Iraq War: Price of failure

Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Iraq War: Price of failure


President Bush told reporters Monday that, "A failed Iraq would make America less secure."

Yes, Mr. President, it has.

The predictable failure of your unjustified invasion of Iraq has indeed made America less secure. We have 2,600 fewer young American soldiers, hundreds of billions fewer dollars in the Treasury, a level of global disgust with American foreign policy that can only spur the radicalization and recruitment of future terrorists. July brought the highest monthly death toll of Iraqi civilians since the war began. The prime perpetrators of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks are still at large. The massive economic demands of the Iraq war sap our ability to secure our own ports and borders.

Three years ago, 57 percent of Americans were convinced that invading Iraq would make the United States safer from terrorism. Today, that same majority of Americans realize that it's made their country less safe.

There were no WMDs. There was no connection to 9/11. And now U.S. military leaders are even rethinking the prospects of democracy in Iraq, while the destabilizing civil war grows daily.

Confronted with the evidence of failure, the president waves the bloody shirt, declaring that "leaving before the job was done would send a signal to our troops that the sacrifices they made were not worth it."

That 2,600 American soldiers have died in pursuit of the administration's misguided and clearly failed Iraq policy seems an unacceptable justification for more of them dying.

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