War And Justification
Author: Tom Phelps

A war is waged in a country most have never been to. The year
is 1990. The division began when George Herbert Walker Bush
executed air strikes in the fall in an attempt to liberate
Kuwait from an invasion by Iraq. Sanctions were initially tried,
but when Iraq refused compliance military efforts were used. By
March of 1991 troops were being pulled from the Gulf region as
objectives were thought to have been reached.

In 2003 George W. Bush had taken the oath of President and had
been in the White House for most of his first term. The Iraqi
President Saddam Hussein had not been in compliance with United
Nations policy for inspections and American Intelligence had
concluded that there were weapons of mass destruction on Iraqi
soil.

One by one fugitive Iraqi leaders were placed in custody and a
coalition of forces worked to liberate Iraq from the grip of
what had been described as an `oppressive regime'.

American forces worked with Iraqi citizens to develop a police
force. Elections were held, yet two issues stood between the
start of the war and a graceful exit. The issues were that no
specific weapons of mass destruction were located and suicide
bombers made if very difficult to ensure a modicum of stability
in the newly liberated country.

A broad contingent of prominent Americans sought the
impeachment of President Bush, while there were similar
impeachment requests for Vice President Dick Cheney. The charges
against the President and Vice-President stemmed from the war in
Iraq.

There are those that have felt that the role of America should
have involved ongoing sanctions and diplomacy in the midst of
the conflict in the Middle East, but there were also a number of
war supporters who felt there was enough justification to
proceed with the war.

Many of those who supported the President felt that if we did
not take action the war might come to American soil. This
thought was obviously related to the September 11th attack
directed by Osama bin Laden of Afghanistan. Nearly 3,000
Americans were killed as a result of a terrorist attack using
hijacked aircraft as instruments of terror. Intellegence
indicated a likely link between bin Laden and Hussein.

While some thought that this new threat made the liberation of
Iraq something that must be achieved others simply viewed the
invasion as misguided at best and unwinnable at worst.

Conflicting reports were fodder for water cooler discussions.
News reports pointed to losses and low morale among the troops.
However, email reports from soldiers often pointed to what they
felt were successes in the gulf.

At the fifth anniversary of the occupation of Iraq the
controversy surrounding the world's involvment in this country
remains clouded by what the President and his advisors may or
may not have known about Iraq prior to the start of the war.

Some who survived Viet Nam conisdered a victory in Iraq to be
as unachievable as the war they fought in the 1960's and 1970's.
Others have consitently viewed the threat in Iraq to have been
strong enough to merit long-term attention.

Was the war in Iraq justified? If so, is there a meaningful
exit strategy? If not then who is to blame for leading America
into a costly war that resulted in significant additional loss
of life among American soldiers?


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