Just finished writing it. I haven’t had a chance to make all little gramatical corrections, but here it is. Any comments would help, not due till Thursday. Also, if anyone can point me to a few good sources about Iraq, mine are a bit thin and I need a bigger work cited.
Thanks! Hope you like it! Edit - Paragraphs got messed up in copy-paste. Sorry bout that.
Iraq is an ancient, unique, and contentious country in the Middle East. Civilization began in Iraq. The Sumerians inhabited the delta between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers long before the Cairo, Thebes, or Athens were built. But today, Iraq is a center of conflict. In 1990, Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s despot invaded the small oil-rich country of Kuwait. After a short war, the United States, Britain, France, and Saudi Arabia took back Kuwait and largely destroyed Saddam’s army, then one of the biggest and deadliest in the world.
Today, 10 years later, Iraq is the center of the world’s attention yet again. After the terrorist attacks on America on September 11th, 2001, President George W. Bush is on a crusade against terrorism. As part of this crusade, Bush has set his sights upon Iraq and Saddam Hussein. He seeks “regime change” or the ousting of Saddam from Baghdad. President Bush wants a war. I do not, at this time.
Why am I against war? Well, for many reasons. First, I do not believe Saddam Hussein is either a terrorist or a threat to the security of the United States. Two, I believe the time, resources, money, and human lives lost which will be needed to kill Saddam would be much better spent fighting real terrorism. Three, I believe attacking Iraq will only kill more innocents and breed hate, and hate is terrorism’s ammunition. Four, I believe Saddam Hussein is the most “American” leader in the region. Finally, five, I believe that the real motivation behind this war is monetary in nature, and has nothing to do with the security of the American people.
Saddam Hussein is unique to the Persian-Gulf, and Middle East regions. His regime is the only government, apart from Israel, which is not ruled by an Islamic Fundamentalist supporter. His regime is not the most oppressive in the region. That title belongs to the Saudis, who are best friends of the United States. There has never been any proof of him supporting terrorism of any kind. In fact, he is often at odds with terrorist groups. A large majority of his country is Shi’a Muslim (according to the Cia.gov World Fact book). These Shi’a Muslims are almost completely opposed to his regime. These people are of the same ethnic group as the Iranians, and their partisan efforts are supported by the Iranians. If we were to establish a new regime in Iraq, it is most likely that the Shi’a Muslims will assume power.
Saddam Hussein is reported to be, in fact, very American. He listens to Frank Sinatra, and takes Viagra. He also is not crazy. Saddam knows that if he were to give weapons of mass destruction to terrorists, it would be his death. President Bush already has hinted that he would respond with weapons of mass destruction if Iraq used her biological and chemical weapons supply. In fact, President Bush is crazy enough that he might even pull the nuclear weapons card. I think Saddam wants to leave a legacy. He wants to live to die of old age, not be executed in a military tribunal or blown to bits by a Tomahawk Missile.
Terrorism is a huge threat. 3,000 died on 9/11, to a bunch of people with box cutters. Since then, terrorists have only grown. We struck a blow to terrorism in Afghanistan, but we did not defeat them. Al-Quaeda has regrouped. More terrorist attacks have happened abroad, such as in Bali. We need to focus our money, manpower, and military on these terrorists. Since Saddam Hussein is far from a terrorist, attacking Iraq would only give the terrorists more time to regroup, and a bigger cause to hate us. Our efforts are better in places such as Saudi Arabia (who’s Government held a tela-thon to raise money for families of Suicide Bombers). Or Sudan, a country with no real Government and remnants of Al-Quaeda regrouping within it’s borders.
Attacking Iraq would involve an extended bombing campaign. Thousands of innocents will die to collateral damage, and many more will lose their homes to bombs. This only gives terrorists, and Saddam Hussein, more cause to hate us. As Chris Matthews once said, "The biggest weapons the terrorists have against us is not a Chemical, Biological, or Nuclear weapon. Its hate, hate is what drove 4 planes down.” The only way to stop terrorism is to stop the influx of hate. This is not done via war.
One has the question the real reason behind this war. Iraq’s primary resource is oil. As we all know, President Bush used to do business in oil. Also, the oil company Enron was his biggest campaign contributor. Also, Vice President Dick Cheney used to be an executive at Enron. During the recent White-Collar-Crime scandals that began with Enron, we saw the ties the Whitehouse still had with Enron when they refused to hand over incriminating documents.
The timing of the call for a war on Iraq is also questionable. It happened in late September. A month and a half later, the Midterm elections would be held. I firmly believe that the debate over Iraq was timed to win Republicans votes. After 6 weeks of debate, where the Government and Media were completely entrenched in the debate over Iraq, the vote was passed to get very tough. President Bush was given a blank check to go to war if he wished. A few weeks later, the Republicans cleaned up in the Senate and House of Representatives.
Attacking Iraq means a war. War is never clean. The Gulf War of 1991 was a clean war. We saw Iraqi buildings and tanks being blown to bits through little green cameras. It all seemed very… very cool. That is not what this war is going to be like. Saddam Hussein has learned his lesson. He is not going to be putting his tanks out in the open desert for us to bomb. Saddam is going to hole up in the cities. This will mean mounting American casualties, Stalingrad style. But even worse, this will triple the civilian casualties suffered by innocent Iraqis. Not only is the loss of human life devastating, but the hate brewed by this city fighting will cause even more to die to terrorism. Iraq might be turned into a Palestine, and we may be Israel.
Attacking Iraq would be a national folly. Our goal in attacking Iraq is to protect American people. However, attacking Iraq would only serve to further endanger Americans. The most powerful weapon the world has ever known, hate, will be created by the barrel. Thousands of innocent Iraqis will die, as will many American soldiers. All for what? Saddam Hussein is an old Viagra-using man. The real reasons behind President Bush’s sudden urge to attack Iraq are both Political and Monetary. A successful war has always helped a President get re-elected, dating back to the Civil War and Lincoln. And finally, money is the biggest issue here. President Bush’s campaign contributors would benefit greatly from an attack on Iraq. President Bush would benefit, but the question is, will the American people benefit?
Thanks in advance.
