University of Michigan

Iraq: NationalSecurity PolicyBlunder

Political Science 300 Tyrone Schiff 11/10/2008

“It is now clear that Iraq is the biggest blunder of the Bush years,” wrote

Financial Times

columnist Gideon Rachman expressing his complete disdain for the most dominant feature of U.S. national security policy over the last five years.

Indeed, the situation in Iraq has beencompletely mismanaged, and thus renders the U.S. in its current state of national security policyconfusion. In light of this, now is the most critical time for U.S. national security policy to bereassessed based on the lessons drawn from the failed Iraqi experience. In order to mostcomprehensively address these issues, a thorough investigative analysis of the existing nationalsecurity policy is necessary. In terms of Iraq, national security policy will be considered throughthree separate lenses: the intentions and outcomes of the Iraqi invasion, the degree to which U.S.interests have been protected, and the perception of the U.S. abroad. These perspectives will provide a holistic view of national security policy, which will provide the basis of twofundamental recommendations the Obama administration is urged to consider.The war in Iraq is largely the result of persuasive powers of neoconservatives in the BushAdministration.

These include prominent members such as former Deputy Secretary of DefensePaul Wolfowitz, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and Vice President Dick Chaney.

According to Francis Fukuyama, a columnist for

The New York Times

, these officialsheld the philosophy that the “root cause of terrorism lay in the Middle East’s lack of democracy.”

Following the September 11 attacks, an opportunity arose in which action could betaken in the region. Although the American intelligence community was unable to verify the

Rachman, Gideon. 2007."America’s self-inflicted war wounds," Financial Times (Sept. 10).

Fukuyama, Francis. 2006. "After neoconservatism,"New York Times Magazine (Feb. 19).

Kirk, Michael. 2003."The War Behind Closed Doors." (View the PBS "Frontline" program online).

Ibid. at 2

11.10.2008Political Science 3001

extent to which Iraq had weapons of mass destruction or their relationship with al-Qaeda

,theneoconservatives were able to justify and convince the American public to engage in a unilateral preventative war on terror.

When the U.S. invaded Iraq, there were radically different resultsthan were to be expected.Soon after entering Iraq, the conquest shifted its focus and became a hunt for Iraqidictator, Saddam Hussein.

This reveals a retreat from the original strategy outlined to theAmerican people by its government. Furthermore, the Iraqi offensive proved to becounterproductive in its attempts to contain and eliminate terrorism.

After the invasion, Iraq became a failed state, meaning the government became so ineffective it was unable to control theregion, which allowed Iraq to become a thriving breeding ground for terrorism.

The AmericanEnterprise Institute estimates that 90 percent of the al-Qaeda presence in Iraq post-invasion wasmade up by locals that spawned out of a “national insurgency.”

While this was going on, troopsfighting the Taliban and Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan were redirected to Iraq giving bothterrorist cells ample time to reorganize their efforts.

To this day, the whereabouts of Osama binLaden are still unknown. In Iraq, violence and disease have led to the deaths of an excess of 655,000 Iraqis

and 4,153 Americans.

It’s depressing how much life has been lost to an

Ibid. at 1

Ibid. at 2

Kagan, Robert. 2008."The September 12 paradigm: America, the world, and George W. Bush,"Foreign Affairs,Sept./Oct.).

Ibid. at 1