The Iraqi War: One Year Later
A year ago, the US was concerned about the behavior of a rogue state. By
its own admission, it was developing weapons of mass destruction, which it
also admitted violated an international treaty. As such, it would not
allow inspectors into the country whatsoever. Additionally, it treated
its own people with disregard and was ruled by a ruthless totalitarian dictator.
A year later, it is still developing nuclear weapons and recently rejected
an agreement to cease with the project. Welcome to North Korea.
Many of the supporters of the Iraq War cite the improvements over the
status quo. Regardless whether any WMDs are ever found, a ruthless regime
is out of power and democracy has been introduced to the middle east (I
guess they don't count Israel), so the story goes. While getting rid of a
tyrant is never an event I would shed a tear over, one point these
supporters fail to mention is what economists call "opportunity cost". Simply put, if there's a movie at 5 PM which costs $5 and a free concert elsewhere, the cost of going to the movies is $5 plus not going to the concert. I am not of the opinion that getting rid of Saddam was a bad idea, I am of the opinion that our resources would have been better spent elsewhere. We obviously could not have prosecuted a war with both North Korea and Iraq simultaneously, and thus the cost of going to War with Iraq was both the dollar cost as well as the inability to go to war with North Korea or even effectively intimidate them with the threat of war into better cooperation.
The reasons the current administration has given are: violating an international treaty, developing WMDs, developing nuclear weapons, and a poor human rights record. While some of these are debatable in the context of Iraq, no one in North Korea even attempts to deny any of the above. The only significant difference is the accusation of so-called "Iraqi Terrorism". None of the evidence regarding this, before or after the fact, was very compelling. Even by the few who believed in such a link, the evidence was to the effect of "Iraq let Al Queda into their borders" due to evidence of Al Queda presence within Iraq. There was also at Al Queda inside the US on Sept 10th 2001. Some Iraqi officials met with Al Queda officials. American journalists also talked to Al Queda officials. Iraq and Al Queda both dislike the US, therefore they must be friends. Similarly, Stalin and Hitler both disliked America (and had meetings too).
Many of the supporters of the Iraq War view the alternative as doing nothing. My view is simply that if we wanted to counter threats to the US and eliminate a repressive government by prosecuting a war, we could have better spent our resources elsewhere.