War in Iraq

What is a war? Is it putting an end to a problem or is it more than that? Can it be justifiable? How is victory defined? These are all questions that many Americans are increasingly asking themselves and others as the war in Iraq continues for more than two years.

September 11, 2001. The Twin Towers in New York City were attacked. In October of 2003, the Bush administration accused Saddam Hussein of having ties to Al-Qaeda and developing weapons of mass destruction. Despite the facts that the terrorists responsible for the New York City attacks were mostly from Saudi Arabia and that the United Nations' weapon inspectors could not find any evidence of WMDs in Iraq in the years since the first Gulf War, the Administration used these arguments to make a case for going to war in Iraq. Even today, as more and more critics blame President Bush and the White House for misinforming the American people, the Administration continues to use the same excuses for justifying the war. Since there is no end in sight, the majority of the public, up to 52%, has now lost its trust in the President's war against terror, according to the U.S. News and World Report. In addition, Bush's popularity has continued on a downward spiral, as low as 39% according to recent polls, ever since the truth about the inaccurate and exaggerated pre-war intelligence has been revealed.

At the onset of the war, the American people knew little about the true reasons for attacking Iraq. According to The Progressive, controlling an oil rich country, adding military bases in the Middle East, creating a boost to the American economy by giving out more defense contracts and steering voters to the Republican cause in the elections are among the many motives that can be contributed to the President Bush and his government for going to war that were not shared with the public at the time. Instead, the attack on the Towers and WMDs were used as excuses to justify the war. As the facts continue to surface, many have started to doubt the Bush Administration's true reasons for starting the war.

Since the beginning of the war, 30,000 Iraqi civilians have died from the violence, even more than when Saddam was in power. As the transitional Iraqi government and the American military continue to focus their attention on the war against the insurgents, months after Saddam's overthrow, the Iraqi people still can not spend a full day without interruptions in electricity, water and basic necessities of life. There are thousands more malnourished children now as public health continues to deteriorate since the invasion of Iraq. Saddam was a dictator who ruled the country with an iron fist and committed may atrocities against the people of Iraq. While most Iraqis wanted Saddam's dictatorial regime replaced by a more democratic government, the majority does not want a permanent presence of the American Army in their country. They do not trust the motives of the foreign governments and believe that Iraqis should be in control of their own government, their own military and their own fate. The prolonged presence of the occupying army has led to insurgents mobilizing against the troops and engaging in suicide bombings and combat, resulting in death and injury to many civilians as well as American and Iraqi army and police.

Supposedly, the purpose of the American troops in Iraq is to support creation of democracy and spread our American way of life to the Iraqi people. Iraq is a country rich in civilization and culture, with a different set of values than those of the Western countries. While Iraqis support freedom, they do not want our version of democracy forced on them. Iraq's population consists of Sunnis, Shi'as and Kurds, each representing a different culture, religion and ethnicity, each with its own ideology and philosophy. Iraqis, like most Arabs, distrust Western governments and are afraid of foreign cultures and values creeping into their societies. There is absolutely