Failures in Iraq Alon Barlevy, PhD. - Vice President, Hubert H. Humphrey Democratic Club Given that we got Saddam, yet our soldiers are still dying in Iraq, most people would agree that the war in Iraq has gone terribly wrong. As of this writing, 792 military personnel have been killed since the famous presidential “Mission accomplished” speech aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln. So What Happened? After scoring such an impressive military victory to topple Saddam in the spring of 2003, why have things gone downhill? There are many answers to this question. Part of the problem was that we did not prepare for the “day after”. We did a good job guarding the oil installations, yet turned a blind eye toward all the looting in Baghdad, most outrageously at the looting of the Iraq National Museum. We simply did not have enough troops to maintain stability on the ground, as well as guard the boarders to prevent infiltrations. Having an unstable situation tends to create a snowball effect. We create a cycle whereby our use of heavy-handed tactics to squash the insurgency brings us more insurgency because of all the pain and suffering that the local population has to endure. Initially, our enemy was Saddam Hussein. Now our enemies are Shite Cleric Muqtada al-Sadr, and the Jordanian born Abu Musab al-Zarqawi; neither of which was our enemy prior to invading Iraq. The longer we allow the situation in Iraq to spiral out of control, the higher the risk that we will create more new enemies. So What’s Next? We should not abandon Iraq. Abandonment could allow Iraq to become breeding grounds for groups such as Al Qaida, which was not the case prior to Operation Iraqi Freedom. What we should do is increase our credibility with the Iraqi people. According to a Washington Post poll, 82% of Iraqis “disapprove of the U.S. and allied militaries in Iraq”. While Bush Sr. was able to build a credible coalition (including Arab countries such as Egypt and Syria) against Saddam, this president only managed to build a dubious “Coalition of the Willing”, without a single Arab country. This does not look good in the eyes of the average Iraqi. We need a new leadership. One which can restore our credibility in the world. Following September 11, the majority of the world was on our side; ready, willing, and able to help us in the war against terror. We can get back the sympathy of the world community, but only if we change our leadership. Having a Secretary of Defense call our allies “Old Europe” won’t get us much sympathy, and won’t help us get out of the mess in Iraq.