America Troops Are Fighting an Unnecessary War
In excess of 600 billion dollars has been spent on the war in Iraq since it began in 2003, plus over four thousand U.S. troops have died because of this war, and despite a struggling economy the US government is keeping our troops in Iraq with no end in sight. The war in Iraq is a current military operation that began, without a declaration of war, on March 20, 2003 and is still taking place today in 2009(Rogalski). Americans have been shielded from this war and have forgotten why we went to war in the first place. Thus clarification is needed by the American public on why the invasion on Iraq was baseless, how the mismanagement is affecting our soldiers and what the overall end result could be.
Prior to the war, the governments of the United States and the United Kingdom declared Iraq was suspected to possession weapons of mass destruction and this posed an imminent danger to our security and our allies. The American public was led to believe that Saddam Hussein had significant stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction and was equipped to use them. Following the terror of September 11th by al-Qaeda, the American public was apprehensive of another vicious attack, and President Bush used this fear to justify his “revenge” on Saddam Hussein. These weapons were one of the key reasons the public believed why we were going to war in Iraq; however, in six years no such weapons have been located (Duelfer). Furthermore, the following quote from CNN.com confirms that, “Saddam Hussein did not possess stockpiles of illicit weapons at the time of the U.S. invasion in March 2003 and had not begun any program to produce them”. The lack of confirmation of any arms that caused a puzzling question...
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...; nevertheless, American troops need to be pulled out and our part in the war must come to an end.
The war in Iraq is a drain on tax payers, and in the struggling economy President Obama needs to stop wasting money on this unnecessary war. He could put more money into education, healthcare or even work on getting the US out of debt; nevertheless, no more money should be spent on the war effort. The original theories on why US troops initially went to war are false and US troops have no reason to still be in Iraq after six years. Several troops are dying because of road bombs while in Iraq and some taking their own lives due to extreme post traumatic stress disorder after returning from this gruesome war. President Obama must stop the war and end the countless deaths. Many Americans would agree that the war in Iraq is unjustified, poorly managed and should end soon!
No matter how well intentioned the invasion of Iraq may have been, it was an act of violence and deception that has left many American men dead for no clear reason.
It’s pretty much impossible to know America’s decision about Saddam Hussein, if you don’t understand American policy in the Middle East-- from supporting him in power after the Islamist revolution in Iran, leaving him in power after the Gulf War, to removing him from power after the September 11 attacks, and, most crucially, replacing him in power with an experiment in Arab democracy. Militant Islam has been at war with the U.S. for twenty five years, it wasn’t until after Al Qaeda hit America’s heart, that the U.S. decided to wake up and take action. Therefore one of the main reasons for the war on Iraq was to strike terrorism and all involved at the roots. Bush’s initial strategy of invading and a change of regime essentially became a complete removal of regime. According to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld getting rid of Saddam Hussein and his henchmen was comparatively easy taking into account that now they have to install a democratic and pluralistic form of Government after the people ...
On March 18, 2003 the United States invaded Iraq. (The Washington Post) The War with Iraq is a very divisive issue around the world. Turn on any news show and you will see a daily debate on the pros and cons of going to war. Because of the situations that have occurred between the United States and Iraq, very different views and perceptions have developed. Much debate on the justification of the United States for being in Iraq, let alone overthrowing its “government”, has been presented from both sides – the Hawks and the Doves.
On September 11, 2001, our country was hit with enormous devastation, just after eight o’clock a.m. the first of the twin towers was struck by a suicide pilot, the second was struck slightly later. The towers fell just after ten o’clock a.m., devastating the entire country, and ruining the lives of many. A plane also hit the Pentagon in Washington D.C., and another in rural Pennsylvania causing just as much grief. The U.S. is still in mourning, but standing tall, more Americans showed their American pride in the following months than ever before. In the months to come the only thing that was on the minds of millions was: Should we go to war? War is necessary for the survival of our country. Going to war with Iraq is a fight against terrorism. Many people believed that going to war with Iraq is unjust. Some believe that there are other ways in looking at the situation.
In an attempt to overthrow Hussein and end his cruel reign of terror, the US sent in an armed military force. Since the beginning of the war, there have been over 3334 military fatalities for the US alone. The US has caused as many, if not more, civilian deaths in Iraq than Hussein did, and in the process we have lost many of our soldiers, in addition to the twenty-six thousand wounded. As England and many other countries try to help us with our fruitless quest, they also lose their soldiers. Not only may soldiers be hurt physically, the images they see in Iraq haunt them forever mentally.
The Iraq war, also known as the second Gulf War, is a five-year, ongoing military campaign which started on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by U.S. troops. One of the most controversial events in the history of the western world, the war has caused an unimaginable number of deaths, and spending of ridiculous amounts of money. The reason for invasion war Iraq’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction, which eventually was disproved by weapons inspectors. Many people question George W. Bush’s decision to engage a war in Iraq, but there might be greater reason why the decision was made. The ideas of George W. Bush might have been sculpted by one of the greatest works of all time, "The Prince."
It’s astounding how easy it is to forget that we are at war. Just recently, the Obama administration has declared war against ISIS. During his ISIS war speech, he refers to the enemy as “barbarians, terrorists and monsters”. He also promised to defeat ISIS, without the use of ground troops (Winsor). We do not like to watch our fellow Americans deployed to dangerous oversea locations. The President bashes ISIS and promises not to get completely involved with the conflict in order to gain support for the war. Unfortunately, his tactics are ineffective. A survey conducted by CNN shows that about 57% of Americans disapprove of how Obama is conducting his war on ISIS (CNN). Additionally, about 40% of Americans don’t believe we should fight ISIS
March 19th, 2003 marked the official start to the US invasion of Iraq. Prior to this, there had been a lot of tension and conflict building up in the Middle East. Just months prior, President George W. Bush said in his state of the union address, coined a term for three countries that were seen as potentially dangerous and threaten the peace of the world. He called them the Axis of Evil, and it consisted of Iraq, Iran and North Korea, with Iraq being the major topic of discussion. He said that Saddam Hussein was carrying weapons of mass destruction and further developing chemical and nuclear weapons. He claimed that they had already used on civilians, “leaving the bodies of mothers huddled over their dead children”. He painted a grues...
The War On Terror. It is a name that brings many strong thoughts and emotions to mind for Americans still to this today. It is has been Americas longest war, most expensive war, and a deadly conflict. All in all, the Iraqi War from 2003 to 2011 brought a cost of 500,000 lives from civilians to militants (Vergano 1). Among the U.S. army alone it is estimated that around 900,000 veterans have had some form of injury ranging from PTSD to amputations (Ruis 1). Not to mention, many experts say once all war reparations have been paid the war will cost upwards of three trillion dollars (Broder 1). That means when the math is done, if the war cost were to be split evenly among all American households, than every family in the U.S. would have to pay $75,000 (Auken 1). When President Barack Obama was campaigning in 2008 he once argued that through various taxes the Iraqi War (2003-2011) was and is costing each America household over $100 a month (Broder 1). With such catastrophic cost and tolls of the thousands of innocent lives where can the foundations for such a war effort begin?
One of the main reasons for the attacks on Iraq was to disarm them of any weapons of mass destruction that they have. This makes sense to prevent future terrorist attacks, but no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. Iraq did use weapons of mass destruction in the 1980s, but not since then (Corn 45). Virtually all of Iraq's weapons of mass destruction were destroyed or otherwise made unusable in the 1990's (Massing 2). Also, Saddam wanted to stay in power - using weapons of mass destruction would mean a sure end to his power. This calls into question whether or not invading Iraq was justified because the Bush administration should have known that weapons of mass destruction in Iraq were effectively contained.
On September 11th, 2001, the entire world, especially the United States, would be changed for a very long time when President George W. Bush declared, "We are at war. Somebody is going to pay." No one knew this would last this long. A dozen years down the road, we are still paying for this war. Bullets, misles, and weapons of all kinds are rendering pain on soldiers and men and women military personnel. Thousands and hundreds of thousands have paid the ultimate price - death. Children have been killed by road side bombs and some will never even have the chance to live, to smell the sunshine for the first time, or blink their eyes.
Pick up any newspaper or point your web browser to any major or minor news publication and questions like these will be all over them. A lot of Americans feel that the War on Terror and our presence in Iraq has lasted too long. Are they correct? Should we pull out and call it quits? Should we have another repeat of the Vietnam War? Believe it or not, that's how a lot of people view this war, as another Vietnam. They feel that we are out there, putting the American nose into something that shouldn't be picked. But they are not entirely true.
What does the United States have to gain from a war with Iraq? Supporters of a war with Iraq say it will help prevent the risk of an attack by a weapons of mass destruction developed by Iraq. Critics of a military action that say nothing will be gained, and the U.S. just wants to obtain the oil that Iraq controls. They claim that casualties will be too costly for America to afford. Nonetheless, America should act while others will not for fear of disturbing global peace. Iraq poses a “clear and present danger” to the security of the United States and the security of countries around the world.
The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began with the 2003 invasion of Iraq by a US-led coalition. The US wanted to destroy Saddam Hussein’s regime and bring democracy. To addition to that, US and its allies believed that Iraq had secret stocks of chemical and nuclear weapons, hence Iraq was a threat to the world (Axford 2010). In March 2003, US air bombed Baghdad and Saddam escaped Iraq. The invasion disarmed the government of Saddam Hussein. President Bush in March 2003 gave a premature speech, that tyrant of Iraq has fallen and US has freed its people. President Bush flew into Iraq to show the world that the war is over, even though nothing was accomplished (Kirk et al. 2014). Iraq was facing 13 years of scantions, therefore regime diverted its resources to flexible networks of patronage that kept it in power (Dodge 2007, 88). Iraq faced widespread of lawlessness and after the violent regime changed US could not control the situation. Iraqi civilians were looting, attacking ministries building and this resulted into a series of event (Kirk et al. 2014) . From a military perspective the regime was taken down, but they made no commitment to rebuild or secure the country.
Any Western governments seemed surprisingly uninterested, about these remarks. The U.S government followed a policy which allowed and perhaps encouraged the questionable growth of Saddam Hussein's arsenal and his power. Prior to September 2002, the CIA was President Bush’s main provider of intelligence on Iraq. In September, a Pentagon unit called the Office of Special Plans was created by Paul Wolfowitz and Douglas Feith, to supply President George W. Bush administration officials with all intelligence on Iraq. Seymour Hersh claims that, according to a Pentagon adviser, " was created in order to find evidence of what Wolfowitz and his boss, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, wanted to be true—that Saddam Hussein had close ties to Al Qaeda, and that Iraq had an enormous arsenal of chemical, biological, and possibly even nuclear weapons that threatened the region and, potentially, the United States”.The issue of Iraq's nuclear weapons took a hit a turning point in 2002–2003, when President Bush demanded a complete end to the believed Iraqi production of nuclear weapons and full cooperation with the U.N. Security Council Resolutions requiring U.N. weapons