The Maduro Raid Was a Strategic Victory and a Tactical Success

The invasion of Iraq “continues to weaken the United States,” the legacy Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung observed 20 years on from the invasion. The demolition of Saddam Hussein’s regime had discredited “conservative internationalism,” rendered America incapable of leading global opposition to land grabs like Vladimir Putin’s adventurism in Ukraine, and made it “more difficult to mobilize the global South” against revisionist powers. The paper attributed those consequences to the psychological malaise America’s experience in Iraq imposed on its citizens — a crippling insecurity NZZ’s contributors did not welcome.

So-called “Iraq syndrome,” a variant of its far more debilitating cousin “Vietnam syndrome,” was apparent in the GOP’s internal debates over the prudence of confronting Putin in Ukraine, NZZ correspondent Christian Weisflog wrote. Ronald Reagan’s victory in Grenada chipped away at post–Vietnam War weariness, and George H. W. Bush eradicated it with his successes in Panama and the first Gulf War. By contrast, America in the Joe Biden era seemed attached to its post-Iraq diffidence. Biden had no stomach for America’s commitments abroad, and his Republican opponents appeared to feel the same way. The quick and relatively bloodless military victories that made “Vietnam syndrome” a thing of the past were hard to envision in the spring of 2023.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.

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The invasion of Iraq “continues to weaken the United States,” the legacy Swiss newspaper Neue Zürcher Zeitung observed 20 years on from the invasion. The demolition of Saddam Hussein’s regime had discredited “conservative internationalism,” rendered America incapable of leading global opposition to land grabs like Vladimir Putin’s adventurism in Ukraine, and made it “more difficult to mobilize the global South” against revisionist powers. The paper attributed those consequences to the psychological malaise America’s experience in Iraq imposed on its citizens — a crippling insecurity NZZ’s contributors did not welcome.

So-called “Iraq syndrome,” a variant of its far more debilitating cousin “Vietnam syndrome,” was apparent in the GOP’s internal debates over the prudence of confronting Putin in Ukraine, NZZ correspondent Christian Weisflog wrote. Ronald Reagan’s victory in Grenada chipped away at post–Vietnam War weariness, and George H. W. Bush eradicated it with his successes in Panama and the first Gulf War. By contrast, America in the Joe Biden era seemed attached to its post-Iraq diffidence. Biden had no stomach for America’s commitments abroad, and his Republican opponents appeared to feel the same way. The quick and relatively bloodless military victories that made “Vietnam syndrome” a thing of the past were hard to envision in the spring of 2023.

About the Author

Noah Rothman

Noah Rothman is a senior writer at National Review. His third book, Blood and Progress: A Century of Left-Wing Violence, was published by Hachette in May 2026.