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“The Iraq War Is Unjustified”-- An Essay by BamaLefty
The day is March 19, 2003. The sunlight is beginning to ebb across the desert sands of the Middle East. President George W. Bush is addressing the American people. The Iraqi people are once again preparing for the worst. President Bush orders roughly 125,000 young American men and women be deployed to the volatile land of Iraq. America is going to war.
The day is May 4, 2005. The sunlight is beginning to ebb across the desert sands of the Middle East. The climate may not have changed since that 2003 mid-March morning, but thanks to erroneous decisions made primarily by the United States government, the entire globe has been swept by winds of unfortunate change. As time wore on and the facts were revealed, it became clear that this war was and is illogical and immoral.
In the days leading up to the invasion, President Bush and his cabinet attempted to build support for the war. We were told that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction in their possession; had the capability of producing more weapons of mass destruction, and had intentions to use them on America. This was the most publicized fallacy in the President’s argument for war. However, the bipartisan 9/11 Commission, as well as other non-biased organizations clearly stated that Saddam Hussein did not possess weapons of mass destruction, did not have the ability to produce them, and did not have the contacts to receive them. When President Bush spoke of attacking Iraq as a means of containing the threat of WMDs, he pointed out that such an attack against a country that possessed WMDs would deter other nations from developing similar programs. Instead, the war in Iraq may have encouraged other countries to initiate production of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. Other countries stepped up their production of chemical and biological weapons. North Korea admits to having an active program of developing WMDs capable of hurting not only America but the entire world. Fortunately, the Bush administration called off the search for WMDs.
Another angle of this war is the cost. As of May 4, 2005, the war has cost America $167 trillion dollars and has nearly doubled the national debt. Instead of fighting an unnecessary war, America could have enrolled 22 million children in pre-school, provided health insurance to 100 million children for one year, fully funded global anti-hunger efforts for 6 years, ensured that every child in the world was given basic immunizations for 55 years, and sent over 8 million underprivileged teenagers to a public college for 4 years. Who is going to pay off the debt? Who will be the one to bear the burden of this mistake? The obvious answer is that today’s children, the same ones that we could have been sent to pre-school, given health insurance, and given basic immunizations, will be ones that will have to pay for our government’s poor judgment in invading Iraq.
1,600 is the number of lives lost so far in this war. On paper, 1,600 lives may appear as just another number. But what about the families of the fallen soldiers? What about the children of the deceased soldiers that will have grown up without ever having the opportunity to know their father? What ran through the minds of the families as they witnessed their child’s torched body hanging lifelessly from a bridge in Fallujah while Iraqi citizens cheered uncontrollably below? It also needs to be noted that the American death toll is not the only one to rise, but that innocent Iraqis have been killed as well. The death toll won’t stop today either, but will continue to rise for as long as we occupy Iraq.
How will the bleeding be stopped? How will this war end? How will the United States as well as the rest of the world, recover economically? What will it take to restore our credibility, dignity, and trust across the world? These are just a few of the many questions that the Bush administration has repeatedly dodged. It is time for our soldiers to return to their loved ones. It is time for us to subside the ever-increasing cost of this war. It is time that our leaders take responsibility for their actions and admit that we went to war under false pretenses. The time has come to leave Iraq and end the war. After all, how do we ask a man to be the last man to die in Iraq – how does we ask a man to be the last man to die for an unjustified war?
-- BamaLefty. I hope you enjoyed it. :hi:
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