WEST POINT, New York, March 16, 2008
5 Years On: Is Iraq War Only Half-Over?
3,988 Dead, More Than 60,000 Wounded, A Projected Cost Of $2 Trillion — What Is America's Continued Role?
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Play CBS Video Video Iraq: 5 Years Later Five years after the U.S. invaded Iraq, the war continues to bring death and destruction. Instability, high unemployment and scarce resources cast a shadow on the quality of life. Lara Logan reports.
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An Iraqi volunteer civilian and a U.S. soldier of 3rd Brigade Combat team, 3rd Infantry Division are reflected on a mirror as they secure the area of a check point in the Al-leg area, about 40 miles south of Baghdad, IraqMarch 11, 2008. Iraqi volunteer civilians known as Sons of Iraq guard many check points in Iraq and provide security to their neighborhoods. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)
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Photo Essay Protests Mark 5 Years Of War Global demonstrations demand an end to U.S. involvement in Iraq.
Lt. Gen. Raymond Odierno, the former No. 2 commander in Iraq, said in January that U.S. aircraft could be used to support Iraqi combat operations for "five to 10 years" along with "an appropriate number of ground forces."
That same month, Lt. Gen. James Dubik, who heads the Multi-National Security Transition Command, told the House Armed Services Committee that Iraqi officials estimate they can't assume responsibility for internal security until as late as 2012 and won't be able to defend Iraq's borders until 2018.
The insurgency, however, may not be the most worrisome problem in coming years. Some believe the worst struggle will be keeping friction between Iraq's Sunnis and Shiites from ballooning into civil war.
"I don't know anyone who pays serious attention to Iraq who thinks that we are over the hump in terms of internal violence," said Jon Alterman, the Middle East program director at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "There are a lot of unsettled scores and no ongoing political process that seems likely to address them."
By the time of the summer's political conventions, U.S. troop strength is expected to shrink with the pullout of many of the 30,000 "surge" forces that poured into central Iraq last year. The Pentagon predicts to be at 140,000 soldiers by July, though that's still 8,000 more than the total before the surge.
Sen. John McCain, the apparent Republican presidential nominee, has predicted that the insurgency will "go on for years and years and years." But, eventually, the Iraqi forces will have to fight alone. It's the often-touted South Korean scenario: local forces someday on the front lines with a U.S. military presence in a supporting role - possibly for decades.
"A thousand years. A million years. Ten million years," McCain famously said in New Hampshire in January. "It depends on the arrangement we have with the Iraqi government."
It depends, too, on whether the Iraqis and their government can hold on. To a far lesser extent, it also hinges on world sentiment - the U.N. Security Council mandate for the U.S.-led force in Iraq is set to expire at the end of the year, which could increase international pressure for withdrawal.
But more than anything else, it depends on whether Americans are willing.
Mary Shuldt is losing patience. Living at Fort Campbell in the Kentucky lowlands, she wonders how many more times her husband and the 101st Airborne Division will be called to Iraq.
"Our families are being ripped apart," she said. "When is enough enough?"
The family of Chris Blaxton, a longtime military policeman in the Army and then the Reserve, has not been ripped apart. And yet America's fissures are apparent in this family, too, as his children reflect on the war and their own futures.
In October, Blaxton was on his second tour in Iraq and just nine days from coming home to Okemos, Mich., when a bomb tore through his Humvee, paralyzing him from the waist down.
His 16-year-old son, Kevin, had been considering enlisting in the Air Force.
Now, he says, "It's not worth it. It's just a war."
But Kevin's sister Rebecca, a high school sophomore, has a different perspective. She watched the nurses at Washington's Walter Reed Army Medical Center help her father, and she'd consider doing the same, someday, for other soldiers - even if it means going to Iraq.
It's not so much that she believes in the war, she says. It has to do with her father and the beliefs that led him to volunteer to go to Iraq.
"When you get the chance to do something for your country," Rebecca said, "do it and don't say 'no.'"
By Brian Murphy; Associated Press writers contributing to this report included Martha Irvine in Chicago, Carley Petesch in New York, Chelsea Carter in San Diego, Ryan Lenz in Evansville, Indiana, Betsy Taylor in St. Louis, Bradley Brooks in Baghdad.
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Best-selling author Mitch Albom on his first nonfiction work since "Tuesdays with Morrie."
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See all 332 CommentsI wonder why...: )
Posted by truth-hurts at 03:16 PM : Mar 17, 2008
Of course, when you have no bid contracts that get paid regardless of whether your projects are complete failures, there''s really not much to check up on, just gotta make sure none of the crooks who work for you are looting the company, selling materials to Al Quaeda or something and not giving you your cut of the booty.
Sometimes they do.
They ran away from Lyndon Johnson"s "War on Poverty" and they went AWOL from Jerry Ford"s "WIN" ["Whip Inflation Now"] campaign.
Some even want to run away from the "War on Global Warming" and the "War on AIDS."
Staying a bad course out of stubbornness is tantamount to treason.
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An intelligent redepolyment is not "running from a battle."
Bush has been saying forever that the Iraqis will stand up and we will stand down.
The time is come, and is long overdue, for that to happen.
When is it he said--"we have defeated the enemy"?
Where was the Bush plan????????????????????????
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Posted by liberalme at 12:19 PM : Mar 17, 2008
Bow to your God Obamma to deliver you from the tyranny you live in your mind.
Posted by hillaryin08 at
Sorry I''m into reality---so glad I haven''t spent my life believing every morsel fed to me--how bout you Helllllllary!
Since the USA liberated Iraq, 25 million people have been saved from an evil dictator and thousands of Al Queda terrorists have been killed or captured. Yes things have gone poorly in some ways, but Americans do not run from a battle just because things get hard. Our nation has always fought through the hard, and that is what makes us great. We defeat evil and oppression no matter what the cost. We will defeat Al Queda, no matter how many Democrats plea for surrender.
Posted by bobmarisol at 07:28 AM : Mar 17, 2008
Here we come world--the US will be invading every country in the world--yes, I said world--why?? Because there is AlQueda and terrorists EVERYWHERE and we ain''''t gonna quit until we get the last terrorist (or catch the last fish in the ocean--whichever comes first)!!
Bin Laden?? Who cares about Bin Laden?? Why do you think we sent more troops to Iraq than Afganistan?
We sent troops to Iraq as bait to draw AlQueda and the terrorists there and most of all---we want the oil and the pipeline--(hehe just didn''''t think it would be this hard).
I like the "no matter what the cost" Bob--heartfelt--so glad you have such great respect for human life, you''d probably send your own mother off th Iraq--no matter what the cost. Sheesh!!
This morning he challenged me to PROVE that George W. Bush had ever been guilty of misspelling a word in his entire life.
Everybody has misspelled words.
Bush"s problem is that he cannot speak properly.
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Not if a Democrat wins in November.
And that is going to happen.
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Posted by skyk at 04:24 PM : Mar 17, 2008
+ report abuse
Appreciate the help there bro but please do not speak for me. I know you raised the same questions and are mad but you cause me problems when you do that. Sieg Heil Bush.
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Posted by fedupwithit1 at 04:21 PM : Mar 17, 2008
+ report abuse
Well you can add ONE more to the mix there friend! I''m a Vietnam Vet too and I''m tired of this trash! YES you are all fascist and you refuse to address the issues raise by Sarge and Myself. You simply want to brush off all those lies told and the mess we''ve been pulled into by these liars. Just brush them off!! Those Kids who are dying because of those lies are REAL and I to am d-a-m-n-e-d tired of you people just acting like they don''t matter and the money we''re spending on this useless war is NOT needed here at home. ENOUGH I say so here ya go Sarge!! Sieg Heil Bush!!
Posted by notblue at 12:48 PM : Mar 17, 2008
You CAN''T be this stupid? You answer NOTHING that I raise and YOU accuse me of using "Move-ON" talking points. What kind of person are you? Have you people NO honor left at all? I raised REAL issues... those LIES that we were told for TWO long years are as REAL as they get... do you freaks address them? NO! The fact that the people who ordered and planned the Attack against this nation are in a Safe Haven Completely REBUILT is a REAL Fact! Do you people address that issue? NO! The FACT that Iraq had NO connection to Bin Laden and our OWN Pentagon tells us that but what do you freaks say? I''m a "Lib"? YOU ARE SICK... every last one of you are SICK!! Sieg Heil Bush
In the last 12 months, the war has turned around. Violence has dropped at least 60%, tribal leaders that once fought alongside Al Queda now fight alongside the USA against Al Queda, and thousands of Iraqis now have electricity and running water. With all this good news, why does the title of this article only mention the death count and the monetary cost of the war? The only logical explanation is that CBS and the rest of the liberal media have teamed up with the Democratic Party in its attempt to secure defeat and to undermine the war effort.
He''s probably some little college kid the Dem''s pay to sit on this site all day and talk nonsense--Thats why i always put a ? after vet--hmmmm
Posted by notblue at 12:48 PM : Mar 17, 2008
mcvet is not here, he leaves when someone brings up his ptsd...thats how much a wuss he is
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