The Economic Surprise
On March 20, 2003 the United States entered into a conflict on two fronts. While the
United States military was moving into Iraq, the American economy was taking the first assault of a long and expensive fight. Victory was declared several years ago, and many are content to leave the story at that point. Advocates of the war have hailed its expediency and relatively minimal cost to the United States and its allies. The facts support a different conclusion. The truth lies in the economical devastation that the war in Iraq has left in its wake. The only accurate summation of the war is to say that the United States’ invasion of Iraq was not economically responsible.
One reason the decision to invade Iraq was not economically responsible is that the invasion of Iraq caused the United States’ economy to fall apart faster. According to Diane Mermigas in her 2003 article in Television Week, “Recent weeks have seen significant declines in such critical economic indicators as consumer confidence, consumer spending, new home sales and capital spending” ([1]). This economic downturn can be linked to the war in Iraq in two ways. First, the war in Iraq has cost the United States’ economy trillions of dollars. New York Times columnist Bob Herbert says that “the war in Iraq will ultimately cost U.S. taxpayers not hundreds of billions of dollars, but an astonishing $2 trillion, and perhaps more” ([1]). A fact of life that will never change is that wars cost money, and
Hartung, W. D. (2003, February 14). War without end? The costs of the new military buildup. United States. Retrieved July 15, 2005, from http://www.iansa.org/iraq
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
Not true. Despite all the problems of the past decade, the overwhelming majority of Iraqis agree that we’re better off today than under Hussein’s brutal dictatorship. Iraqis will remain grateful for the U.S. role and for the losses sustained by military and civilian personnel that contributed in ending Hussein’s rule. These losses pale by comparison, of course, to those sustained by the Iraqi people. Our government emerges from this experience determined to ensure that these sacrifices contribute to a future of freedom and prosperity in our country… The United States has found a partner for our shared strategic concerns and our common efforts on energy, economics and the promotion of peace and democracy.” This article’s title was “By the way, we won the Iraq War.” However, if we do intervene with Iraq then we would have some really great benefits from it. The question is: does American intervention in Iraq do more good or more
This quote refers to the idea that sometimes obeying the law may be more morally corrupt than if one had broken it. For example, this course discussed former US president Bush’s Iraq invasion of 2003, and how his actions clearly made him a war criminal. Yet, for political reasons, he was not arrested after his presidency had ended and he was touring Canadian cities. In fact, some of those protesting his presence in Canada were arrested. This relates to the quote, because expecting Canadian citizens to be passive (obedient) and let a war criminal roam free seems to be a much more heinous crime than protesting (rebellion) would
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
Take a moment to visualize the Iraq War and how it changed the United States. In the body paragraphs it is going to say what caused and what was the effect of the Iraq war. I also left some web sites down below so you can check out some websites.The Iraq war was consistes of tow phases. The frist phases was brief, conventionally and was fought is March-April 2003. The second phase was longer than the frist phases because it lead to U.S.- led occupation of iraq,
When we invaded Iraq George W. Bush said some things that Saddam Hussein would have, if he was to expect an invasion from the U.S., find freighting. George said this, ‘explicit Saddam, we’re taking him out.’ Iraq was a relatively stable country for the many ethnic conflicts. Saddam was suspected to have WMBs, which was a lie. One reason for the invasion was this suspicion, another was the vast amounts of oil in the region. The oil could help the economy and the need for oil from other countries in America. The invasion would lead to over 600,000 civilian
The essay will begin with the problem at the grounds of security, including direct security of the vicinity via the procedure to disarm Saddam Hussein’s regime of its alleged weapons of mass destruction, and the goal to sell balance within the region thru the religion in of democracy to engender the peace and the conditions for development and perception that democracy could spread across borders. The agency for the safety of american oil resources can be looked at. As every of those goals are discussed, i'm able to evaluate their successes and screw ups, on the way to then be summarised and put together so that it will decide in which methods the united states was rich in Iraq, and in what methods the us-led struggle didn't meet its goals
From the recent massacres happening in Iraq and Syria, we can gather that Washington has trampled on a path which has been seen as a way to redefine the war in Iraq, an effective scheme to bring the command of Assad to its crumbling demises and to recalibrate an inclusive plan to collapse the Islamic Government of Iran. Immediately coinciding with the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, an organized string of deadly explosions gripped Iraq, leading to the massacre of dozens of civilians. Multiple bomb explosions happening simultaneously in Baghdad, claiming the lives of countless innocent civilians. Another series of explosions targeted Shia Muslims killing at least 71 people. Most of the explosions which targeted the Shia Muslims are maliciously meant to inspire the feeling and doubt that it is a matter of sectarian violence, a plot devised by the US and its allies to justify that the Iraqi politicians are intent to provoke a communal bloodletting which is gradually tearing the country apart. Washington began to capitalize on tension in the country and playing the religious card on one hand and sending a message that Iraq is not capable of maintaining security and stability in the country on the other.
The operations in Iraq and Afghanistan alone will cost the United States, in excess of 8.6 trillion dollars, funding rotations to Europe will cost $3.4 billion by 2017. The current contentious political climate also bears heavy on how we conduct operations. Sequestration has reduced the force and the resources
As described by Diamond, one of the major problems facing Iraq at the time was the lack of a national security. After the war, the state of Iraq had collapsed along with social order. The national security was weakened, making the people in Iraq feel unsafe. The lack of national security is very harmful to a country, especially in terms of economics growth. When the people do not feel safe, they do not feel compelled to spend or invest much. He describes that social capital, such as trust and cooperation, was missing from the Iraqi people which left the economy stagnant.
Iraq’s political economy has undergone various changes and was shaped greatly by the wars, sectarian violence and sanctions. However, it has the potential to be one of the greatest, most balanced economies in the Middle East. The economy depends greatly on oil, whereas other sectors like agriculture, services and industries contribute very little to the economy. This dependence on oil has been there since the mandate years, but the nationalization of oil in1972 increased oil production, allowing the Baath party to diversify the economy. For most of modern history, the Iraqi government has been in control of directing and stimulating the economy, Especially during Saddam’s era, where the government was centrally directing the economy. Although
There are those who say that Saddam Hussein was an evil man and the world is better off without him. There are those who support the Iraq War and say the prospect that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction was sufficient grounds for the invasion. There are those who say that Saddam Hussein and Osama bin Laden had nearly a decade long relationship and possible alliance and that justified the U.S. Invasion of Iraq. Whether you support those views or not, it does not justify the following costs:
After four years of US occupation, Iraq suffers from extreme unemployment and poverty, with over 4 million internally and externally displaced refugees. The country's infrastructure is in ruins and US reconstruction plans have been mired in fraud, mismanagement and incompetence. Commentators expect the country to suffer from the effects the war for years to come.” This evidence shows that not only is this war costing Iraq millions of dollars it also effecting America.This also has to do with America always sticking their nosey nose into everything and sending troops for every little thing.And where do you think they are getting all of this money from .OUR tax dollars.We are paying for a war that we never agreed to participate
The Iraq War was supposed to be cheap because we weren’t supposed to be there that long. Unfortunately we did the complete opposite. Officials said that we weren’t suppose to spend more than 50-60 billion dollars there but now officials have estimated that we spent