Peace Education Fund

"Few countries were as helpful to the United States in its early involvement in Afghanistan as Iran. Yet after the fall of the Taliban, the US failed to capitalize on the possibilities of that strategic relationship. Now coalition and Afghan troops are losing ground against the same insurgents they confronted in 2001, in a war that the United States is unlikely to win unless it rethinks its relationship with Iran."¹

- Lawrence J. Korb, Former assistant secretary of defense in the Reagan administration and senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and Laura Conley, special assistant at the Center for American Progress.

In their final months, the Bush administration tacked tentatively towards diplomacy with Iran, though they ultimately failed to adopt the robust approach needed to repair the relationship. Congress and the new president must make Iran a top priority, and quickly set the right tone for getting US-Iran relations on the right track.

"After September 11, 2001, increases in annual US Department of Defense spending dwarfed increases in spending for all other departments critical to counterterrorism combined (US Department of Justice, US Department of State, and US Department of Homeland Security) by five to one, even when the costs of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were excluded."

- From the 2008 Rand Corporation report, "How Terrorist Groups End: Lessons for Countering al Qa'ida."

"As we ask our military to become the leading edge of our international engagement, we are putting a security face on that engagement. However benign and well-intended our forces, for other nations and peoples this can create a backlash against our policies and our presence. In the end, leading with our military chin could have the effect of endangering, rather than increasing, American security."

- Gordon Adams, Woodrow Wilson International Center, Testimony to the Senate Budget Committee, February 6, 2007

On September 20th, 2001, in a speech to a joint session of Congress, President George W. Bush declared the beginning of a "Global War on Terror." The speech was followed by the invasion of Afghanistan in October. Seven years later, the "War on Terror" has proven to be a counterproductive framework for addressing the threat of terrorism; it has in fact undermined long-term US security. In waging this war, the Bush administration has diverted resources and attention from more tested strategies that succeed in reducing terrorism.

The Peace Education Fund was one of the first organizations calling for a responsible exit strategy from Iraq that included a withdrawal of U.S. troops and particpation in international efforts to rebuild that war torn country. We've been promoting that call in our literature and through paid and earned media work.

Our message has been a straightforward one: Finding a solution to the crisis in Iraq requires us to move beyond the soundbites of “stay the course” and “cut and run.” The United States and the international community have a responsibility to work with a sovereign Iraqi government to help that country become secure, stable, and independent. But the American occupation is profoundly counterproductive. Ongoing offensive military action—along with the mounting Iraqi casualties it causes—strengthens support for the insurgency and alienates potential allies. Ending the occupation is a prerequisite for rebuilding the Iraqi people’s confidence in their nation’s security forces and its fledgling democracy.

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