U.S. Army soldiers wait to board a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, on Nov. 17, 2008. The aircraft is deployed from the 437th Airlift Wing out of Charleston Air Force Base, S.C. DoD photo by Tech. Sgt. Erik Gudmundson, U.S. Air Force. (Released)From The Christian Science Monitor:
Final chapter on war yet to be written; known costs include sagging world standing for US, rise of Iran in the region.
The Iraq war became emblematic of President Bush's faith in traditional American power at a time when new manifestations of power – a country's international standing, its involvement in spreading international development, the attractiveness of its values – have taken on new importance.
"Bush focused so heavily on the hard power that he neglected the soft power," says Harvard Prof. Joseph Nye, describing the availability of nonmilitary means for pursuit of national interests.
Citing a decline of 30 percentage points in European attitudes toward America and an even steeper decline in many Muslim countries, Mr. Nye says such figures are "a good measure of the effect of Iraq on America's attractiveness" and also on its interests. But not everyone agrees with this interpretation.
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My Comment: Soft power never had a chance to work it's way into Iraq after the invasion. Like present day Afghanistan, hard power must first be used to guarantee security and safety for those who can implement soft/smart power concepts to a society. If hard power was not used in Iraq .... soft power would never have had a chance.