Why should we help the Iraqi people?

Question

What have they done to show that they want US help and how does it serve us to fight and die for their freedom? Just because they are free doesn't mean they won't want to kill us.

We got Saddam out of power, they have a constitution and a freely elected president........I think our job is done.

Answer 1

Because we got help fighting for our own country and why shouldn't we help another one?

You don't know that in 200+ years, Iraq won't be in a position to do the same.

Answer 2

Dear Reflection,

It was the US who was responsible for unseating the moderate government of Abdul Karim Qassim in Iraq in 1963. The reason was that he was too left-wing for the CIA's liking - he sought to reduce the huge income inequalities in Iraq and tackle the endemic poverty in the country.

He also pulled Iraq out of the anti-Soviet Baghdad Pact, which to the US was the final drop. The CIA therefore started providing massive assistance to the hardline right-wing Baath Party and helped overthrow Qassim. The Baath Party, as you'll recall, is Saddam Hussein's party. Thus, under the pretext of fighting Communism, the US was responsible for ushering in a regime which persecuted and repressed thousands of people for decades.

The US remained good friends with the Saddam Hussein regime almost all the way up to 1991, trading weapons as well as many other commodities. Then the Gulf War happened, which resulted in massive civilian casualties in Iraq. After that, the US imposed a strangling economic embargo on Iraq, which had no effect whatsoever on the Hussein regime but catastrophically impoverished the Iraqi population.

Enter 2003 and the war on terror. The US invades Iraq on the basis of various questionable claims: first it was WMD, which Iraq did not have after all; then it was a supposed alliance between Saddam Hussein and Osama Bin Laden, which blatantly never existed since Bin Laden is a religious fundamentalist and Hussein a secular nationalist - in US society this would be the equivalent of an alliance between Howard Dean and Pat Robertson.

In any case, in the face of resounding international opposition, the US unilaterally unseats Saddam Hussein. This results in a massive breakdown of law and order since Hussein, although certainly a ruthless dictator, had still managed to keep a lid on the country's simmering religious divisions (like Tito in the former Yugoslavia, one could say) and with him gone, it is complete pandemonium. All of this has cost many more thousands of innocent lives.

All of these events, but particularly the 2003 invasion, make the US morally responsible for what happens in Iraq now. The last reason for invading Iraq, as you know, was allegedly for the purpose of introducing democracy in that country. So if the US leaves before a viable democratic regime is introduced, it loses the last shred of moral authority it had for starting this painful and incredibly divisive conflict. The world will then draw its own conclusions, which will have devastating effects for US foreign policy.

Even if the US only cared little about this aspect, there is a more pragmatic reason for staying in Iraq until the country is free and peaceful: leaving an unstable, ineffective government behind would lead to Iraq becoming a perfect breeding ground for Islamic terrorist groups such as Al-Qaeda. This power vacuum would also embolden Iran into expanding its influence in the region (by agitating Iraq's majority Shiite population), thus gaining much greater clout in the Middle East - with ominous consequences for the US and the West.

The question is, can Iraq ever be pacified? I hope for everyone's sake that it can, but it is difficult to be optimistic about this.

Hope this helped,

Answer 3

After WWII people felt the same about Japan, a people willing to die for their emperor. It's 60 years later and we are STILL in Japan, but Japan has become a world power and an ally. Just like Japan it will take a long time to win the the hearts and minds of Iraqis, but people love freedom and will soon believe they deserve freedom and will fight for it on their own.

Answer 4

We just overthrew a government, they have what you said set up but no infrastructure. This happens when any country is revolutionized and there is always another country that backs them, in Iraq's case we are the backers. America had the French, the Balkans had NATO, and most African nations had each other after they broke away from the British, French, and Dutch. It is hard to transition and I totally support us staying even though I think that we didnt need to be there in the first place!

Answer 5

it is the responsibility of the affluent nations to support the less affluent ones. its not about how much it will cost now, its about how much more it will cost in terms of hatred if nothing is done. Don't you get it yet that the resentment that caused the attacks on Sept 11, 2001 was because of American corporate greed and lack of respect for the rest of the world? If you want the hatred to stop, give until it hurts, and stop letting the American corporate world from abusing their policies. Hold them responsible fortheir actions

Answer 6

It's the people who led them who were corrupt and tyrants, should ensure that there is enough stability internally to conduct a free & fair polls

Answer 7

I'm an Iraqi and i can't agree with you any more. Get out Bush. you got who you wanted now get out.

Answer 8

Because we can.