Obama should not wage war in Iraq

By Clarence Lusane

McClatchy-Tribune

President Obama must not give in to the pressure from conservatives to wage war again in Iraq.

Any intervention risks escalation, rising anti-Americanism and a quagmire.

And the United States wasn’t able to stabilize Iraq even when we had more than 100,000 troops there. We won’t be able to stabilize it with 300 advisers or, for that matter, 10,000 troops.

Republicans are already gearing up to blame Obama for the “fall of Baghdad.” It’s unclear that the rebel ISIS forces will be able to conquer Baghdad, since Shiite militias are preparing to repel them. But if Baghdad cannot stand without U.S. intervention, then it cannot be defended easily with U.S. intervention.

The American people don’t want to risk any more blood or treasure in Iraq. That’s why 77 percent oppose sending ground troops into Iraq, according to the latest New York Times/CBS poll. It is amazing that some of the same conservatives who were responsible for dragging the country into the Iraq War on false pretenses are trying to browbeat Obama into sending troops there again.

Accusations

For instance, there was Dick Cheney (with his daughter Liz) with a piece in the Wall Street Journal accusing Obama of appeasement, betrayal, unnecessary apologies, empty threats and other such behavior.

But it was Vice President Cheney, along with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who clamored most loudly and most deceitfully for war with Iraq the first time. It was a war that cost the lives of 4,486 U.S. soldiers and seriously injured tens of thousands more. It was a war that killed between 100,000 and 1 million Iraqi civilians. And it came at a price tag of more than $3 trillion.

Cheney and Rumsfeld and President George W. Bush were also responsible for foolishly disbanding Iraq’s army and for propping up the sectarian regime of Nouri al-Maliki, who has spectacularly failed to unite the country.

Historical record

Former Bush administration officials and discredited neoconservatives are seizing on the chaos in Iraq to try to erase their blunders from the historical record. Americans are noted for having short historic memories, but this time around there are too many deaths, too many resources wasted, too many failures to be forgotten.

Obama should ignore their special pleading and should resist sending troops — or bombers — to Iraq.

Instead, he should take a path toward reconciliation between moderate Sunnis and Shiites in a coalition government that is opposed to the rebel extremist forces.

Clarence Lusane is a professor of political science and international relations at American University. He wrote this for Progressive Media Project, a source of liberal commentary on domestic and international issues. Distributed by MCT.