2006-2007 marked a time of violence in Iraq. Following the American invasion of 2003, numerous terrorist groups, including al-Qaeda,were fighting a guerilla campaign against the American occupiers and their colleagues in the Iraqi Security Force. The American response was to implement a surge of troops, which was successful in reducing the organization and effectiveness of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups. But, following the 2011 withdrawal of American troops, we have recently seen a resurgence by al-Qaeda in Iraq.
To understand what is happening today, we first have to be able to understand what led us to this point. Prior to the 2003 invasion, al-Qaeda had virtually no presence in Iraq. Therefore, we can conclude that the invasion of Iraq was not to combat terrorism in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. Following the attacks on the World Trade Center, President George W. Bush named three countries as part of an “axis of evil.” Iraq was one of the three, and the easiest target. The stated reason for going into Iraq was that Saddam Hussein was a danger with his stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. The world already knew he had used chemical weapons in his war with Iran during the 1980’s, he had used them against Kurds in Halabja, and had used them to quell an uprising following the 1991 Persian Gulf War.
Although the official story is that we did not find anything more than many small caches of chemical weapons, there are still former officials from the Saddam regime as well members of Israeli intelligence who are claiming the weapons did exist and were transferred to Syria, as well as other places, prior to the invasion (communities.washingtontimes.com 2013). As we will see, if this is true it could have disastrous conse...
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...oin ISIL forces.
Iraqi Ambassador Lukman Faily said recently that “The administration has to have a better understanding of any adverse impact of any delay in provision of support to Iraq. It cannot afford a whole town or province of Iraq falling to al-Qaeda and becoming a safe haven. It’s against the U.S. strategic interest. It’s against the U.S. national security to do that” (washingtontimes.com 2014). With al-Qaeda having recently taken control of the Iraqi cities of Fallujah and Ramadi, it is imperative that the administration works with the Iraqi government to find a way to stem the momentum gained by al-Qaeda. With the rapidity of the American withdrawal from Iraq, it is now our government’s responsibility to ensure that the democratic government of Iraq has the arms, technology, and even training, necessary to mount an effective counterterrorism operation.
Most of the people killed were Iranian, however, some Kurdish people were also killed. Iraq started using chemical weapons from the beginning of the war though they started excessively using them near the end of the war, even on their own people.
President Barack Obama delivered an address to the nation on the U.S. Counterterrorism strategy to combat ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) on September 10, 2014. The recent issue, which became the basis for this speech, has been President Obama’s response to Syria’s Bashar al-Assad’s use of chemical weapons against diverse civilians. He delivered this speech to prove to the nation that he has an elaborate strategy along with several tactics to destroy the terrorist group. Obama described the ISIL in his speech by stating, “in a region that has known so much bloodshed, these terrorists are unique in their brutality. They execute captured prisoners. They kill children. They enslave, rape, and force women into marriage. They threatened a religious minority with genocide. And in acts of barbarism, they
Veteran defense analyst and AEI resident fellow Thomas Donnelly wants to know the answers to the questions behind Operation: Iraqi Freedom. He states that “More than a year after President George W. Bush declared ‘mission accomplished’ in the invasion of Iraq, a fuller victory is yet to be won. This is in part, because a fuller understanding of the war itself remains elusive.” This elusiveness is the biggest mystery of the war and because of it four key observations have emerged. Also these observations emerge after an examination of the conventional invasion of Iraq, the resulting counterinsurgency campaign and their broader significance for the global war on terrorism.
...spread cells, and gaining support, and constantly evolving employment of technology, it continues to thrive. Friendly forces continue to gain knowledge about the Al Qaeda in efforts to bring the organization down and prevent further implementation of chemical or biological warfare.
Deliberate killings, human bombs, dozens of vicious groups, and a growing sense of insecurity trouble Iraq (Tirman). Cluster bombs and landmines’ have caused many deaths to innocent civilians. People forced from their homes in fear of their lives and their family’s lives. When some refugees tried to go home, they were killed.
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...
On the daybreak of September 2011, 19 members of the Al Qaeda terrorist’s organization hijacked four commercial jets. Two planes collided into the infamous World Trade Center’s twin towers in lower Manhattan, and another crashed into the Pentagon outside Washington, D.C (pg. 301). Al Qaeda, a terrorist was blamed for the attacks with verification from Osama bin Laden. During the attack Former President Bush was visiting my elementary school to support adolescents about their high performing test scores when America was assaulted. He immediately left to report back to his association to plan what to do about the incursion. Following the attack, Bush declared a global war against the assailment of Iraq. The Bush administration asserted that the operation was set in order to find and destroy Saddam Hussein and his allies (guardian.co.uk). System analysts proposed that any system, in reference to the Bush Administration had the responsibility to execute any suitable task for the situation at hand following the procedures mandated by Congress. This system is...
Jouejati, Murhaf. “Syrian Motives for Its WMD Programs and What to Do about Them.” Middle
The United States is still Al Qaeda’s primary target and is under pressure to demonstrate that it is capable of assaulting the U.S. again in order to keep its credentials as the foreru...
The war in Iraq is over now. Looking back on a huge controversy makes one side seem clearly more “correct” than the other. Yet in the beginning there were two sides to the controversy about the war in Iraq. There was the terror brought upon by the 9/11 attacks, people that the government wished to punish or kill like Saddam Hussain and Osama Bin Laden, and a country which was in “need” of US help both politically and financially. At the time of the Terrorist attacks, people were afraid of what else the terrorists were planning or could do and so George Bush sent troops in to look for Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). In hindsight the war on Iraq was a bad idea. The situation was handled poorly, far too much money was spent, and there were far too many casualties to say that the war was a good idea to enter into. To continue war efforts and gain support, lies were spread about finding actual weapons. Later in the war it was revealed that there were never any WMDs. So beyond the decision that was seemingly wrong after a decade of fighting to enter a way with Iraq, the US government lied to prolong the war and continue to waste resources.
SUMMARY: The Syrian Civil War between the Syrian government, and the insurgents, as well as the Free Syrian Army has been escalating since early 2011. The United States, and our allies have faced difficulty in sending aid to Syria, and continue to deal with obstacles in sending even basic medications to Syrian civilians. However, the United States and its allies have also contributed to the lack of organization and the disparity in Syria by sending aid and artillery to individuals based only on political connection, and ignoring organization, local alliances, and without a true understanding of the reality of the Syrian localities to best protect the Syrian protestors. The question addressed in this memo will be defining the viable options to be pursued in Syria, how to pursue them, and assessing the most beneficial path of least resistance when offering aid, funds, and artillery to specific groups in the country. The recommendation will be that although the best alternative action item would be to choose a Syrian group with the least oppositional values comparative to the United States to fund, supply with arms, and train; that the United States should do nothing for the time being. Given the physical and financial risk involved with the Syrian Civil War, it would be prudent for the United States to simply observe how the war progresses over the next several months, as well as complete some research to truly understand the state of affairs in local areas of Syria to determine the extent to which the United States could identify a group to provide aid to, as well as the extent to which the United States involvement would be within Syria.
The U.S. conducted major offensives to weed out insurgents; on April 2004 American forces drove insurgents out of Fallujah in a large-scale ground attack. However, al Qaeda retook the city weeks later. The offensive operations conducted by the U.S. forces were effective as they would disrupt insurgent control of Iraqi cities, but the U.S. was not establishing strong security in the areas just captured. The result of little to no security in the cities retaken by American forces resulted in al Qaeda taking back most positions. The U.S. had to retake Fallujah in November and the operation cost more than 90 American lives. The U.S. needed to stop making the same mistake of clearing an enemy area and losing it once troops would move to the next
The night before the anniversary of 9/11 in 2013, Barack Obama delivered a speech to the United States of America on the subject of Syria’s inhumane use of chemical weapons on its own citizens. The United States’ intelligence analysts estimated that more than 1,400 civilians were killed due to the chemical warheads that were launched on the area right outside of Damascus. In President Barack Obama’s address to the nation on Syria, he attempts to persuade the American people to support his plan of a targeted air strike on Syria. By describing the victims of Syria, giving reasons for the inhumanity of the Syrian government, and reinforcing his credibility,
Al Qaeda, the organization that the United States is in a constant, never ending battle with, the organization that has made the most impact and changed the United States forever. Al Qaeda is always making headlines with their terrorist attacks, the most known attack September 11th, 2001. This essay is about the terrorist group Al Qaeda, its history and background, Osama bin Laden, their well-known leader, and the major attacks on America.
Attention: According to an article by The New Yorker entitled Did George W. Bush Create ISIS written by Dexter Filkins on May 15th, states that after the overthrow of Saddam, the Iraq army was disbanded by the US which left over two hundred thousand people humiliated and without a job (Filkins). These angry young men decided to take up arms against the United States to get revenge. This is what caused start of the Iraqi insurgency; all this could have been avoided if the United States stayed out of Iraqi Politics (Filkins).