Remember the old joke about the U.S. giving an aircraft carrier to a third world country that is now beating it into millions of spearheads? Something like that is going on now in Iraq - only it's no joke. To date nearly 700 American soldiers have lost their lives, over 3000 have been wounded, and the war has cost us well over 110-billion dollars and still rising.
Because we live in a country that is governed by the rule of law, as a nation, we were ill prepared to deal with such a primitive society. Our efforts to engage the Iraqi's in a postwar healing process have failed. We were ill prepared to deal with a society that has been dominated by fear; a society that has been tormented and intimidated under the brutal dictatorship of Saddam Hussein for nearly two decades. The after effects of living in such an environment are not going to be altered over night.
This is not a time for finger pointing. Enough of that will take place during the upcoming Presidential Election. This is a time for cooler, more reasonable thinking to prevail.
We were ill prepared for Iraq because living in America it is difficult to imagine not being allowed to speak your mind. It is difficult to imagine that a wisecrack criticizing Saddam or the government could result in your being another nameless corpse in a mass grave. Our lifestyle is not conducive to comprehending such a society - to live in such utter fear and terror - to know nothing else. And as a role model Saddam's ruthless, barbaric behavior set the standard for young Iraqi's. Now add religious fanaticism into the boiling caldron, and we have cooked up a mighty mess on our hands. And the eyes of the world are watching.
We failed in Iraq from the get-go by not providing enough security. Someone had the mistaken notion that once Saddam was removed from power, Iraqis would welcome us with open arms. Instead, after his iron-fisted rule was removed, there were no provisions in place to counteract the thugs, and the barbarians were free to loot and exploit the weak at will.
The recent brutal killing and burning of American civilians who were subsequently hung from a bridge shocked many of us.
Over 500,000 troops were in the Gulf at the beginning of Desert Storm.(Persian Gulf War Britannica) In 1990 USA made their way into Kuwait to defend them from Iraq.(Persian Gulf War Britannica) The Iraqis were very poor from the war they had just suffered and they needed money. (Persian Gulf War Britannica) So they decide to invade Kuwait for their oil supply so the Iraqis could sell oil to make money. (Persian Gulf War Britannica) What they didn’t know was the U.S. were buying the oil from Kuwait and the U.S. wanted Kuwait to have oil. (Persian Gulf War Britannica) So the U.S. defended Kuwait and attacked the Iraqis. (Persian Gulf War Britannica) They did this by sending over 100,000 troops
According to the USA News, the war in Iraq was totally worth it. Despite the loss of almost 4,488 American and more than 32,000 Americans wounded, America have to remember that Iraq was out for the USA and had we not freed Iraq from Saddam dictatorship then we would still be today fighting. The facts and the truth may never be truly reveled, but the fact stands that this war had to happen and Iraq needed America to aid them to their freedom and democracy (USA News).
Introduction Operation Anaconda was the first major joint combat operation against the war on terror that the US was committed to winning. This operation would test our military’s readiness for joint operations against a hardened and willing adversary. The primary mission was to kill/capture Taliban/Al Qaeda forces occupying towns and villages in the vicinity of Shahi Khot in order to gain control of the valley.1 The US needed the towns, villages, mountains, and more importantly, the intricate and hard to access caves cleared of enemy fighters. Units participating in the operation included elements of the 101st Airborne Division, 10th Mountain Division, Special Operations Forces (SOF), and Coalition forces from seven nations including Afghanistan.2 With so many different nations fighting along with our own branches of military, it would test our ability to conduct joint operations on multiple levels. History On September 11, 2001, Osama Bin Laden decided to “wake the sleeping giant.”
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.
The United States launched an operation known as Operation Desert Shield, also known as the Persian Gulf War, in August of 1990 in response to Saddam Hussein’s order to the Iraqi forces to take over Kuwait. President George Herbert Walker Bush made the decision to send American troops to Saudi Arabia to form an international coalition that would eventually turn into an operation known as Operation Desert Storm. The United States Army had not witnessed an event of such international and Homefront importation since the Cold War.
Intervening in countries facing genocide costs hundreds of millions of dollars. History clearly shows the cost to intervene, take WWII for example or the Rwanda genocide, or the Somali genocide. All of these genocides costs interventionists $400 million or more, “ Each of the more than 220 Tomahawk missiles fired by the U.S. military into Libya, for example, cost around $1.4 million… Spent between $280,000 and $700,000 for each Somali saved” (Valentino). $280,000 is a ton of money to save one person, and given these high costs, it could cost up to $7 million dollars to save ten people. They are not saving that many lives by deciding to intervene either, “Scholars have estimated that the military mission there probably saved between 10,000 and 25,000 lives,”(Valentino). 10,000-25,000 lives and the U.S. spent $7 billion to intervene
We are all human beings and deserve to be treated fairly and with kindness unless we have displayed a reason to do otherwise. We as a nation cannot live in fear because a group of horrible individuals completed a devastating act. These acts may have shaken us as a nation but it should not break us completely and cause us to treat innocent people unfairly and without respect.
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.
One principle outlined by Machiavelli that can be applied to George W. Bush’s decision to invade Iraq is the importance to act quickly. Discussing political disorders, Machiavelli stated “when trouble is sensed well in advance it can easily be remedied; if you wait for it to show itself, any medicine will be too late because the disease will have become incurable” (pg.10). He then goes on to state “Political disorders can be quickly healed if they are seen well in advance (and only a prudent ruler has such foresight); when, for lack of diagnosis, they are allowed to grow in such a way that everyone can recognize them, remedies are too late” (pg. 10). In my interpretation, Machiavelli’s argument would support the decision of President Bush to attack Iraq, with or without strong evidence of the threat of weapons of mass destruction to national security.
On the morning of March 19, 2003, U.S.-led forces began to invade the Middle-Eastern country of Iraq with the intention of overthrowing its leader, Saddam Hussein. This action was taken primarily as a result of U.S. President George W. Bush’s long-standing contention that the Iraqi regime was a direct threat to the United States. Bush outlined his reasons for the attack in a speech he delivered to the American people in the days before the war:
...n Iraqi face on the controllers of the city and Iraq quickly learned they could not bring Fallujah under control under their own power. Because of the lack preparation and coordination with Iraq the political situation proved to be too damaging. The situation turned out to have the opposite effect that America had intended. Instead of showing resolve it showed weakness and the Arab press exploited that turning the situation into a rally call to all to fight against the coalition. With things getting worse in Fallujah and with Iraqi concern and cooperation, in November they would have to go back into Fallujah to finish what they started in what was called Operation New Dawn (Gerald, 2009).
Operation Just Cause In 1988 relations with Panama and the U.S. Deteriorated. The. The commander of Southern Command, Gen. Frederick F. Woerner increased the number and strength of U.S. forces in Panama. This was in hopes of deterring the dictator, Noriega, from attacking U.S. citizens or the Panama Canal.
Iraq’s history is one of both prosperity and violence, and dates back to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia. While dominated by a variety of civilizations, the region enjoyed a relatively stable society. Since the birth of Islam, the religion has been the dominant cultural belief of the region, and has made its way into the laws and ruling of the region. (InDepth Info, 2010)
Gerald Ford once said “Making light of adversity brings out the best in us.” I happen to disagree with our former president as when you make light of adversity it certainly brings out the worst of us. We made light of the growing empire of Japan in the 1930’s as well as a growing terrorist organization known as Al Qaeda in the 1990’s and we payed the payed the consequences. How ever if you look at the results after we payed the consequences those results will prove that we perform at our best as a nation. When you look at the history of the United States you'll see that when we're forced to face adversity due to anger to we perform our best as a country and overcome the adversity we face on the domestic front and abroad.
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.