Intentions and Opposite Results in Iraq

By MICHIKO KAKUTANI
New York Times Book Review

UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES
How War in Iraq Strengthened America’s Enemies
By Peter W. Galbraith
203 pages. Simon & Schuster. $23.

In his compelling new book the scholar and former diplomat Peter W. Galbraith not only reminds us that the Iraq war has been a costly, bungled operation, but he also argues that the war has had the opposite effect of virtually everything that President Bush and his administration promised the American public it would have:

¶A war intended to eliminate (what were later found to be non-existent) weapons of mass destruction in Iraq “ended up with Iran and North Korea much closer to having deployable nuclear weapons.”

¶A war intended to help combat terrorism has led to the recruitment of more terrorists and the spread of Al Qaeda to Iraq.

¶A war intended to create a bulwark against the ayatollahs in Tehran turned into a “strategic gift to Iran” and the empowerment in Iraq of pro-Iranian Shiite theocrats.

(More here.)