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The Terrible Idea of an Alliance with Iraq

A formal alliance with Iraq would add nothing to U.S. security, but would ensure that the U.S. will be entangled in Iraqi affairs for decades to come.

It will come as no surprise that Michael O’Hanlon has come up with another terrible idea:

At this crucial juncture in the Middle East, the United States should propose to Baghdad the creation of a formal, treaty-based alliance. It could be modeled after America’s alliances in Europe and East Asia, and include a clause like that of Article V in the NATO and U.S.-Japan charters that commits the two countries to the defense of each other [bold mine-DL].

What O’Hanlon means is that the U.S. should be obligated to guarantee the security of yet another country that couldn’t possibly do anything to make America more secure. O’Hanlon wants the U.S. to have another useless “ally” that depends entirely on the U.S. for protection. The U.S. would be poorly-served by taking on a semi-authoritarian, sectarian would-be client as a permanent ally. This proposal would extend a security guarantee to a state that cannot even control its own territory, and would burden the U.S. with a new major security commitment that it doesn’t need. A formal alliance with Iraq wouldn’t make the U.S. or the region more secure, but would in all likelihood compel the U.S. to fight against the Iraqi government’s enemies in perpetuity. This would lock in the current bad policy of propping up the Iraqi government, and it would serve as a permanent distraction from the alliances in Europe and East Asia that actually matter.

A formal alliance with Iraq would add nothing to U.S. security or the security of other treaty allies, but would ensure that the U.S. will be entangled in Iraqi affairs for decades to come with no chance of extrication. According to O’Hanlon’s plan, it would also mean the more or less permanent presence of U.S. forces in the country. Once the U.S. extends formal security guarantees through mutual defense agreements, it doesn’t normally take them back later on. Taking Iraq on as an ally would be a serious blunder, and one that the U.S. wouldn’t be able to undo easily. It’s an extraordinarily bad and irresponsible idea, and one that we can only hope will be rejected out of hand.

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