This March marked the ten-year anniversary of the onset of the Iraq War, now widely regarded as one of the biggest foreign policy catastrophes in American history. Exactly 4,488 Americans lost their lives in the war, alongside a minimum of 120,000 Iraqis, with some studies placing the Iraqi death toll as high as 1.5 million. On top of this sickening and incomprehensible carnage, at least four million Iraqis have been displaced, half of them fleeing the country and the other half relocating within Iraq. U.S. taxpayers have financed this venture to the tune of two trillion dollars, with the ultimate bill likely to run anywhere between four and six trillion dollars when factoring in the costs of health care and disability payments for returning soldiers, including the 253,000 troops who suffered traumatic brain injuries, according to a report by Linda Bilmes of Harvard University.
Someone unfamiliar with the contours of American politics and foreign policy might expect a greater degree of humility and caution from politicians complicit in starting a war on the basis of faulty intelligence regarding Iraq’s nonexistent weapons of mass destruction. To the contrary, the political class has exhibited an astounding level of historical amnesia in relation to the latest supposed existential threat—Iran’s nuclear program. Even casual observers who only tuned in for election season will be well aware of the antagonistic rhetoric emanating from both political parties in relation to the alleged threat posed by Iran. Just as with Iraq a decade ago, the intelligence on Iran does not support these hyperbolic warnings.
Iran does not have an active nuclear weapons program, nor have the country’s leaders made the decision to acquire a nuclear weapon. This is the view of the International Atomic Energy Agency, the United States’ 16 intelligence agencies, Israel’s Defense Minister, the Chief of Staff of the Israeli Defense Forces, and Israel’s Military Intelligence Director, among many others. The IAEA has Iran’s nuclear facilities under 24-hour surveillance, conducts bimonthly inspections, both announced and unannounced, and has a history of being a voice of reason, repeatedly stressing the absence of evidence for an Iraqi nuclear weapons program in the run-up to the war.
Yet, the complete and utter lack of any evidence of an Iranian nuclear weapons program has predictably not stopped military hawks itching to start another war in the Middle East. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu proclaimed that, “Within three to five years, we can assume that Iran will become autonomous in its ability to develop and produce a nuclear bomb.” He uttered that warning in 1992. In his 1995 book “Fighting Terrorism,” he made the same claim regarding the imminence of an Iranian nuclear weapon. Literally for the entirety of my lifetime, from 1992 to 2013, Netanyahu has been issuing dire warnings about a threat that never materialized. Just to reiterate the obvious, the IAEA reports that there is “no concrete proof that Iran has or has ever had a nuclear weapons program.”
This embarrassing record of hysterical claims echoes Netanyahu’s aloofness on Iraq’s alleged nuclear weapons program in the run-up to the Iraq war. In 2002, he claimed that “there is no question whatsoever” that Iraq had an active nuclear weapons program. Furthermore, he said that according to Israeli intelligence, Iraq had Russian and North Korean scientists on site assisting with the weapons program. With this track record, the fact that Netanyahu’s proclamations on Iran’s nuclear program still have any credibility whatsoever in the eyes of the U.S. political and pundit class attests both to the poverty of our discourse and the lack of a much-needed skepticism regarding claims that could lead to a new military conflagration in the Middle East.
Needless to say, this seemingly unanimous consensus among the political class that Iran, contrary to the evidence, has a nuclear weapons program has led to the unnecessary suffering of millions of ordinary Iranians via the sanctions imposed on them by the U.S. and other countries. As just one example, the curtailments on the country’s banking sector have made the importation of life-saving drugs and medical devices exceedingly difficult, putting the lives of six million Iranians at risk. Rather than a flaw, the powers that be seem to regard this massive human toll as a strength of the program. Vice President Joe Biden bragged about the damage done, saying in the vice presidential debate that, “These are the most crippling sanctions in the history of sanctions, period.” The most crippling sanctions of all time in response to an Iranian nuclear weapons program that doesn’t even exist, and this coming from a man who also vigorously supported the attack on Iraq. A decade out from the start of the Iraq war, those with the most influential voices on foreign affairs, such as Vice President Biden and Prime Minister Netanyahu, along with virtually the entire U.S. Congress, continue to promote blatant falsehoods and display an almost sociopathic indifference to the innocent people who suffer from a belligerent U.S. foreign policy.
How do you feel about the decade-spanning U.S. involvement in Iraq? Tell us your thoughts! Please send feedback to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
