The Iraq War

A tendency to be more concerned with the interests of a particular group than with the problems of the whole is the definition of sectionalism. Since the United States gained it 's independence from Britain, sectionalism grew alongside the country. Differences in lifestyles and opinions drove a wedge between groups of people. What started off as two political parties butting heads gradually escalated to two parts of the country, the North and South, dueling against one another. These different viewpoints would then lead to the last war on American soil. Because of the opposing viewpoints and contrasting lifestyles between the North and South, tensions grew until their eventual falling apart.

President Theodore Roosevelt, well known for his extraordinary, worldly diplomatic skills, was quoted as saying, “Speak softly and carry a big stick, and you will go far.” During the early twentieth century, he brandished that big stick, or convincingly threatened to, with remarkable efficacy in support of his country’s political objectives. The big stick that President Roosevelt carried with him as a diplomat and Commander in Chief was the superior power of the United States military. “Historically, power has been measured by such criteria as population size and territory, natural resources, economic strength, military force, and social stability. Hard power enables countries to wield carrots and sticks to get what they want.”1 Power, a nation’s ability to influence other states to achieve a desired outcome, manifests in numerous different forms or elements within a state. Powerful states strive to employ all the elements of power, including diplomacy, information, economic, cultural, and most importantly military to further their national objectives. Although a reasonable person might expect that a militarily powerful state routinely triumphs over the weaker state in matters of war, superior military power only guarantees a victory on paper, not in any real war. This paper will show that when one considers a state’s relative military power, weaker states are capable of defeating more powerful states that struggle to formulate

It has now been fourteen years since the tragic event of Sep 11 in New York, when hijackers struck two planes into the northern and southern building of the twin towers. Unfortunately two thousand and nine hundred and ninety six people lost their lives that day including over five hundred Muslims. Few days later it was concluded that alqeda terrorists in Afghanistan under the leadership of Osama bin laden were responsible for the deadly attack. Less than a month after the attack the U.S invaded Afghanistan in order to capture those who were responsible and a short time after Iraq was also invaded for the same purpose. For the next decade the U.S spent an annual of one trillion dollars towards the fight on terror. Fourteen years later it is

On September 11, 2001, two planes crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, New York. This was the very first contact that the United States of America had with the terrorism that went on in Iraq. March 20, 2003 marked the day that President George W. Bush announced the start of the war against Iraq (1). This was the beginning of a very costly war on both America and Iraq. The cost of the Iraq War was not just the amount of money spent, but the impact of war on the soldiers and the toll that it took on the families of those who were involved, as well as the amount of time and dedication of resources put into the war by the Government.

After Clinton left office, a republican from the state of Texas takes the presidency. George W. Bush wins the election of 2000 against Democrat Al Gore. Even though the Al Gore won the popular vote for the presidency, Bush won the vote from the Electoral College vote, causing him to win the running. Gore didn’t believe Bush won the votes, demanding a recount of the votes to ensure that he one but was later stopped by the Supreme Court. As president, bush supported many things, including the stem cell research, education reform, and the major tax cut for the people. Foreign policy became a great issue after the attacks on September 11, 2001 hit in the world trade center. 2 planes hit the towers each which caused them to collapse, 1 plane hit the pentagon and 1 plane attempted to hit the white house.

After 9/11, Bush passed The Bush Doctrine which focused on removing any foreign leader that threatened the safety and integrity of the U.S. This meant that Bush can invade any country that is threatening the United States but only in the future. Immediately after 9/11, al-Qaeda was automatically blamed and Osama Bin Laden, whom was the leader, was declared the main “culprit” of the attack. Originally, Al-Qaeda considered targeting nuclear power plants but decided a more public place to cause fear and panic. October of 2001, in response to the attack bush declared war on the Taliban government for refuging and protecting bin Laden and his followers. Bush originally gave the Taliban a chance to surrender bin Laden. Since they refused, Bush launched

One of the major contributors to the invasion and subsequent battle in Iraq were the United States of America, who felt that under the leadership of George Bush, were in danger. Initially, under the support of many American citizens, analysts predicted the war itself would cost in the range of approximately $50 billion to as much as $200 billion, and the recovery of Baghdad would cost about $10 billion per year. However, the legitimate costs as of March 2013, although highly contested, was estimated to have been $1.7 trillion by the Watson Institute of International Studies at Brown University. The Bush Administration's rationale and deceit for the Iraq War has faced heavy criticism from an array of popular and official sources both inside and outside the United States, which had cost President Bush’s

The United States invasion of Iraq proved to be a catastrophic event. Aside from resulting in a high number of fatalities,the war also demolished stability in the Middle East. With that in mind, we can only wonder how the American people weren't able to foresee such events. The United Nations security Council foresaw some of the consequences. The question is why didn't America? The only difference between the United States and the rest of the first world at that time was the September 11th terrorist attacks on America just two years before the invasion of Iraq. The attack enable the spread of fear mongering throughout the country,strengthening the vulnerability of the American people. Succinctly, the decision to invade Iraq may have been affected by the September 11th attacks.

The United States should escalate the war against Isis because Isis is the threat of a bigger war, Isis wants its own country in the heart of the Middle East, and the Islamic states threat is only growing. Widen the war against the extremist group. The moment the group, also known as Isis, established a territorial state in Iraq, it posed two grave threats to the United States and its allies.

1. As our brave men and women in uniform find themselves embroiled again in a conflict in the Middle East, debate surrounding the timeliness and necessity of this second Gulf conflict has ceased in most professional circles. However, before the current conflict began, controversy raged over when and how to best prosecute this situation. Many argued that the United States should have worked through the United Nations to pursue a resolution that had the consensus of the world behind it. That endeavor, however, was doomed to failure from the start. The United States sought to solve this dilemma using military force. France and Germany desired to diffuse it using anything but force. In order to

Despite shortcomings with the decision to go to war, how the war was actually carried out posed more problems. The administration had a very favorable view of how the war would go and how post-war issues would work themselves out. They were under the impression that this war would be like any other situation where a new government was put up, like in Japan, Germany, or in many former Soviet states. The US has never dealt with this situation in the Arab world, though. In many cases, administration’s expectations for the war were simply unrealistic – some estimates had all forces out of Iraq within a year and one comment led people to believe that Iraq’s reconstruction would only cost the US $1.7 billion.

In regards to international relations, power is influence and control one state has over another. Often times, state power is an indication of economic and military strength. According to Joseph Nye, the concept of using economic and military forces to coerce other political bodies is known as hard power. In contrast,

The balance of power theory is viewed as critical policy in the handling of international relations. To fully comprehend how the balance

On the 9th November 2001, George W. Bush declared the War on Terror a response to the terrorist act on 11 September 2001. However, the response was not only based on the breach of national security that endangered the lives of Americans. If it had been, his response would have been purely targeted at ‘terrorists’ and not the abstract concept of ‘terror’ that engages with a wider pool of people (that we will later see to be affiliated with the Orient/Other). Orientalism, according to Said, is ‘the corporate institution for dealing with the Orient – dealing with it by making statements about it, authorizing views of it, describing it, by teaching it, settling it, ruling over it: in short, orientalism as a Western style for dominating,

Morganthau (Cited in Haas,1953, pp.445) argues that the Balance of power can be viewed as either a description of any state of international politics in relation to power distribution or a policy or action intending to distribute power. From this framework we can use the balance of power to both understand static moments in history to observe where power lies at that moment in time and to look at how states themselves actively implement foreign policy for their own power related interests whether that be looking to balance the set of scales or to tip them