Hear Me Out: The Iraq War Was a Necessary Evil

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Slate Podcasts

News, News Commentary, Politics

4.6 • 6K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2023

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

On today’s episode of Hear Me Out… Mission Accomplished? This year marks the 20th anniversary of then-President Bush’s infamous address aboard an aircraft carrier, declaring that the war had been won and Iraqis were free. We know now, of course, that the war had not been won – and in 2003, it was far from over. Many thousands of lives were lost. With the gift of hindsight, can we see the war as anything other than a costly mistake? Iraqi-American and President of Ideas Beyond Borders Faisal Saeed Al Mutar joins Celeste to argue that the war, while mismanaged, was a victory — and that the alternatives could have been far, far worse. If you have thoughts you want to share, or an idea for a topic we should tackle, you can now email the show: [email protected] Podcast production by Maura Currie You can skip all the ads in Hear Me Out by joining Slate Plus. Sign up now at slate.com/hearmeoutplus for just $15 a month for your first three months. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Welcome to Hear Me Out. I'm your host Celeste Headley. As we mark the 20th anniversary of
0:06.7	George W. Bush declaring mission accomplished in Iraq, we tackle this difficult chapter
0:11.8	in American and Iraqi history. Mission accomplished, of course, did not mean the end of the war,
0:18.8	far from it. The war continued for an additional eight years with many thousands of lives lost
0:25.5	on all sides. And even when the American troops did leave, as we've seen time and time again,
0:31.3	we left a power vacuum in the wake of the war that led to even more instability. Not many
0:37.1	people in the US or in Iraq would argue that any mission was really accomplished there,
0:42.7	but there are those who say the war was, in fact, the lesser evil. The fact is that all
0:48.0	of the Iraqis who were killed as a result of the chaotic invasion would have been killed
0:52.7	anyway. Activist and Iraqi American Faisal Said Al-Lutair joined us on Hear Me Out in just a moment.
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1:33.7	I'm Celeste Headley. In the Battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.
1:40.5	Because of you, our nation is more secure. Because of you, the tyrant has fallen. Any
1:46.7	Iraq is free. On May 1, 2003, President Bush addressed the nation from aboard the USS Lincoln
1:56.9	and aircraft carrier. And with that infamous mission accomplished banner behind him, the
2:02.3	President declared that Saddam Hussein had been defeated and that the U.S. had won the war
2:07.6	in Iraq. We had invaded Iraq less than two months before this address. On the grounds that
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