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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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