For Immediate Release

In February 2003, the Libertarian Party (LP) issued an article titled “10 reasons why the USA should not attack Iraq.”

The article began by saying, “… there’s only one valid reason for the United States to go to war: Self-defense.”

Geoffrey Neale, LP national chairman, commented, “Unfortunately, the U.S. government ignored that principle, and engaged in ‘preventive war’ against Iraq. Many times since then, the Libertarian Party has criticized that decision.”

Neale also served as the LP national chairman in 2003.

In retrospect, the LP greatly understated the problems. We guessed the war might cost as much as $200 billion. It turned out to be closer to $1 trillion. We suspected that Saddam Hussein would not use his WMDs against the U.S. It turned out, he didn’t have the weapons at all. And we failed to predict the hardship that U.S. military action would impose on millions of Iraqis.

We are now seeing the predictable result of the intervention: civil war in Iraq.

The U.S. government’s war on Iraq has worsened the lives of both Americans and Iraqis.

What should the U.S. military do now? Nothing. No air strikes, no drone attacks, no “military advisors.” There is no way to un-make the damage, and further intervention will only prolong and aggravate the current problems.

There is one thing our government could do: allow Iraqi refugees to immigrate to the United States.

The Libertarian Party supports a foreign policy of free trade and non-intervention.

The original 2003 article is available here.