In 1984, Ronald Reagan\u2019s Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger, in an effort to prevent another Vietnam from happening, laid out the criteria for engaging in war in his speech \u201cUses of Military Power.\u201d<\/p>\n
His rules for military engagement became known as the Weinberger Doctrine and were an integral part of the Reagan administration\u2019s foreign policy vision.<\/p>\n
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed Thursday, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) called for a return to Reagan\u2019s vision and emphasized that if it had been followed during the lead up to the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, that war might not have happened.<\/p>\n
Paul summed up the Weinberger Doctrine as follows:<\/p>\n
The United States should not commit forces to combat unless the vital national interests of the U.S. or its allies are involved and only \u201cwith the clear intention of winning.\u201d U.S. combat troops should be committed only with \u201cclearly defined political and military objectives\u201d and with the capacity to accomplish those objectives and with a \u201creasonable assurance\u201d of the support of U.S. public opinion and Congress and only \u201cas a last resort.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paul notes that these criteria were not met when first engaged in Iraq.<\/p>\n
The intent to win was there, but the objectives were nebulous; nor could it be said that the Iraq War was undertaken as a last resort \u2014 the healthy amount of public support aside. As the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) continues to bear down on Iraq and the surrounding region, Paul argues that Weinberger\u2019s criteria must apply to the current crisis if we are to avoid repeating past mistakes.<\/p>\n
A significant difference between 2003 and now, however, is that a majority of Americans strongly oppose another U.S. intervention in Iraq. While public opinion isn\u2019t necessarily the most important argument, it is key. Sen. Paul wrote:<\/p>\n
Those who say we must re-engage in Iraq are also forgetting an important part of the Weinberger Doctrine: \u201cU.S. troops should not be committed to battle without a \u2018reasonable assurance\u2019 of the support of U.S. public opinion and Congress.\u201d To attempt to transform Iraq into something more amenable to our interests would likely require another decade of U.S. presence and perhaps another 4,000 American lives\u2014a generational commitment that few Americans would be willing to make.<\/p>\n