So far we have spent over $200 billion on the war in Iraq. According to the Congressional Budget Office, by 2010 our expenses may be as much as $600 billion. The $200 billion we've spent would be enough money to provide health care for the 45 million Americans without health insurance. It would permit us to hire three and a half million elementary school teachers.
I think $200 billion for peace and democracy is worth it if we had something to show for it. But we haven't gotten peace and democracy. Instead, the $200 billion has bought us
* Over seventeen hundred Americans killed, more than 13, 000 wounded, and an unknowable number of Iraqi civilian deaths;
* A dysfunctional country that cannot move its political process forward;
* A new haven and proving ground for anti-American extremism;
* An insurgency in Iraq that has not diminished;
* A wellspring of mistrust from longtime friends and allies around the world;
* And a devastating erosion of American leadership and credibility.
So, why are we in Iraq? The President says we are pursuing our "ultimate goal of ending tyranny in the world." But the President has dragged our nation down a path that, at best, muddles that message. He says that we are not an army of occupation. But we are building the nation's largest embassy in Iraq that will accommodate over 1,000 personnel.
What is the average Iraqi on the street of Falluja, or average Jordanian on the streets of Amman, going to think we they see that we are building the largest American embassy in the world in Baghdad? I am sure that the average Iraqi does not mourn the savage brutality of Saddam Hussein's regime. The question is whether he or she equates our never-ending presence in Iraq with a new form of tyranny, rather than the freedom the President says he seeks to spread.
The underlying problem with our endless occupation of Iraq - a country that does not threaten the United States - is that it undermines our leadership on issues that do threaten the U.S. North Korean and Iranian nuclear weapons, global terrorism, emerging deadly international diseases - all these issues are clear and present dangers we must confront. Our ability to convince other nations to join us in boldly meeting these perils has been hobbled both by our deceptive entry into Iraq and our lingering departure from it.
The American public is quickly coming to its senses about the utility of our forces in Iraq and our open-ended commitment - with no ending in site. $200 billion later, Osama Bin Laden is still on the run while Iraq serves as a magnet for a new generation of jihadists. The bottom line is that our Iraq policy has become a festering wound that bleeds away more and more of America's wealth, America's security, America's leadership, and America's young men and women in uniform.