In light of the recent increases in crude oil prices, which are reflected every time you fill up at the gas pump, it is time to re-examine our nation’s foreign policy. The best solution is not a release of federal oil reserves onto the open market, but the resumption of normal diplomatic and trade relations with Iraq.

A little more than nine years ago a coalition of nations, led by the United States, drove Iraqi forces from Kuwait. At the time, force was the best course of action. Today, in retrospect, it was still the best course of action.

Critics who believed that trade sanctions would have worked have had the past nine years to realize that they are ineffective. For a dictatorship that does not answer to the people, there is no incentive to placate the masses. In the past nine years the people of Iraq have suffered, and our foreign policy has amounted to failure. Few, if any, weapons of mass destruction have been discovered or destroyed.

Because of our lack of access, we have no way of knowing whether we have curtailed Saddam Hussein’s research efforts.

The end result is that we are exactly where we started, minus a spectacular war that showcased our nation’s battle prowess and made every American a patriot. But we still maintain a sizable military presence, patrolling the sovereign skies of Iraq at considerable financial cost.

For both the United States and Iraq, the situation has amounted to a stalemate. Neither side has gotten what they want and the situation has only exacerbated tensions with Russia.

It is time to stop pursuing a foreign policy that has already demonstrated itself to be a failure and move on. The policy of containment that we use to keep Iraq down will no longer work, and the best recourse is to admit that fact and actively work with those two nations to achieve our foreign policy objectives.

With the end of the Cold War, military matters have taken a back seat to issues of trade. Economic might is now the yardstick of strength, and to achieve that we need the raw materials to fuel our economy. Crude oil, the staple of our transportation system, is just as important as ever.

Keep in mind that at the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War, we had been importing far more oil from Iraq than Kuwait. As a strategic economic asset, Iraq was more important. But times have changed.

Iraq, now cut off from the world, has enormous oil reserves going nowhere. The paltry amount allowed by the United Nations for food and medical programs is not enough to support the nation, or make a dent in oil prices.

Last year the members of OPEC voted to reduce production to counter the oversupply caused by an abnormally warm winter. Gas prices are now on the rise and the national average has hit $1.46 a gallon and at this time last year it had dipped below a dollar in most places.

Although OPEC has met recently and debated increasing production, it is not known by how much or when. It is entirely possible that allowing Iraq to resume shipping oil could ease our economic situation. Even though it would take months for the effects of increased oil production to be felt, relief would at least be in sight.

The truth is there is no longer a need to isolate Iraq. The country has been militarily devastated and poses no threat to its neighbors or the region. Saddam Hussein knows that any adventures on his part will be met by overwhelming military force.

Although we have locked horns with him in the past, he poses no threat to us or our way of life. Yet his nation’s oil reserves are of vital interest to us and our economy.

Allowing Iraq to resume oil production and sell it on the open market can only benefit both of our nations. The influx of capital into Iraq would undoubtedly spark some economic growth within that country, and would create another market for American goods. Even if the market is small, it would still be more money than zero.

Anyone who believes we should still be isolating Iraq is basing their argument on fear and prejudice. Ten years ago Iraq was a belligerent nation, but isn’t nine years of perpetual isolation and economic depression enough?

Before we launched Desert Storm, the critics cried it was going to be another Vietnam.

Despite our decisive military victory, the situation has turned into a quagmire. Our forces are still over there, and there is no end in sight.

Surely if a Republican president could get us out of Vietnam, a Democrat can get us out of Iraq.

We have used military power to coerce Iraq for the past nine years, and we have finally realized the limits of that approach. It is time to stop using the stick and just give them the carrot.

An economist would say it is time to stop throwing good money after bad and cut our losses. Too bad our leaders are politicians.

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Aaron Woell is a senior in political science from Bolingbrook, Ill. We have nothing to lose and everything to gain.