Iraq War - Criticism and Cost

Criticism and Cost

Further information: Criticism of the Iraq War, Opposition to the Iraq War, Legitimacy of the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Legality of the Iraq War, Views on the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Protests against the Iraq War, American popular opinion on invasion of Iraq, Governmental positions on the Iraq War prior to the 2003 invasion of Iraq, and Media coverage of the Iraq War See also: Iraq War misappropriations, Habbush letter, and The Way of the World (book)

The Bush Administration's rationale for the Iraq War has faced heavy criticism from an array of popular and official sources both inside and outside the United States, with many U.S. citizens finding many parallels with the Vietnam War. For example a former CIA officer who described the Office of Special Plans as a group of ideologues who were dangerous to U.S. national security and a threat to world peace, and that the group lied and manipulated intelligence to further its agenda of removing Saddam. The Center for Public Integrity alleges that the Bush administration made a total of 935 false statements between 2001 and 2003 about Iraq's alleged threat to the United States.

Both proponents and opponents of the invasion have also criticized the prosecution of the war effort along a number of other lines. Most significantly, critics have assailed the United States and its allies for not devoting enough troops to the mission, not adequately planning for post-invasion Iraq, and for permitting and perpetrating human rights abuses. As the war has progressed, critics have also railed against the high human and financial costs.

Criticisms include:

• Legality of the invasion
• Human casualties
• Insufficient post-invasion plans, in particular inadequate troop levels (a RAND Corporation study stated that 500,000 troops would be required for success)
• Financial costs with approximately $612 billion spent as of 4/09 the CBO has estimated the total cost of the war in Iraq to U.S. taxpayers will be around $1.9 trillion.
• Adverse effect on U.S.-led global "war on terror"
• Damage to U.S.' traditional alliances and influence in the region, especially Israel and Saudi Arabia.
• Endangerment and ethnic cleansing of religious and ethnic minorities by insurgents
• Disruption of Iraqi oil production and related energy security concerns (the price of oil has quadrupled since 2002)

After President Barack Obama was inaugurated in 2009, some anti-war groups decided to stop protesting even though the war was still going on. Some of them decided to stop because they felt they should give the new President time to establish his administration, and others stopped because they believed that Obama would end the war.