the far left and attempt to seize the initiative. That happened at the outset of the protests against Prop. 8 and also during the anti-S.B. 1070 protests in Arizona. And while Democrats have clearly dropped any pretense of being antiwar during the Obama interregnum, these same partisans have little compunction against allying with Stalinists of the ANSWER sort. It’s all about timing. ANSWER keeps itself afloat with non-stop outrage, but they’re just one segment of the broader progressive left that is anti-American and neo-communist. Code Pink would be a good example. Friendly with President Obama, they advocate extreme positions on the revolutionary left. Recall what John Tierney wrote in 2005: The irony of the modern “peace” movement is that it has very little to do with peace — either as a moral concept or as a political ideal. Peace is a tactical ideal for movement organizers: it serves as political leverage against U.S. policymakers, and it is an ideological response to the perceived failures of American society. The leaders of anti-war groups are modern-day Leninists … And speaking of ANSWER, they’re gearing up for their 8th anniversary protest march in Hollywood: ” STOP THE WARS: Resist the War Machine! — 8th Anniversary of the Invasion of Iraq .” Saturday, March 19, 2011, the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq, will be an international day of action against the war machine. Protest and resistance actions will take place in cities and towns across the United States. Scores of organizations are coming together. Demonstrations are scheduled for San Francisco, Los Angeles, Chicago, Washington, D.C., and more. I covered last year’s protest, which saw about two thousand demonstrators on hand. I expect to be there again this year, so expect more top-quality coverage.
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The Left’s Opportunistic Antiwar Movement
