Who Were The Real Winners In The Iraq War

Troops, guests and media representatives from throughout the world watch as the last convoy of U.S. service members enters Kuwait from Iraq, Dec. 18, 2011. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Lynette Hoke

The Real Winners In The War -- Trudy Rubin, Philadelphia Inquirer

Estimates on U.S. waste run as high as $60 billion. But don't think this will stop anytime soon.

Two weeks ago, on the 10th anniversary of the Iraq war, I wrote a column that laid out the losers in the conflict. I argued there were still no clear winners.

One reader responded that there are obvious winners: the private civilian contractors who provided security and supplies for the war effort, and were paid tens of billions of dollars by the U.S. government. A hefty chunk of those billions was wasted due to overbilling, shoddy work, and fraud.

The reader was correct (although I disagree with his assertion that we began the war in order to fuel the military-industrial complex). He fingered an important problem we still haven't come to grips with: Our military and civilian agencies seem unable to conduct massive nation-building efforts in war zones effectively, or to supervise the private contractors to whom we often outsource this job.

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My Comment: Combat to commerce are America's legacies in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Somehow .... somewhere .... we lost our perspective and national security objectives in both conflicts .... and we will be paying for it in the years to come.