Editorials

Iraqi departure

(China Daily)
Updated: 2010-09-02 09:12

As expected, US President Barack Obama announced on Tuesday that the US combat mission in Iraq has ended. But both countries can be expected to reel from the open wounds of the war for a long time.

The US has spent more than $7 trillion in the Iraq War, with more than 4,400 troops killed and 30,000 others wounded. The unpopular war, plus the US-waged war in Afghanistan, has been a big drag on the US economy, which is slow to recover from a deep recession.

In the international arena, US credibility and influence have also been eroded after blatant war crimes committed by its troops in Iraq were disclosed one after another in the past few years.

With the Iraq War officially winding down and another in Afghanistan coming to an end soon, Obama will be able to address many of his country's domestic woes, including high unemployment and sluggish economic recovery.

Obama's announcement of the end of the war also marks a departure from his predecessor over how the US should project its influence internationally. Obama now reckons that US influence worldwide should not be a function of military force alone, but also a projection of the country's diplomacy and economic strength. The US has come a long way to recognize this.

As for Iraq, the legacy of the US-led war is even harder to swallow. The war has left more than 100,000 Iraqis killed. Although Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, the Iraqi people are still under the threat of bomb attacks and religious feuds on a daily basis.

As the country that waged the war in the first place, the US has a moral obligation as well as a long-term responsibility to help Iraqis rebuild their homeland that US troops shattered seven years ago.