War in Iraq

(This is my first debate on this site, so I am still learning the rules) The War in Iraq has turned out disastrous for the United States of America. It has cost us four hundred and seventy billion dollars (to date), the lives of four thousand U.S. servicemen, and nearly forty thousand casualties. In addition, it has damaged our international prestige, critically weakened our armed forces, and strengthened our enemies in the region (Iran, Syria, Hezbollah, and Al-Qaeda). Let me be clear, I am not "morally" against the Iraq war…I was not one of those naï¿½ve people who watched Fahrenheit 9/11 (specifically, the scene with the kids flying kites and playing on swings in Hussein's Iraq) and believed it was an accurate depiction. Saddam was brutal dictator that should have eventually been dealt with…just not until the US and our Allies had properly stabilized Afghanistan and eliminated the threat of Al-Qaeda (ambiguous I know, but you get the idea) I was also slightly disturbed by the constant hinting of a connection between Iraq, 9/11, WMDs, and Al-Qaeda. There was no direct connection between the four. As much as I hated Saddam Hussein, he was not nearly as urgent of a threat as Osama Bin Laden, Al-Qaeda, and the Taliban. Despite my problems with the war at the onset, I still believed that a good outcome was possible. During the first phase of actual combat of the war, the U.S. suffered very few casualties and toppled Saddam fairly quickly. In the "occupation stage" however, things started to turn sour. In my opinion, the notion of a "light" US force which would simply depose Hussein and leave in August of 2003 set the backdrop for the insurgency that would later form. Here is a list of mistakes which I believe the U.S. made. 1) The counterinsurgency doctrine states that to effectively occupy a country, you need one soldier for every forty or fifty civilians (480,000 soldiers in Iraq). Currently, the U.S. has one solider in Iraq for every one hundred and forty civilians. (approx) 2) In my opinion, the looting was a key stage in the "shift" to Shiite militias. During the looting, billions of dollars worth of equipment was stolen. The Iraqi National Archive, was set ablaze destroying virtually everything inside (even documents that were seven thousand years old.) I have heard reports of looters going to construction sites and using cranes to completely dismantle construction projects. Furthermore (continuing with the theme of toppling Saddam and leaving in August), U.S. soldiers were not ordered to stop the looting because they did not want to get deeply entangled in peacekeeping operations. This led many communities to turn to Shiite militias for protection against looters, and increased militia power in Iraq. 3) Disbanding the Iraqi army was also a mistake. The Iraqi army could have been a critical part of the occupation effort. The large majority of the Iraqi army was not distinctly loyal to the Baathist party, and it made no sense to completely disband it. Furthermore, any civilian indirectly associated with the Baathist party would be unable to find jobs in the new government. This left the former members of the Iraqi army unemployed and unable to find steady employment for the foreseeable future. To make this situation even worse, U.S. did not have enough manpower to secure the cities, catch high level Baathists, and guard all of the old Iraqi army depots at once. I remember seeing reports where Iraqi's were walking out of old army depots with AK-47s, mortars, and machine guns virtually unopposed. How Iraq eventually turns out will be essential for American security in the future, however, the United States should not guarantee an open ended commitment to the current Iraqi government. The US cannot fix the problems in Iraq alone, Iraqis will eventually have to secure their own future. The United States should set a definite timetable for withdrawal, take serious measures to increase the strength and effectiveness of Iraqi security forces, and drastically increase the number of soldiers in Iraq until the withdrawal date. (Whether we could with the current state of our military is another story) (I could say alot more, but I don't want to end up writing a term paper.)