Matthew Doss: $806 Billion Spent for Hundreds of Thousands Killed!

The United States is withdrawing the last of its troops from Iraq this month, which makes now an appropriate time to begin weighing the costs and benefits to US national security from our intervention there. On May 1, 2003, President George W. Bush stood aboard the deck of the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and declared to the country and to the world that "Major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed." As Americans would quickly find out, President Bush's declaration of victory was severely premature. Iraq would soon be in the throes of a violent insurgency and, eventually, a full-blown sectarian civil war. More than eight years after that speech, as President Barack Obama prepares to keep his promise to end that war, Iraq has made progress but still struggles with insecurity and deep political discord. Though the level of violence has remained down from its 2006-2007 peak, when dozens of bodies could be found on Baghdad's streets every morning, Iraq still endures a level of violence that in any other country would be considered a crisis. Still, the end of former Iraq President Saddam Hussein's brutal regime represents a considerable global good, and a nascent democratic Iraqi republic partnered with the United States could potentially yield benefits in the future.