Why Is Our Nation Still at War?

Why is our nation still at war?

In recent times, nothing has changed the lives of Americans more than the war in Iraq. The events preceding and surrounding this military activity has captured the emotions and changed the lives of nearly every American. As a nation, Americans made a myriad of hasty and uninformed decisions to alter the socioeconomic future of several nations. The American people deserve to know the truth about the decisions made and lies told which affected so many lives. Only then will America as a nation agree in changing our occupation strategy by withdrawing our forces from the war in Iraq. In search of the truth a truly patriotic American may ask the following questions:

1. What purpose does the war in Iraq have?

2. Did Americans want war?

3. Can we win the war?

Due to the lack of viable American interest, purpose, and a clearly defined end state of combat, American needs to take the appropriate measures of withdrawing its troops from Iraq.

Following the attack on 9/11, the American public wanted someone to pay for the indecent acts of terrorism that had occurred. Many people looked for someone to blame. To state the facts clearly, so was our president. He used the momentum of the public’s outrage to quickly hop on the “kill al Qaida and friends” bandwagon. The results led to the Bush administration showering us with a series of lies. These lies could have encouraged people in the need to justify an attack on a foreign power.

Not long after the 9/11 attack the president and his administration went on record as stating Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and cooperated with Bin Laden and the Al Qaida. This unsubstantiated series of lies would later justify the wrongful utilization of military forces. The use of military force deserves the solid evidence of an imminent threat and an unavoidable war. For more than a year, the administration supplied a steady stream of unreliable statements. At no time did it make a persuasive, credible, or consistent case for war (Fisher, 2003, p. 389). The administration used the same tactics thoroughly month after month. These allegations slowly built an anti Iraqi following with unproven claims, and unsubstantiated proof of the potential to cause a threat to American freedom. The press exposed all these claims and exploited false declarations of proof and the Bush administration continued to proceed with a “let me show you” demeanor.

The Bush administration conceded to some of the false allegations, only after a military force had already occupied Iraqi soil, countless civilian lives had been lost, hundreds of Americans had been killed or injured, and all attempts to find Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) failed horribly. The United States has significantly deepened the hole it had already dug for itself in the international public opinion (Heinbecker, 2004, p. 273). Nobody likes a liar, but we Americans love ours. Even after his lies got exposed, we reelected him and continued to support a war with limited political and democratic advantages. We even quote him by saying, “You’re either with us or against us.” Quotes like these gives Americans an excuse or need to choose sides. The sides of someone’s choice can either reside in whether one likes being called a patriot or an Iraqi terrorist sympathizer according to President Bush. The fact remains, America never had a substantial reason to be in Iraq to begin with.

The truth is after I heard from the president on national television that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and the potential of using them against the U.S., I wanted to disarm them myself. Many people shared the same feelings only because of what the Bush administration kept telling us. The campaign targeted angry and outraged Americans. The U.S. wanted someone to blame for lives lost in the 9/11 attack. The three key misperceptions amongst the American people were:

• Clear evidence that Saddam Hussein was working closely with the al Qaeda has been found.

• Weapons of mass destruction have been found in Iraq.

• World public opinion favored the United States going to war with Iraq

These misperceptions were not limited to a small minority that had repeated misperceptions. A majority of 60 percent had at least one of these three unambiguous misperceptions, and only 30 percent had no misperceptions. Another 10 percent had the more modest misperception that world public opinion was evenly balanced between support and opposition to the Iraq war. In every case, those who have one of the misperceptions have been more supportive of the war (Kull, Ramsey, Lewis, 2003-4, p. 576).