Would Defeat in Iraq Be So Bad?: Review

In the essay “Would Defeat in Iraq Be So Bad?,” Leslie Gelb proposes a new approach for what to do in the war in Iraq. Gelb believes that if America follows in Bush’s strategy of “staying the course,” or turns to the democrat’s strategy or as Gelb says, “pulling out by timetables,” we will inevitably meet defeat and then disaster. Defeat in Iraq is a disaster that has almost every American quivering at the thought of total chaos in the Middle East. So what is his proposal?

Gelb flashes back to 1975, when the U.S. pulled out of the Vietnam War. Him self and other foreign-policy experts were expecting a total collapse to communism in the East. This of coarse did not happen because of our allies and the surrounding countries of Vietnam that feared and despised communism as much as we did. Gelb believes that the U.S. should do the same now and pull forces out of Iraq. He reminds us of the U.S.’s allies and potential allies that fear the Iraqi Jihads and want defeat over them. The absence of a large standing U.S. army would trigger these allies to aid according to Gelb. In conclusion, Lesli Gelb proposes less military force in Iraq in order to end the war with as little pain as possible.

Lesli Gelb uses the example of Vietnam to support his claim that the U.S. should pull out of the war in Iraq. In this example, Gelb outlines why the U.S. did it and what himself and other foreign policy experts predicted was to come after. He tells that the “dominos never fell,” like everyone expected and it brought a more peace-full end to the war. This example also makes Lesli Gelb credible to make claims and suggestions about what should be done with the U.S.’s involvement in Iraq.

The example of Vietnam used by Gelb is also used to persuade the reader to see the similarities of the two wars. Gelb uses many examples of how the two wars and similar and how they are different. He asks the question, “Could the consequences of defeat in Iraq not be as bad as we imagine.?” He does this to make the reader reflect on what happened in Vietnam and compare how it relates to the war in Iraq. He first compares the Jihads to the Vietnamese and how the “Jihad hate” runs more world wide than the Vietnamese hate did. He tells how there are more people and groups like the Baathists and the Sunni’s that hate the Jihads just as much as the U.S. and explains how they could help if we were to leave Iraq. He then compares the nations involved in Vietnam War and the nations involved in the Iraqi war. He then and identifies how our allies like the Kurds, the Saudis, the Turks and the Jordanians could help with ending the war after the U.S. pulls out. The last comparison Gelb makes is the difference between the Bush administration and the Ford and Carter administrations. He reveals that Ford and Carter tried to, “cushion the falling dominos,” while Bush hides behind, “his fears of Middle East dominoes.”

Gelb identifies the effects of what might happen if we don’t pull out U.S. forces in Iraq. He also identifies the bad that could come if we pull military force out of Iraq, being oil prices skyrocketing. Although this risk is large, Gelb says, “we wont know until we try hard-and soon.” He says the course we are heading right now under the Bush administration is leading to defeat and we need to get out before its too late.