State Building and Nation Building in Iraq

¶ … Building and Nation building in Iraq -- Present and Future Perspectives

Over the course of the current United States administration's involvement in Iraq,

President Bush has paid much lip service to the importance of multilateral action and to forming an international coalition when establishing a democratic regime within the nation, after the ousting of the tyrant Saddam Hussein from power. However, the lack of international support for the Iraqi mission 'Operation Freedom' has forced the U.S. To essentially 'go it alone,' except for the moral and military support of Prime Minister Tony Blair's British forces. France, the traditional gadfly of European politics, has repeatedly condemned U.S. cowboy tactics in the Middle East. The United Nations weapon inspectors failed to find any weapons of mass destruction within Iraq. In light of terrorist activity and the resulting election results in Spain, all events point to decreased international coalition support for United States goals in Iraq, in the future.

Moreover, in terms of its foreign policy concerning state-building and nation-building in Iraq during this quarter, the United States seems intent on making Iraq over into a nation based in its own image, upon Western notions of constitutionality and choice and governance -- all of which seems laudable in the abstract, but difficult in practice. The difficulty of the mission is reflected in dollar figures. The Pentagon initially outlined a plan for the rapid scaling back of the U.S. military presence in the region, reducing it to 70,000 troops by September. It now appears that at least three times that many U.S. soldiers will be kept in the region for the foreseeable future. At least 160,000 U.S. And British troops were deployed in Iraq during 2003. Another 90,000 support troops operated out of Kuwait and Qatar. (Vann, 2003) Rather than showing additional support for these troops, the UN continues to stress the tenuous reasons for United States involvement in the region.

Although the Bush administration estimates that $20 billion will be the maximum amount it will cost to rebuild Iraq, since the conflict began, experts estimate it will cost about $56 billion more over the next four years to rebuild the country. Twenty billion dollars of the $87 billion package is likely to be necessary rebuilding Iraq, and $66 billion is for defending it, a figure reflective of the amount it cost to 'liberate' the nation. (Boyle, 2003)

According to CNN.com, the 2003 deficit for the U.S. was 375 billion, extending to a projected 477 billion dollars at the end of this 2004 fiscal year. To lower this expenditure, it seems unlikely that increased multilateral support will be the answer, particularly in light of recent events in Spain. However, the divisiveness of party political factions in Iraq, as well as the unfamiliarity of democratic institutions within the nation also makes a faster push towards potential Iraqi sovereignty seem unlikely. Therefore, tax increases or potentially politically unpopular spending cuts seem like the only options for the administration.