William Mulgrew
Posted: 5/26/06
I have the audacity to believe that ideas have consequences. So when Robert Zaller, a tenured professor of history, spews out commentary after commentary that rewrites history before our eyes and denigrates the accomplishments of our troops in Iraq, I feel compelled to challenge his false assessment.Population movements
1. Many Iraqi refugee camps that began in Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia since 1959 have voluntarily emptied and closed down. Since the fall of Saddam's regime, more than 1.2 million Iraqi refugees have returned home. Likewise, the Shiite shrines of Karbala and Najaf were visited by roughly 12 million pilgrims in 2005, whereas they were desolate between 1991 and 2003. If Iraq, as Zaller writes, is a "suffering," "unhappy land" and a "disaster," why are millions going back?
Economic prosperity
2. In 1995, the Iraqi dinar stopped being traded in Iran and Kuwait. Inflation was 70 percent in 2002. Now inflation is 25.4 percent. The country's GDP rose to $90 billion in 2004, a 52.3 percent increase from 2003. Unemployment fell from 60 percent under Saddam Hussein to its present level of 30 percent. If Iraq is a "failure," as Zaller writes, why the economic prosperity?
Political participation
3. The primary goal of insurgents is to derail the political process in Iraq. After Saddam's removal, they attempted to prevent the formation of the Iraqi General Council without success. They threatened voters and candidates in the first general election, even killing some, but 8 million Iraqis voted. They threatened voters, especially Sunni Arabs, during the constitutional referendum in hopes of keeping them out of the process, but 9 million Iraqis voted. The insurgency threatened voters again during the second general election, but more than 11 million Iraqis voted. If, as you write, we "are accomplishing nothing of military value" in Iraq, what is preventing the insurgency from stopping the political process?
Utilities and services
4. Another goal of insurgents is to cause instability by instigating sectarian outrage, closing down government services and attacking infrastructure. Yet in spite of threats, kidnappings, deaths and sabotage, nearly all of Iraq's schools are now open for the education of 8.5 million children and young people. By January of this year, all of Iraq's 600 state-owned hospitals and clinics remained open. By December of 2006, Iraq will achieve its OPEC quota of 2.8 million barrels of oil a day. The World Bank estimates that as much as 81 percent of Iraqis have access to clean water. Electrical output is 25 percent above pre-war levels. If, as Zaller writes, "the situation in Iraq is deteriorating," why do these developments suggest the opposite?
The Saddam menace
5. Zaller asserts that since no-fly zones frustrated Saddam Hussein's reach, he "was no menace to the United States or any other nation" and that "no military intervention was necessary to contain him." He writes this despite the fact that Saddam's regime made an assassination attempt on former President George H. W. Bush and funded anti-Israeli terrorist groups, ties to al Qaeda notwithstanding. David Kay, former head of the Iraq Survey Group, concludes in a report, "I actually think this may be one of those cases where [Saddam's regime] was even more dangerous than we thought," and, "We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities," which were part of "deliberate concealment efforts." Charles Duelfer, who headed the ISG after David Kay, states in a report, "Virtually no senior Iraqi believed that Saddam had forsaken WMD forever. Evidence suggests that, as resources became available and the constraints of sanctions decayed, there was a direct expansion of activity that would have the effect of supporting future WMD reconstitution." Which is better strategically, removing Saddam and his regime from power before they had WMD capability or waiting until they had such capability?
Containment of violence
6. Only four out of Iraq's 18 provinces bear 85 percent of the country's violence. A majority of Iraqis live in relative safety. Why does Zaller describe the situation in Iraq as "an anarchy no force seems capable of controlling" when Iraqis are better off than living under Saddam's reign of terror?
Military corruption
7. Zaller writes that "sectarian militias have thoroughly penetrated the so-called Iraqi army as well as security forces, obtaining American arms, training and pay to carry out vendettas advertised by us as counterinsurgency operations," and therefore the Iraqi army is an "illusion." What evidence does he have to support this claim, and why hasn't he already provided it?
Freedom of the press
8. Zaller accuses our government of censoring the press, but this was reality for Iraqis who lived under Saddam Hussein. More than 100 independent, privately-owned newspapers and more than two dozen radio and TV stations now exist in Iraq; none existed under Saddam Hussein. Now millions of cell phone and Internet subscribers freely exchange ideas and information in Iraq, where no one could do so under Saddam Hussein. If Zaller considers the free press vital, why decry the removal of Saddam Hussein, a man who outright suspended the press?
Casualty counting
9. Zaller constantly reminds us of American casualties in Iraq, asking, "How many dead do we want to see before we force the politicians to act?" An estimated 25,000 American soldiers died in the Revolutionary War, with nearly an equal amount wounded. An estimate of 360,000 Union soldiers died in the Civil War. These figures only take into account war on American soil; the price is even higher when foreign wars like World War II are taken into account. If casualties are the standard by which we win or lose wars and since Iraq's body count is among the lowest of any American war, should the Continental Congress have surrendered to the British or the Union to the Confederacy? Are the domestic peace, security and freedom we enjoy and take for granted, bought with their lives, worth the price?
Irresponsible internationalism
10. Zaller frequently references international law. The New York Times reports that the United Nations could not account for $12 billion from the Iraq Oil-for-Food program. France and Russia were among the top five countries to win oil-field contracts through the program. 270 individuals and entities received oil vouchers, including Benon Sevon, the UN official in charge of the program. If international associations like the United Nations are corrupted and bribed by brutal regimes that threaten international and domestic peace, do they retain the moral legitimacy to authorize the use of military force?
Domestic defeatism
11. Amir Taheri, the former executive director of Kayhan, Iran's largest daily newspaper, from which I primarily draw information, writes, "The Baathists and jihadists, their prior efforts to derail Iraqi democracy having come to naught, have now pinned their hopes on creating enough chaos and death to persuade Washington of the futility of its endeavors." As a professor of history with full knowledge that, more often than not, it takes decades to properly analyze the outcome of a war, will Zaller continue to help the Iraqi insurgents by demoralizing Americans and troops in harm's way through characterizing the reconstruction of Iraq as a failure when it is not over yet?
William Mulgrew is a pre-junior majoring in history and politics and English and is the ed-op editor. He can be reached at william.mulgrew@thetriangle.org.