United States' Phony War on Iraq

At this point, the war in Iraq has been going on practically my entire life. Prior to my research for this post, I did not know practically anything about the war other than the fact it was started by George W. Bush and has lasted forever. 

I watched the documentary and did plenty of research for this final blog post and honestly I left everything feeling really disheartened by the United State's government. 

I always thought prior to this class that the government upheld the constitution in every way possible. Now, I am starting to think that the government has laws for every other party to follow other than themselves. 

The Iraq War started in 2003 by the Bush administration. This is still one of the most controversial issues in politics, because there was never a clear-cut reason as to why we should go to war in the first place. 

Bush talking to troops 

The Bush administration originally stated that their intent in starting the war was to remove "a regime that developed and used weapons of mass destruction, that harbored and supported terrorists, committed outrageous human rights abuses, and defied the demands of the United Nations and the world."

The United States then justified invading Iraq because they said that the relied on the authority of the UN Security Council Resolutions 678 and 687.

If the above statement did not make sense to you, that is because it should not. If a country is trying to justify going to war based on some very specific resolutions, there is a good chance they should have never went to war in the first place.

Troops in Iraq

The United Kingdom also supported the United States invading Iraq on the basis that Saddam Hussein was supposedly developing weapons of mass destruction. The U.S. has always been a fan of nobody having the weapons of mass destruction except for themselves.

President Bush was working hard to build a case against Iraq, largely because of the events of September 11th. I think he was so blinded by rage, that he seriously did not think this through and because of that so many lives have been lost. 

After the U.S. invaded Iraq, the Central Intelligence Agency and multiple other intelligence agencies discredited evidence against the claims of an Iraqi weapons force. They also discredited evidence that Al-Qaeda has any links to Iraq. 

It is remarkably shady that these American intelligence agencies discredited the Bush administration claims very shortly after they invaded. It makes me wonder if they were sitting on this information, because they knew an invasion was coming. 

Instead of admitting fault for invading on false claims, the Bush administration immediately started trying to rationalize it. They shifted gears to claiming that the needed to promote democracy in Iraq and that Hussein's government had a terrible human rights record. 

At this point, the public opinion of this phony war was not good. Most polls showed that people were not in favor of a war unless the UN mandated it. Other countries started seeing the U.S. as more of a threat because they invaded a country under a false pretense. 

There was an intense manhunt for Hussein where he was captured and later found guilty of crimes against humanity. He was hanged on December 30, 2006. 

Even though Hussein was killed in 2006, the war in Iraq officially did not end until December 15th, 2011 during the Obama administration. 

It is important to note that throughout over ten years of war, no weapons of mass destruction were found in Iraq. 

So where are we now? Sadly, there are still troops in Iraq even though the war is over. Since the Bush administration invaded, there have been issues and civil unrest in Iraq. 

Our troops are cut down to 2,500 to keep the peace and help defeat ISIS. This is a classic example of why George Washington warned against getting involved in foreign affairs when he left office. It is messy and completely unnecessary.

All of this strangely does relate back to journalism and its influence. We allowed this war in Iraq to go on because we were so angry about 9/11. We were blinded by the facts which is not acceptable when it costs human lives. 

If journalists were super diligent and cared about dispersing the truth, maybe they would have used their influence to further turn the public against this war. 

As a society, it is important for every individual to make up their own mind about every situation, because the government is hardly ever right. 

It is important that as a society we learn from our mass failure that is Iraq and do better so that we are not stuck in this pointless wars.