Nathan Hutchinson

English 102

Historical Research

Laura Darrow

The war in Iraq started in March 20, 2003 with the allegations that the country of Iraq was in possession of weapons of mass destruction also known as WMD’s. The year before the UN weapon inspector declared Iraq had not been in violation and could not find any evidence to support these allegations of weapons. Later the US accused Iraq of harboring Al-Qaeda which once again had turned up no evidence. Desperate to find resolve for the actions of 9-11 the United States made to decision to send troops to Iraq under the assumption that Sadam Hussein was harboring Al-Qaeda. The war in Iraq still continues on with no end in site and many would argue if any progress has been made. The sad fact of the matter is the amount of innocent people that have had to lose their lives because of the decisions of others. Some estimate the civilian casualties to be around 120,000.(White)

Since the invasion of Iraq people who were told to trust in a cause have been left to out to dry with no hope of what to expect in the days to come. According to the Brookings Institute, Iraq index, Iraqis that strongly oppose the presence of collation forces is at 82%. Also Americans that feel we should have never gone go to war with Iraq started at 50% and had continued to grow ever since.(Brookings Institute) So the biggest question is why are we at war if they don’t want us and more than half of the county opposes. Is the only reason we persist for success of the occupation itself.

Probably one of the scariest things about this war is the amount of debt the country of Iraq has incurred. Within the first eight months alone they were loaned 127.7 billion from 28 different countries.(Brookings Institute) Now the country has absolutely no infrastructure to repay this money. Conveniently they have oil which everyone would like a piece of. Not to mention the debt we have created for our own country. Currently we sit at about 1.4 trillion with that doubling by 2017. These numbers only run second to WWII. The cost of a soldier to spend one year in Iraq is 360,000 dollars.(Englehardt)

The years of 2006 and 2007 were the bloodiest on record for the U.S loosing roughly 6000 soldiers due to injury or death per year.(White) The primary reason for this was that the U.S and coalition forces had no idea who they were fighting against. Between this uncertainty and the spur of a Sunni-Shiite civil war, the streets were an all out battlefield killing any and everyone.

When the Iraq war started the U.S sent 150,000 troops to battle. Currently we have 92,000. 31,822 soldiers have been injured leading to discharge and 4500 have died. In the seven years we have been at war we have only pulled 20,000 troops out of Iraq.(Brookings Institute)None of these numbers reflect the amount that have been discharged due to psychological illness.

So why did we go to war. Why hasn’t anything changed since the beginning. And who is in control of this great nation, the people. I guess to a certain degree we are in control but to what extent and where does our power cease.

After reviewing the research I have done for this project I can only reflect back to what I have read earlier in the course starting with Sam Hamill and The Necessity to Speak. The way he uses his experience to influence and make a change in this world. Words are some of the most powerful tools we have, and yes they means things. Its time to stare deeply into the eyes of the truth. The people of this nation can’t continue to act as if the problems of the world will fix themselves, because they are not, not without the direction of the people. We read stories about the chaotic lives of our soldiers such as in the book by Tim O’Brien The Things They Carried. A compilation of stories about the madness one deals with on a daily basis in the battlefield. The lost souls, the sadness and fear. The phycological warfare one faces each waking morning and the memories he sleeps with at night.

The sadness of war has never been rivaled. Nothing could compares to the innocent lost, the people who were just born and lived, thats all. The people who were just trying to make it on a day to day. The dreams that have been taken for false pride. The hearts that have been broken, and the kids that returned never to be the same.