Musings

America's War In Iraq

I often wondered why the intervention in Iraq was such a largely debated issue in the recent U.S. presidential elections. However, with the political atmosphere around me, I begin to realize how much “The War in Iraq”, and the pertaining discussions mean to others that I know, and why it should also interest me. The war in Iraq is one of those “hot topics” debated incessantly these couple of years. Many people close to me are affected by this predicament that our country is in. Due to this I too have started to be affected by it. After thinking a lot about this war I wondered what the reasons were for sending our soldiers there, and why we are in Iraq now. In my mind there seems to be no real justification.

Our countries’ policy on Iraq can not be justified. Firstly, we had no reason for attacking Iraq, and the reasons we stated for it weren’t valid enough. Secondly, everyday in Iraq more American soldiers are dying trying to protect themselves and other fellow soldiers in a country that has done no harm to us. Lastly, as many can see there are basically only two major countries that have troops fighting in Iraq. The others do not want to be a part of this war. We as a country have lost some old and tested allies and we have put a great and nearly impossible burden upon our own shoulders.

To this day there still appears to be no valid enough reason for attacking a country with no “Weapons of Mass Destruction”, and no 9/11 terrorist connections. Then my next question is, “Why are we at war?” Being that Iraq has done us no harm, why are we the aggressor in this war? All claims made by the United States of America about Iraq having “Weapons of Mass Destruction” have proven to be false, by the UN Inspectors. During the war we found a “chemical lab truck” for making “Weapons of Mass Destruction”, but it turned out to be a hoax. Another reason given by the Bush Administration for waging a war on Iraq was that they believed Saddam Hussein had connections with Osama Bin Laden, or with his terrorist organization, Al-quaeda. After some research this was also found to be untrue. Yet, our country pushes forth, forgetting about being rational, and prolongs this unnecessary war.

As Senator Kerry said at one of the election debates, instead of bringing our allies with us to help in this war, President Bush has in fact alienated our allies. He has pushed our friends farther than they have ever been. This war is like a killing field where soldiers die; to our allies this scene is a great reason not to help America in this war which they were strongly opposed to, anyways. Without allies our efforts to “help” the Iraqis are proving futile. Our allies never backed us on our reasons for going into Iraq in the first place. They now see us as an occupying force and not as liberators wanting to bring freedom to the people of Iraq.

Not having anyone to help us, we are suffering great casualties. Having watched innumerable clips on news channels about American soldiers in Iraq I have begun to notice that local Iraqis are neither scared nor happy to see our soldiers on their soil. Instead they seem to be somewhat angry and agitated in our presence. Their demeanor makes me feel that our soldiers are not welcome in Iraq in which case why are they sacrificing their lives for people for a cause that does no exist. Shouldn’t the Iraqis be happy to see “liberating forces”? This anger we see on the Iraqi faces is not far from becoming hatred. President Bush announced almost a year ago that major military operations in Iraq were over and that we had won, but even after that we have lost more soldiers than ever. Due to the terrorists guerrilla warfare we are sometimes having more casualties than them. Our presence in Iraq boils a cauldron of hatred for the Iraqis, no wonder we are having so many soldiers coming home in body bags.

Soon everyone will understand that this war was unjustified and a foolish act. Our reasons were not reasonable, our soldiers are dying in vain, and our allies smartly decided to leave us stranded. Is this the war Americans want to fight, I highly doubt that.

posted by thethoughtless @ 11:45 PM