Rand Paul Is Wrong. Leave Iraq Alone!

By Jacob G. Hornberger

Still opposing the Iraq War in 2003, Senator Rand Paul now wants Congress to declare war against the Islamic State and engage in military action in Iraq. He says that “national security” is at stake.

I’ve got a better idea: Leave Iraq alone! Hasn’t the U.S. government done enough damage already in Iraq?

Consider all the death and destruction that interventionists have wrought on this poor nation. Some people estimate that more than a million Iraqis have died as a result of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. The reason we don’t have a more precise figure is because the U.S. military announced at the inception of the invasion in 2003 that it would not keep track of Iraqi dead. It would keep track of American dead but not Iraqi dead. The number of Iraqis killed in the conflict just didn’t matter. Iraqis were looked upon the same way that U.S. military officials looked upon Vietnamese people as “gooks” during the Vietnam War.

Consider all the maimed Iraqis — the paralyzed, the blind, the handicapped. Their lives will never be the same again.

Consider those who were injured but managed to recover. Who cares about the pain and suffering they underwent? Certainly not the people who caused it.

Consider all...

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