Iraq

War is defined by Merriam-Webster's dictionary as, "a state of usually open and declared armed hostile conflict between states or nations." War is literally as old as life, although it did not always involve nations or man-made weapons of violence. As far back as the time that the first creatures were walking the earth, they were fighting over territory for survival. Along the evolutionary road, humans joined in the never-ending struggle that is war and complicated the whole matter entirely. No longer was war just about survival, there were now wars based on revolution, political ideologies, and natural resource, and these are just a few of the many reasons that wars have been started beyond the realm of survival.

The United States of America, for being a country that is a mere 229 years old, has had its fair share of war. The country itself was founded on a war of revolution. Most of the wars that have involved the United Sates were well founded for one reason or another. The Civil War was fought on behalf of freedom and to unite a broken nation. In both World War I and World War II, the US fought to protect others from the fascist tyranny that dwelled in Berlin. All of these wars had and rightfully deserved the whole-hearted support of the American people. But now the United States is engaged in a war in which support is dwindling quickly and American citizens are beginning to question the guidance of its leaders. Now more than ever there is uncertainty as to whether the US army should be fighting in Iraq. Now a war in a country that is over 6000 miles away is affecting Americans lives as if it were right next-door. Now the government officials who have been under attack from the people of the US since the moment they supported the war are starting to succumb to the consensus of the people. The United States cannot win this war, and, now, more then ever, they needs to pull out of the War in Iraq.

In order to understand the Iraqi War, one needs to see the whole picture. On September 11, 2001, a terrorist group attacked the United States, scaring its citizens out of the security blanket it was hiding comatosely under since the last attack on American soil, Pearl Harbor. This event shifted much military focus to the Middle East, where President Bush named Iraq, along with its infamous leader, Saddam Hussein, to be an "axis of evil." He, along with his staff and several officials believed that Iraq was manufacturing and possessing weapons of mass destruction, or WMDs. Throughout 2002 and 2003, President Bush campaigned the idea that Iraq indeed possessed WMDs and that immediate action was necessary in order to prevent use of those weapons on the United States. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented evidence to the United Nations, which was hoped would convince the UN to take action against Iraq. The UN was not persuaded by Powell's presentation, but President Bush continued to try to find diplomatic answer to the situation at hand till, on the night of March 19,2003, the US attacked Iraq with a nighttime aerial assault, marking the beginning of the War in Iraq. Fighting continued throughout the spring as the US troops swiftly fought through Iraq's major cities. They took over the capital of Baghdad on April 9th, 2003, but the face of the Iraqi evil, Hussein, evaded capture. By May 1st, the United States declared an end to all major fighting in Iraq.

The controversy that surrounds this war has little to do with the victorious two months in which the United States dominated the war. After May 1st, the fighting has continued relentlessly up to this very day. It is this "aftermath" of victory that has caused a storm of debate. Simply put, The United States needs desperately to pull out of the Iraqi situation they got themselves into. After the war officially ended, the Bush administration encountered an enormous problem-there were no weapons of mass destruction. After all the talk about the US getting hit by biochemical warfare and the need for the US to enter Iraq in the first place, they came up empty handed. With the main threat to America not in existence, they had to find another reason to stay. They did by claiming that they were spreading democracy, and by freeing the Iraqis of the tyranny of Saddam Hussein, they were making better lives for them.

For over two years now, the American troops in Iraq have been hit with relentless guerrilla warfare from countless terrorist cells that operate within the borders of Iraq. The United States is an invading country, trying to establish a new order of government in a foreign land.