The Iraq War: Was It All Worth It?

[Lazarus]

The Iraq War: Was It All Worth It?
On March 20th, of 2003 the Iraq War started, also known by some as the Occupation of Iraq and referred to as Operation Iraqi Freedom by the U.S. Military. The United Kingdom was also involved, sending in troops along with the U.S soldiers. Before the war started both the U.S and United Kingdom claimed that the Iraqi's had weapons of mass destruction, and posed a very imminent threat to us and everyone else. The war is still going on to this day, none of the claimed weapons were ever found. The invasion of Iraq eventually led to the capture of Saddam Hussein, who was executed by the Iraqi Government sometime later. The civilian casualties of this war have been estimated at being anywhere from 85,000 to 1,000,000. Though it is more likely to be around or above the one million figure. There's also estimates out that say the war has uprooted 4.7 million Iraqi's, that's 16% of their population. It is said that roughly 40% of Iraq's middle class has left since the war started, and
many have stated that they have no intention of ever returning. The Human Rights Watch, along with somewhere among 2,000 Iraqi doctors have been killed, 250 kidnapped, since the war started.
Has it all been worth it? It really depends on who you talk to. Some claim that it has helped, and support the effort's saying that we have given democracy to another country. Others will say that it was unnecessary and not needed, saying we invaded without enough, or any evidence at all.
Some people are even claiming war crimes on the Bush administration, and call for justice to be served. Did we have any business going over there? It really depends on what you believe, and you should figure it out on your own by looking at the facts.
So did the U.S. really have all the evidence and support from congress to invade Iraq? Was George Bush just trying to carry on his father's legacy? After all, his father was involved in that area during his presidency. A lot of people claim that it was to support the war on terror, but in all honesty, did Iraq really have anything to do with the terrorism at the time? Sure, they had a horrible dictator, but was it really in the U.S. interest to go over there and start a war, rather than trying to peacefully resolve the situation? If more of an effort was going to be made on the war of terror, shouldn't the U.S. have focused on Afghanistan where Osama Bin Laden and the majority of Al Qaeda was? Or what about Saudi Arabia, where the majority of the hijackers were from.
It's been a little over 6 years since we went to Iraq, and things have slowed down a bit. Many lives have been lost including soldiers, not only from the U.S. but from allies. Civilians killed and displaced, billion's of dollar's spent, and are still being spent. So, was it worth it? That's something you're going to have to decide for yourself.

[Kofi]

The Iraq war made a perfect sense after the September 11 terrorists attack on the World Trade Center in 2001 but it doesn't make much sense now and I don't see the reason why Obama keeps on sending troops to Iraq instead of reconciliation and reconstruction. One thing we must know is the fact that Iraq is Iraq and Iraq can never be America and America can never be Iraq. Iraq is an Islamic nation routed in Islamic laws and traditions. America on the other hand is not an Islamic nation.

[AltMvz]

The invasion of Iraq after 9/11 Doesn't make sense. Iraq and 9/11 are completely seperate issues. Except if you were living in America you'd have been convinced saddam and al qaeda are one and the same. The guys leaking false information, WMD's, and this seem to have done a good job.

[Philomina]

The war against Iraq is the downfall of America and it will take year for America to get back on her feet. Bush made a dangerous mistake and that mistake will hunt America for ever because the families of the victims will not forgive America that easily. They will continue to fight in their own little ways in the name of Allah and revenge.

[Fracker]

Iraq war has nothing to do with war on terror. Even Australian PM accept that they sent their troops to iraq for oil. So, the main agenda of iraq war to get the oil rich iraq.. and now USA companies have many contracts and placed their puppet government.. so now they are speaking of leaving iraq.. Now iraqi people are suffering because of American and NATO invasion..

[proxy4u]

Iraq War is claimed as the freedom operation for Iraq people by US government. But in fact the Iraq people do not enjoy the freedom and human rights after the US troops destroy the power of Saddam Hussein. Instead they are threatened by possible death or body bombs every day. The US and UK invoke Iraq just for the oil.