Iraq
I’ve heard 3 reasons for going to “war” in Iraq: terrorism, freeing the Iraqi people, and oil. (Notice how war is in quotes; that’s because technically, what’s happening in Iraq is executive military action, not a war; only Congress has the power to declare war and that hasn’t happened since World War II)
The terrorism argument pretty much got shot down with the 9-11 Commission’s report. If you don’t know what I’m talking about, read it. It’s only 1000 pages, nothing too big. I read it while brushing my teeth this morning.
The “freeing the Iraqi people” argument is pretty well bullshit too. Do you think they’d be attacking our troops if they really wanted to be “saved” from Saddam Hussein? How about we go save the people in Sudan? There were 3000 people killed there yesterday. Why? Ever heard of genocide? That’s exactly what’s happening there, sounds like they need “liberation” a lot more.
The oil argument is the only one that makes since and here’s why:
Late during the Clinton-Gore administration, the Russian government signed a very lucrative oil deal with Saddam Hussein. The deal basically amounted to Saddam getting a lot of money and Russian getting a lot of oil. This was a problem for the United States because we run on oil. Therefore, the U.S. invades Iraq to take over the oil fields and end the exportation of oil to Russia.
I know that U.S. troops can’t leave anytime soon because that will look terrible in the eyes of the American people, let alone other nations. I’m not urging people take to the streets in protest of this occupation because U.S. troops aren’t going anyplace any time soon. There’s no draft in place so, everyone in Iraq is there because of their own free will. No need to take to the streets just yet. I would encourage everyone to do the best to help these guys out, after all, if North Korea drops the bomb in Japan (or on anyone of our other allies) these men and women will be the ones defending us from a real threat, not some threat that only existed in the mind of a president.
94, 583 people now realize the U.S. invaded Iraq for oil.