Iraq: Four Years Later
So yesterday was the four-year anniversary of thr beginning of the War in Iraq. AS the years have gone by, I have gone from a blind supporter of this war to a questioner of it.
When the war began, many like me were supporters of it. The Bush Administration kept on babbling that Saddam was connected to 9/11, and that he had WMD's. This was why we backed the war in the first place. Anyone that opposed the war was anti-American, and was in bed with Saddam and bin Laden and terrorism. This was spouted by far-right people all day long. Of course, the Dixie Chicks were bashed for what Natalie Maines said. Anyone that bought anything from the Dixie Chicks or anyone who opposed the war was unpatriotic. Even Bill O'Reilly called for a boycott against France and every French company out there for aiding and abetting Saddam. We were all blinded by far-right people and the Bush administration to support this war that has yet to end.
Fast forward to 2007. Let's see, we haven't found any WMD's in Iraq. The 9/11 Commission found no connection between Saddam and 9/11. We have 2,000 American troops dead. Certainly, we went into that country for nothing. We shouldn't have been there in the first place. We should have kept our main focus on catching bin Laden. Finally, we were stupid back then for supporting this war, because you can oppose this war while loving your country and what it stands for at the same time. The Dixie Chicks, I'm sure, are not anti-American. You can oppose the President but still love your country at the same time...with the exception that if this country is in danger of getting destroyed, and he's the only guy suitable for the job to fight back against these idiots, then we have no choice but to forget about his dumb past and rally behind him to go to victory.
Now did Bush lie? In my opinion, he didn't. You have to look at the CIA and the other intelligence agencies that gave both Bush AND Clinton information that Saddam had WMD's. In the end, this was proven to be false. So these groups were the liars, not Bush. However, Bush was foolish in paying attention to these guys in the first place.
What has this war accomplished? Well, millions of Iraqis are now no longer under oppression, but there's still tension between Sunnis and Shi'as...with extremely tragic results. Yes, we have no business to be over there, but if we leave right now, al-Qaeda and others around the world will see us as weak and will take advantage of it and attack us ten times more than what 9/11 was. So we have to remain there for now. However, the Iraqis need to unite as one and stop the chaos that rules that country today. This is why we're losing troops in large numbers: the Iraqis won't put aside their differences and work together. If they don't get their act together, we can go ahead and leave; the reason for our losing so much American lives in Iraq will be that the Iraqis didn't cooperate in stabilizing their country, when we were trying to help them out. The war might have been a mistake, but at least we deposed a dictator and gave Iraqis the chance to make their country into a democratic nation, which is unheard of in the Middle East.
When the war began, many like me were supporters of it. The Bush Administration kept on babbling that Saddam was connected to 9/11, and that he had WMD's. This was why we backed the war in the first place. Anyone that opposed the war was anti-American, and was in bed with Saddam and bin Laden and terrorism. This was spouted by far-right people all day long. Of course, the Dixie Chicks were bashed for what Natalie Maines said. Anyone that bought anything from the Dixie Chicks or anyone who opposed the war was unpatriotic. Even Bill O'Reilly called for a boycott against France and every French company out there for aiding and abetting Saddam. We were all blinded by far-right people and the Bush administration to support this war that has yet to end.
Fast forward to 2007. Let's see, we haven't found any WMD's in Iraq. The 9/11 Commission found no connection between Saddam and 9/11. We have 2,000 American troops dead. Certainly, we went into that country for nothing. We shouldn't have been there in the first place. We should have kept our main focus on catching bin Laden. Finally, we were stupid back then for supporting this war, because you can oppose this war while loving your country and what it stands for at the same time. The Dixie Chicks, I'm sure, are not anti-American. You can oppose the President but still love your country at the same time...with the exception that if this country is in danger of getting destroyed, and he's the only guy suitable for the job to fight back against these idiots, then we have no choice but to forget about his dumb past and rally behind him to go to victory.
Now did Bush lie? In my opinion, he didn't. You have to look at the CIA and the other intelligence agencies that gave both Bush AND Clinton information that Saddam had WMD's. In the end, this was proven to be false. So these groups were the liars, not Bush. However, Bush was foolish in paying attention to these guys in the first place.
What has this war accomplished? Well, millions of Iraqis are now no longer under oppression, but there's still tension between Sunnis and Shi'as...with extremely tragic results. Yes, we have no business to be over there, but if we leave right now, al-Qaeda and others around the world will see us as weak and will take advantage of it and attack us ten times more than what 9/11 was. So we have to remain there for now. However, the Iraqis need to unite as one and stop the chaos that rules that country today. This is why we're losing troops in large numbers: the Iraqis won't put aside their differences and work together. If they don't get their act together, we can go ahead and leave; the reason for our losing so much American lives in Iraq will be that the Iraqis didn't cooperate in stabilizing their country, when we were trying to help them out. The war might have been a mistake, but at least we deposed a dictator and gave Iraqis the chance to make their country into a democratic nation, which is unheard of in the Middle East.