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Five years into the conflict in Iraq, whether or not the war was justified has become a moot point, at least as far as what we have to do to end the war is concerned. Justified or not, it is a reality we must deal with. All of the debate in the world won't change that fact.

But from a historical context, and as a way of avoiding making the same mistakes in the future, we should examine whether or not going to war in Iraq was justified. The most objective way to determine if the Iraq war was justified is to compare it to a war that had broad support from nearly all nations, including those in the Middle East that so vehemently oppose our presence in Iraq. The war against the Taliban in Afghanistan was most certainly justified, and is the standard by which we should examine the Iraq conflict.

The United States invaded Afghanistan because the Taliban-controlled government was defiantly sheltering the Al Qaeda leaders who planned the September 11th attacks on the United States. There was no need for an exhaustive search for evidence; Mullah Omar was married to one of Osama Bin Laden's daughters and was openly allied with him. Diplomacy was attempted, but to no avail. Deadlines for handing over the terrorists were ignored. A worldwide coalition was built, and with the backing of the United Nations, we invaded Afghanistan and killed or drove out Al Qaeda and their Taliban allies.

The next step should have been a massive rebuilding of a nation torn apart by war since the Soviet invasion more than twenty years earlier. The Northern Alliance and the Afghan people as a whole supported us, fought beside us, and had every reason to expect that we would stay and help them make Afghanistan a viable, democratic nation. However, this was not the path chosen by the Bush administration. President Bush had looked for ways to invade Iraq even before 9/11, perhaps ever since Saddam had tried to have George H. W. Bush assassinated in 1993, and now the climate for war against Saddam Hussein was right.

But unlike the Afghan conflict, there was no evidence linking Iraq to terrorism. After more than 10 years of inspections, there was no proof that Saddam had developed weapons of mass destruction. And there was limited international support for military action. We went in anyway, mainly as a result of fabricated or exaggerated evidence.

Four years later, the situation is worse than it was before the invasion. Iraq is in shambles, with more terrorist activity than we could have ever imagined. There is no infrastructure, no electricity, and no jobs in spite of billions of dollars spent on reconstruction. Because of our inattention to Afghanistan, there has been no economic development there either, and the Taliban are regaining lost ground. The country's main export is once again heroin, which had largely disappeared before the invasion.

We handled the post-war aspect of Afghanistan wrong, but was the Afghan war justified? Absolutely. Was the Iraq war justified? Not even close.

Learn more about this author, Bruno Somerset.
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