The Wars

The Iraq War Following 9/11, Americans were pretty scared because we now realized we live in an age where wars can be fought not just between countries, but also between countries and armed determined militias. This caused quite a bit of chaos because the government now had to re-evaluate which countries were the biggest threats to American security based on countries that harbored terrorists and were extreme in ideology. President Bush in his "Axis of Evil" reference labeled three countries as the biggest threats to US security from their current state of government, support for terrorists or anyone else against the US, or some combination of the two. Those three countries were North Korea, Iran, and Iraq. All three countries share a common set of evils. Hatred for the US, suppression of their own people, violations of basic human rights, decades of hostility towards any outside country, and harboring of groups that are at war with the US. So how come Iraq was the one we decided to invade? Well with North Korea, who were proven to have nukes and were very hostile towards the US, North Korea is surrounded by countries with far superior military's than their own, Japan, South Korea, China, you could even count Russia. Any threat by North Korea (like the ones they've been giving us for decades) would be only a hollow threat since any actual action would be met swiftly with the downfall of North Korea. Iran meanwhile is all by itself in the Middle East, and they are much like their neighboring Iraq, however one thing does separate the two, and it ultimately determined how the war came about. The one thing that is different between Iran and Iraq back in 2002 was that Iran, hostile towards the outside just like Iraq, was not nearly as warmongering as Iraq was under Saddam's leadership. Iraq had launched wars with Iran, Kuwait, donates troops to fight Israel, threatened to invade Saudi Arabia, and has been documented in using chemical and biological weapons during times of war. Something Iran has never done. Iran also does not have a history of using chemical weapons against their own people, having an extensive weapons program, or has even declared war on another country. Iraq was now public enemy number 1, and in the short number of months between September of 2001 and March of 2003, fear of Iraq mushroomed as it was rumored that Iraq had nuclear WMD's, after it was proven that Iraq had chemical WMD's, after Iraq denied weapons inspectors from the UN into the country, after it was found that Iraq supported terrorism and groups against the US, and after it was publicly revealed that Saddam Hussein was indeed a tyrant. All of this was what led to the invasion of Iraq. and in 2003 many people supported the invasion of Iraq to remove Saddam from power and to establish a new elected government. 8 years later, people call Iraq a mistake, denounce Bush for warmongering, and claim it was all a conspiracy to get oil. WTF went wrong??? Shortly after Saddam was overthrown, it was revealed that not only Iraq had nuclear WMD's even though the US government said they did, it was revealed that Iraq was never even close to obtaining the material needed for a WMD. Meanwhile it was discovered that Al-Qaeda never was in Iraq prior to the invasion even though Condoleezza Rice herself said they were, it was even discovered that Saddam had agreed to let weapons inspectors into Iraq weeks before the invasion. Apart from that the war dragged on far longer than expected, the recovery of Iraq economically was non existent, troops were still coming home in body bags, the US slid into the biggest recession sicne the Great Depression, and the American people felt cheated. The US government under Bush had plenty of good reasons to invade Iraq, however they used primarily fear to authorize the invasion of Iraq. After that was done, Saddam was gone, and a democratic government was installed, the US made it their objective to stay in Iraq until Iraq recovered enough economically to levels prior to 2003. That however was a fatal mistake for the US, as Iraqi progress to economic reform progressed at a very slow pace while insurgents flocked to Iraq to try to fight the US. All of this caused the war to drag out year after year after year and when the economy slid into a recession, the American people felt they were betrayed. So all in all, we had plenty of good reasons for invading Iraq, the problem was we underestimated the commitment that had to be made, the government flat out lied about aspects of why Iraq had to be invaded, and the war lasted long enough to coincide with the biggest recession in 80 years, leading to widespread disapproval of the Iraq War and how it was handled. Quick side note, for those who think we invaded Iraq for its oil, that is a complete lie. The US only imports a fraction of its oil from Iraq, so if you think that the US will invade a country based on oil, then we would have invaded Canada a long time ago ftp://ftp.eia.doe.gov... http://www.globalpost.com...