- The Middle East is a hotbed for Western-hating terrorists. Many of the governments in the Middle East do very little to control the terrorists in their own countries. By invading Iraq, the U.S. took a chance at trying to create a democracy in the Middle East, thus disrupting the balance of power in the Middle East. If the democracy in Iraq is successful over the long term, it could have huge implications for other Middle Eastern countries. Iraq could be an example for these other countries.
- Saddaam Hussein was a terrible dictator who wanted to develop nuclear weapons. Even if at the time of the invasion there were no WMD, there was a risk that he would develop WMD in the future. Hussein treated the U.N. resolutions as jokes; further action had to be taken against him.
As far as I can see it, opponents of the war have several main complaints:
- Iraq was not involved in 9/11. Even if Iraq was not a part of 9/11, it doesn't negate the other threats that Iraq posed to the safety of our nation.
- Bush misled the country in order to secure the votes in favor of the invasion. I think that Bush should have been more forthright in his explanation of why he wanted to go to war. I think that he saw the WMD as a good reason to present; I don't think that he lied about the evidence of WMD. However, Bush should have presented all of his reasons for going to war.
- The Iraq war has cost too many American lives. It is a tragedy whenever one of our brave soldiers is killed; however, wars cannot be fought without some bloodshed. Few wars are quick (the quick wars I think of are the Spanish-American War and Operation Desert Storm). I think that Americans must be patient and not pull out as soon as the going gets rough.
- The Iraq war strategy has been disastrous; too many mistakes have been made. No war can be perfect; in any war there are mistakes that will be made. Sometimes these mistakes are extremely costly; this doesn't mean that the war itself is a failure, only that changes must be made to the strategy. With the troop surge, I believe that the Iraq war is turning a corner and that we will prevail.
6 comments:
I agree with you that this administration should have done a better job on educating the American people about the need to go to Iraq. And though I disagree with this President about a lot of issues, I support our efforts in Iraq.
Great post, thanks for the insight.
Yes it was a good idea. It would have been preferred that we be better prepared to prosecute the reconstruction efforts, but the war to unseat Saddam was needed.
First of all, I enjoyed reading your post.This, as well as a few others, have been able to address both sides and I appreciate one who is able to do that.
Secondly, your rebuttals to the "main complaints" was concise and didn't make a "liberals are stupid" claim I see a lot of pro-Iraq supporters make.
My only critique comes from the first part of you post."By invading Iraq, the U.S. took a chance at trying to create a democracy in the Middle East".This assumes that America is in charge of the world, and has a say on how the world conducts itself.America has no right to entrust itself with a "World Police" status and by attempting to "export democracy" that is exactly what it has done.
You also state that usurping Hussein was a major priority for America.While true that it was a priority for Bush, America should have let the UN do its intended job.America ignored UN dissent for entering Iraq,akin to something that you chastise Hussein for doing.
Not that I would ever compare US actions to what Hussein did.It is a fact that Hussein was an evil man. But with so many evil men in the world, many of which are in power and are more likely to attack America or American interest, why did we spend so much effort on this one.
Like I said before, I enjoy reading your post and I would love for you to address some of the things I mentioned.Best of luck with the future.
~Josh
Lots of good things have happened in Iraq like people voting for the first time without living under fear of Saddam's wrath which a lot of educated Liberals do not seem to get.
Bush completely blew his chance for honor by caving into the *Good ole boys* of politics that his father did instead of standing up to his convictions.
Remember when Bush Senior said "Read my lips" about taxes then totally lied?
Also my Dad found out that the pictures used in the suppose Iraq tortures were actually recycled from sometime during the Gulf War.
Dad recognized the exact torture photos from when he was younger and knew it was a total lie yet Liberals bought it hook line and sinker without questioning how valid the photos are.
They never question the government unless Republicans are in charge.
I am willing to go as far as say that both Bush and Obama actually are working as the same team hence why Bush started policies that Obama extended.
They pretend to fight on TV in order to distract the public from money being misused and mysteriously vanishing from The Pentagon.
Why does everything have to be blogs these days?
I mean if something goes wrong with their site how do these authors expect the public to notify them if they don't have an account or cannot see the tiny letters in the spam captcha?
Blogs seem in my opinion are self defeating.
I also often wonder why the USA choose this man to take out of power when we have China to worry about.
We owe lots of money to China due to bad government polices (actually no government policies) on spending and borrowing.
We are TRILLIONS in debt and yet the government thinks printing records amount of money will save our (their) asses.
In fact the dollar bill is not even worth the money it's printed on.
I guess welcome to the Good Ole Boys of politicians where the rich scratch each others backs and spit on the poor.
Sorry for ranting but I am sick of injustice.
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