After seven years, how has the Iraq war changed America?

Eric Ringham March 19, 2010, 5:00 AM Mar 19, 2010

The Iraq war began on March 19, 2003. Today’s Question: After seven years, how has the Iraq war changed America?

About the blogger

Eric Ringham

eringham@mpr.org

I think it has made us less safe. It has made the Arab nations angrier with us and radicalized more against us. We have paid an awful price in the sufferings and deaths of our young men and women in uniform. It made me sad.

Arthur Dickson

Bush’s war of choice has embolden Al Quida, killed thousands of Americans for a lie, wasted trillions of dollars and damaged America’s standing in the world.

Steven

It’s too soon to tell. My guess is, a century from now historians will regard the Iraq invasion as the beginning of the end of American predominance in the world. The economic and prestige costs of this disastrous decision have yet to be fully counted, but they are already enormous.

Gary F

We stopped a tyranical dictator that was using poisonous gas on his own countryman.

Women are voting, little girls can go to school, the people have more freedom.

Lisa

The sheer arrogance of the Bush administration to start a conflict for which it had no plan or plans to bring our forces home is just plain horrific. As more American military personnel are brought home in caskets from Iraq instead of being able to walk home, I can’t help but think it will take decades for the full ramifications of this conflict to be sorted out.

Sue de Nim

Saddam Hussein was a paper tiger. Even if we ultimately “win” this war, the price will have been too high.

Philip

After spending 16 months over there my views have radically changed regarding the war. However people on the right never seem to acknowledge point #1 and people on the left never have an answer to #2.

1) The war was based on reading way too much into questionable intelligence assessments with an eye toward the self-fulfilling prophecy of the Bush administration and the hawks. There was also complete ignorance of Iraqi society and what the second and third order effects were.

2) What should have been done regarding the following?

-UN sanctions, which only hurt the people of Iraq

-Oil for Food program, which made Saddam the 14th richest man in the world

-Enforcing the UN established No-fly zones, where in southern Iraq our aircraft were fired on by ADA missiles every time they flew over the area

EAL

The world stood by and allowed Hitler to rise to power. As a result, approximately 60 million people died in WWII. Hussein admired, studied and behaved in a similar fashion with the war with Iran, invasion of Kuwait, environmental damage with setting oil fields on fire, gassed the Kurds, destroyed the people and land of the Marsh, not to mention the attempted assassination of former President George H. Bush. Then of course there is the brewing issue of Iran who finances many militaristic actions in the region. Paraphrasing a french reporter from a few years back, in the end, having a democratic form of government buffered against Iran will prove to be a brilliant long term political move.

James

The Worlds population of extremist Muslims has gone down.

God bless our brave men and women that defend Democracy and Freedom.

DTOM

Dale

Sadly, there is no change and little awareness of this war. Tens of thousands of people have died, including our own. Yet, other than those who are close to our soldiers, our nation chooses to ignore what has happened.

Matt

I think the Iraq war has had a very sobering effect on younger generations of Americans. The War has exposed those generations to protracted and violent war and for the first time in their lives, they are having to deal with the loss of friends and loved ones who have died for their country overseas. However history chooses to remember the political implications of this war, the human implications are significant and often tragic.

Stephanie

I’m tired of the phrase “Iraq war”. It has always been “Iraq occupation”. The pre-emptive attack didn’t even have a “We’re here, now what?” plan to prevent the looting, etc.. We should be investing in the United States of America and not spending money on middle east quagmires. Our infrastructure is deteriorating. How about rebuilding our bridges, roads, covering our medicare, medicaid, social security debt so the future generations won’t have to be playing catch up to cover our “not in my lifetime” expenses.

Greg Copeland

YES:Congresswoman Betty McCollum now advocates a new income tax surcharge to pay for a War in Afghanistan!

Wake Up America! It is NOT about Iraq Anymore! Over 1000 Troops have died in

Afghanistan!

Obama wants to earn his Commander-In-Chief Strips with the lives of our best young men and women in Afghanistan! Sending over 100,000 U. S. Troops to defend Karzi , the Crook, and his Tribe of Opium dealers is Obama’s Folly!

Obama’s National Security Advisor says there are less than 100 members of al quada left in Afghanistan. Who believes you need 100,000 troops to kill 100 terrorists?

Russia left 35,000 dead troops in Afghanistan, after 10 years in the wasteland of Empires. Is Obama too smart to profit from world history, or are we, the people, too gutless to tell Obama and Congress to Bring Our Troops Home Now!

Did you elect Obama to embark on Nation Building in Afghanistan on your dime? Even George Bush never suggested we should do that !

Alison

As with all past wars, the Iraq War has resulted in another group of families paying a price that is difficult to measure. These families have had a parent absent for a number of periods of greater than a year each. Many of these soldier-parents bring home with them the emotional baggage of war. The effects that these strains have on the marriages of the soldiers and the development of their children are wide ranging and hard to quantify, but certainly present. All too often these effects are ignored by those in power in the rush to war.

Sheri

The last seven years of war has cost us human lives, vitality, considerable money and unity as a country. It is an undertaking that is seven years later still a source of heated debate. In its wake, a tight partisan division has emerged which causes considerable discomfort and many to turn away from civil life.

Audrey

Congress renigged on it duties. Handing over authority to Bush-Cheney-et al to attack Iraq was unconstitutional. The Bush Cheney Rumsfeld debacle that happened was a disgrace. The lost of life, the cost to soldiers’ families, the torture, the financial cost were all too high. Bush’s war was ill conceived, poorly prosecuted and made the world much less safe. It provided terriorists with more fodder for stirring up hatred and increased recruiting. Bush should have concentrated on capturing Bin Laden. Iraq would have taken out Saddam Hussien eventually. The Iraqi people would have fixed their own country. This war was a disgrace and a big mistake!

Lawrence

Iraq has radically altered America. For starters, the cost of gasoline is now significantly higher than it was before Iraq, and there are no signs gas prices will decrease. Next, there is the nation’s budget deficit, which the Iraq War significant contributes to. This fact is woefully under reported by the way, and neither Party will admit we can not afford to stay in Iraq. Then, there is the loss of the First Amendment, the free right of speech. Since Iraq, people can not question the war from beginning til now without being scorned as a traitor or labeled unsympathetic to the men and women that died in 911, or without being called weak if they suggest diplomacy over war. While war generally produces a good economy, our economy has not really recovered since the dot.com bust. Each time we had a recovery this past decade, the cause for the recovery was stimulus packages passed by both Presidents, Bush and Obama. Iraq maybe the first war that has never produced a prosperous America.

Gordon in Two Harbors

The Iraq fiasco didn’t do much to end international terrorism, because Al Quida, the filth behind the 911 attacks, was not in Iraq, and hated Saddam Hussein for many reasons.

We went into Iraq under false pretense, led by those same old neo-Conservatives who

avoid military service like it’s some kind of plague. They flap their mouths and wave the flag, while brave Americans go off to fight and die.

Devin Quince

I guess my first post go lost in the ether, so I will repost and see if it happens again.

We are less safe, more hated, and moving closer to a police state from a losing our liberties standpoint. For example 2 of our politicians are recommending we issue ID cards to all citizens and using immigration as the front.

From Rueters

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE62H5NX20100319

ID CARD

A key provision in the Schumer-Graham proposal is a new high-tech, fraud-proof card that would feature a biological identifier, like fingerprints.

Employers would be required to swipe the card through a machine to confirm the person’s identity and immigration status. Those who fail to comply would face fines, and repeat offenders could end up in prison.

In Frith,

Devin Quince
Pete

Talley for the Iraq War:

Con – Thousands of US soldiers injured or killed; over a trillion dollars of taxpayer money spent, countless Iraqis killed or wounded, no real democracy, created a terrorists jihad zone, damaged US credibility world -wide, NO WMD’s.

Pro – One dead dictator (Saddam).

I’m far from a Liberal but it seems that the only real winner was Halliburton!
Stephanie

In my opinion, the Iraq war’s undeniable presence as a divisive issue has caused great American unrest. When the war began, I was a naive sixteen-year-old who believed that the war was (hopefully) going to bring swift and lasting change to an already troubled region. Now, seven years later, I cringe whenever the war is mentioned on the evening news. I believe that the war has made positive changes in Iraq in the way of women’s rights and greater freedom for the citizens of Iraq, but it seems that those successes have come along with growing distrust in the American government around the world.
Bryan

I believe the war has shown the world how cavalier the leaders of our country are in regard to arbitrarily putting soldiers into harm’s way not to mention the fiscal insanity in financing the war.
comments sent to MPR

Comments texted to MPR:

I was traveling abroad when the war began and there was a very different perspective about the U.S. Overall, i feel it has ruined the sensitivity of the American public to the atrocities of war, and all those it affects, in particular the local civilians. We just don’t understand, nor show a concern for anyone but our own. -Julie, Howard Lake

People have created a bad opinion of the government and our military. Today though we are improving. -anonymous