The Pros And Cons Of The Iraq War

Since the war on Iraq began on March 20, 2003, at least 1,402 coalition troops have died and 9,326 U.S. troops have been wounded in action. This is no small number and the count grows daily. One would hope, then, that these men and women were sent to war with just cause and as a last resort. However, as the cloud of apprehension and rhetoric surrounding the war has begun to settle, it has become clear that the Bush administration relied on deeply flawed analyses to make its case for war to the United Nations and to the American people, rushing this country, and its soldiers, into war. This is not to say that this war was waged against a blameless regime or that our soldiers have died

The United States has been at war since its creation in 1776. Notably, one of the most crucial wars was the War on Terror. Beginning in March of 2003, this war initially served the purpose of getting rid of the country 's leader Saddam Hussein to prevent his use of suspected stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Hussein was best-known as a Middle Eastern ruler with a violent regime. He governed Iraq from 1979 until his capture in 2003when President Bush presumed he was harboring chemical weapons such as synthetic warheads, shells, or aviation bombs. While politics justified invading Iraq, the conflict between the U.S. and Iraq began long before the war. In the post-election leading up to the war, political officials such as George Bush attested repeatedly that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and posed a danger to the U.S. and other targets. Bush sold the war to Americans by attesting these cases of threat to Americans openly with supreme certainty. The United States of America should not have invaded Iraq as it allowed the establishment of government power and democracy without evidence under prior resolutions, increased violence, and forced American citizens to inquire significant debt including the injuries and hardships sustained by U.S. soldiers.

Jim Lewandowski said, “None of us could see a reason of why we were still there, and it just kept going on and on.”In 2003, with president George W. Bush accusing Iraq dictator Saddam Hussein of harboring weapons of mass destruction , within one month Hussein has been ousted. After the election in 2008, President Obama vowed to bring American troops home, and in 2011 he withdrew the last U.S. forces. The United States was now using airstrikes to fight ISIS and the debate is growing about whether the United States withdrew its forces from Iraq. Our troops should be removed from Iraq because of the Iraq war may turn out to be the worst war in American history. Also, the war causes the Americans National security to be endangered.

The date was March 19, 2003, people sat beside their television sets and radios to listen to U.S. President, George W. Bush, announce, “At this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger” (“War in Iraq Begins,” 2003). Bush and his advisor’s actions were based on the information that the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, was building weapons of mass destruction. The Iraq War is a “just” war because it was a reasonable response with a moral purpose.

What motivated the Bush administration to invade Iraq in 2003 despite strong opposition from the international community? On one side, the administration maintains that the invasion was necessary to prevent Iraq from developing weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). In his memoir “Decision Points”, Bush argued that Saddam posed too much of a threat–he brutalized his own people, violated international demands, and sponsored terrorist groups like al-Qaeda. On the opposing side, critics of the war argue that the Bush administration used the 9/11 terrorist attack and the threat of WMDs to justify waging an illegal war against Iraq in order to extract Iraqi oil to fund the military-industrial complex, to secure Israel, and to “finish the job” of deposing Saddam. While these explanations for the invasion have some merit, they are problematic because they fail to capture the extent of the administration’s actual ambitions. An analysis of how individuals on Bush’s administration, such as Paul Wolfowitz and Condoleezza Rice, viewed the world reveals that the invasion of Iraq was intended to demonstrate the effectiveness of and necessity for preemptive action, overthrow Saddam, and transform the Middle East. However, what was perceived to be a quick and easy operation to stabilize the Middle East and secure America’s interest backfired and turned Iraq into a safe haven for terrorists.

There are defining moments in American society; the attack on Pearl Harbor, Space Shuttle Challenger explosion, 11 September 2001. On 19 March 2003, I was watching television with my parents while I was working on a school project for debate class. Oddly enough, the debate the following school day was to be about whether or not the global war on terrorism should expand to Iraq. Then President George W. Bush announced to the nation, “My fellow citizens, at this hour American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger (CNN, 2003).” On that day a coalition of over 35 counties led by the United States of America began what we know today as Operation Iraqi Freedom. The more you research about Operation Iraqi Freedom the more you tend to realize that it began well before 19 March 2003. It dates back to the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980’s and it continues well past 18 December 2011, the day the last troop left Iraq. Operation Iraqi Freedom continues through

In 2003, George W. Bush invaded Iraq, believing that the country’s president Saddam Hussein was using weapons of mass destruction against the people of Iraq. This war started a larger war, named “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. The consequence of this inessential war were the lives of over 4000 Americans, over 1 trillion dollars in spending, and superfluous tension in the Middle East. Though there are many theories on why Bush invaded Iraq, the one that makes the most sense is overconfidence. Simply put, George W. Bush and his administration had faulty and ambiguous evidence, but their overconfidence and pride lead them to put the war into action anyway. This self-assuredness lead to the expiration of Bush’s tenure and the broken hearts of many

The Iraq War, better known as the Second Gulf War was the war that saw Saddam Hussain toppled from power. It began on March 20th 2003 and finished 18 December 2011. It was a huge issue at the time and the contribution of Australia to the war was highly successful and acknowledged. In 1990 Iraq invaded Kuwait, a country south east of Iraq which led to the start of the First Gulf War.

The two most effective options are containment and invasion, as they utilize military force to remove Saddam Hussein from power. Invasion is a viable solution because Hussein is a dangerous threat and needs to be removed from power immediately. Saddam Hussein has repeatedly proven to be uncooperative and deceptive in dealing with the United Nations weapons inspections. Also, defeating the dictatorship in Iraq will send a message to other countries, just by mobilizing their troops that this behavior will not be tolerated by the United States, and that we are willing to invade, regardless of support from other powers (Mack). The regime in Iraq is a threat to the Iraqi people, the citizens of the United States, and all of the surrounding countries.

I'm sick of Racial profiling in this country, America and many other countries. How can the government talk about bombing Syria when it is not the country that has done wrong it is the minority that have chosen to operate from said country. Another thing is how people see Muslims as the people in the wrong just because Muslim extremists are the ones causing problems in the world right now. One of my closest family friends is a Muslim and in now way because of him being one means that he wants to murder and kill anyone that doesn't believe in the same things as him. There are Muslim doctors saving lives, taxi drivers, public servants I could go on. My point is stop profiling people on their religion when in truth they have not done anything

The Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant otherwise known as ISIS is a transnational Sunni insurgent group led by Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi. This group has been established since 2003 and has it’s origins in the Iraq war which lasted until 2011. In March of 2011 conflict has been raging in Syria. 15 schoolchildren were arrested and repeatedly tortured after writing anti-government graffiti on a wall.*Similar to the Holocaust* This eventually led to a civil war between the government and rebel groups, which wanted the president to step down. After 4 peaceful protesters were killed after the government army opened fire. Afterwards, during the funeral of the protestors the government opened fire and killed one other person. This eventually led to a

The Mearsheimer and Walt article criticizes this administration’s focus on Saddam as a major threat to the United Stated. I find their arguments flawed in and they depict an incomplete picture of the Iraq and Saddam. I believe that Saddam remains a major threat to the United States, and I advocate that you continue to your plan of action against Saddam.

Issue: According to SIGAR the production of opium in 2013 was 209,000 hectares and with the deteriorating security in many parts of rural Afghanistan, it is expected to increase by 7% in 2014. According to Tahir Qadiry of BBC News, Kabul 1 million men, woman, and children in Afghanistan are addicted to Opium. The opium trade undermines the Afghanistan state, financial sectors, breeds corruption, sustains criminal networks and provides significant financial support to the Taliban. The Taliban uses these funds to finance their terrorist activities including the purchase of weapons. The DOD and other US agency have tried to build reliable Afghan counter-narcotic partnership, but these efforts have failed, due to lack of local government support, despite the $7.6 billion the

At the same time, Saddam Hussein was seen as a threat thanks to the public relations campaign the Bush administration had been doing. In addition, the White House was finishing up a speech that was for the president to announce on October 7, 2002, so that the use of force on Iraq could be authorized. In the end the CIA declined the speech because of a sentence in the speech: “The [Iraqi] regime has been caught attempting to purchase up to 500 metric tons of uranium oxide from Africa-an essential ingredient in the enrichment process.” The line was later removed after the CIA insisted on the change. Although the lined was thought to be removed from the speech, there was a loss of communication with the two agents responsible for translating the Niger intelligence resulting in the line not getting taken out.

Under the directions of the Shah, Iran stood as one of the most important allies of the Middle East for the United State. The Iranian Revolution of 1979 and Cold War politics created another shift in United States foreign policies concerning Iraq8. The United States clearly came down on the side of Iraq during the eight year Iran - Iraqi War. The United States military had supplied Iraq with intelligence information to assist in Iraq attacks against Iran.9 The Reagan administration in 1982 took Iraq off of their list of countries which were supporting terrorism, a move that made it possible for Iraq to receive large amounts of resources which could be used to produce weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Throughout the 1980's when the Bush administration was encouraging new loans to the Iraqi government in an effort to ease U.S. Iraqi trades, the United States provided Iraq with both indirect and direct economic aid.10 Also, throughout the 1980's the United States consistently turned a blind eye to Iraq’s production and use