The Iraq war gained the United States little while devastating Iraq.

Evidence

The United States responded to the terrorist attack on its soil with a massive military operation that continued for over a decade. It was ill suited for insurgency warfare against an elusive enemy moving across porous national borders. This prolonged military campaign took a huge toll on human lives, devastated communities and infrastructures that provide basic human services, and created a humanitarian crisis with millions of civilians fleeing to overwhelmed refugee camps. The nation was burdened with staggering debts, borrowing trillions of dollars to pay for the war in addition to operating national surveillance systems to detect terrorist plots. According to a report on the cost of the Iraq war by the Watson Institute for International Studies, “the United States gained little from the war while Iraq was trau-matized by it. The war reinvigorated radical Islamist militants in the region. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 2426

Categorization

• XREF: Connects to earlier chapters on how moral disengagement leads to protracted, costly conflicts that fail their stated aims. — connects to: The Iraq War backfired by strengthening Iran and alienating European allies — Deepa Kumar, Islamophobia and the Politics of…, 489