Iraq And The Future Of United States Foreign Policy : Failures Of Legitmacy

This article evaluates the political trusteeship in Iraq, and concludes that the United States failed to apply many lessons that the international community learned from preceding political trusteeships, and that the result is likely to be a serious unraveling of important, though intangible, sources of leverage for U. S. foreign policy and national security. The Iraq intervention has distracted attention from more important foreign policy objectives, including the urgent effort to understand the genesis of terrorism and to mobilize American resources to reduce the terrorist threat, while working through multilateral frameworks. Accomplishment of these is necessary for achieving important foreign policy goals.