Now the war has started, it is
difficult to argue for it to be stopped - withdrawal would just leave Saddam Hussein
empowered and unlikely to co-operate with the UN as before the conflict began.
Furthermore, now we have made promises to the Iraqi people that we will support them if
they rise up against Saddam Hussein, I do not think we can abandon them as was done at the
end of the last Gulf War. Therefore, I want to see the UK and US troops achieve their
supposed mission to "bring freedom to the Iraqi people" as quickly, and with as
little loss of life, as possible.
The job that needs to be done now is to try and ensure that the
future of the Iraqi people will be placed firmly in their own hands, once order has been
restored. If they are not convinced of this, though there may be a ‘victory’ of
sorts, there will be ongoing conflicts and continuing loss of life.
I still strongly believe that our troops should not have been sent to Iraq in the first
place – and that there was a better way of dealing with Saddam Hussein’s regime
as I suggest in another article. If we are to avoid future
wars, these issues cannot be ignored as if of no consequence. The cost of the war will be
massive in terms of human lives lost or ruined and the diversion of resources that could
have been spent to alleviate poverty – not to mention the instability created.
Ironically, George Bush Senior pointed out some of the dangers of invading Iraq in 1998:
"While we hoped that popular revolt would topple Saddam, we did not wish to
see the break-up of the Iraqi state. Extending the war into Iraq would have incurred
incalculable human and political costs. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and,
in effect, rule Iraq. The coalition would instantly have collapsed, the Arabs deserting in
anger and other allies pulling out as well. Unilaterally exceeding the U.N.'s mandate
would have destroyed the precedent of international response to aggression we hoped to
establish. Had we gone the invasion route, the U.S. could still be an occupying power in a
bitterly hostile land."
- From "Why We Didn't Remove Saddam" by George Bush (Sr.)
and Brent Scowcroft, Time Magazine, 1998.
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