Violence in Iraq has risen significantly this past month, with about 70 U.S. Military troop casualties since April 1 and nearly 700 enemy deaths.
The U.S. administrator of Iraq and the top field commander in the country met with members of the Iraqi Governing Council on Monday to discuss the mounting violence in the past week.
President Bush attributes the recent surge of violence and casualties in Iraq to a few people who are trying to stop the advancement of democracy there.
The many Americans reacting to the current situation in Iraq are doing so for “good reason,” Michael Barnett, a political science professor at the University of Wisconsin, said.
“The very pretext for invading Iraq has not been fulfilled. There are no weapons of mass destruction and very little sense of democracy,” he said. “I would be very concerned that we got into the war for all the wrong reasons.”
The Bush administration, however, backs the war in Iraq. President Bush visited Appleton March 30 to discuss his policies to strengthen the economy and also to defend his decision to invade Iraq. In his speech, he said both he and Congress were convinced that Saddam Hussein was a threat to the United States.
“I looked at intelligence from Iraq and saw a threat,” Bush said in his speech. “The U.S. Congress looked at the same intelligence, and the members of Congress saw a threat. The United Nations Security Council looked at the intelligence, and it saw a threat.”
But larger numbers of Americans are beginning to wonder if the United States is justified in occupying the country.
Barnett thinks claims that the Bush administration made in public could be convincing to some, but may prove “hollow” in the long run.
“This is a war of America’s own choosing and we’re now paying the price,” he said.
However, some argue that despite the rising death toll in the country, the good being done in Iraq will eventually outweigh the bad.
“There appears to be a lot of good and a lot of progress in Iraq right now,” Angela Frozena, chair of College Republicans of Wisconsin, said. “Unfortunately, the headlines are full of losses … but I think that in the long run the good that is going to come from the removal of Saddam Hussein’s oppressive regime will become evident.”
Currently, Barnett thinks the Bush administration has very little leeway about what to do next.
“There is the possibility of simply cutting and running, which could leave Iraq in bad shape, [or] the possibility of identifying local political elites that could maintain some degree of political control,” he said, adding there has been some media speculation about the prospect of sending more troops or extending current tours.
Barnett also believes it is hard to identify what American forces have done right, since there have been few success stories. He said that the Bush administration made a “huge mistake” in invading Iraq, calling the situation a “mess.”
He added the country has mortgaged its economy and diplomacy, saying “shades of Vietnam” are evident.
Despite ongoing questioning of Bush’s policies and actions, Barnett thinks the current situation in Iraq will have little effect on the president’s re-election campaign.
“Public opinion suggests that there are a lot of people raising concerns, but [Bush’s] ratings are still high,” he said.