3003 US Soldiers Now Dead In IRAQ.139 During The Invasion. Why Did They Have to Die? Not Even Their Country!?

Question

Two things need to be pointed out yet again;

1. I am Irish, not American, and I live in Ireland.

2. Iraq had nothing whatsoever to do with 9/11, and that has always been accepted.
They were just the scapegoat.

Answer 1

It is all geopolitics and economics. The media and the public are generally viewed as incapable of understanding the complexities of global power balance and certainly macroeconomic equilibria, so conflicts are reduced to more humanistic terms in order to provide some solace to those who want answers, even if these more humanitarian explanations bear contradictions that are extremely obvious to careful observers. Wars have become increasingly more complex, as our global economies have grown more intricate.

Prior to and including World War II, economic and political interests were enforced by outright invasion and entente (the coalition of nations), so that there was never much question of enemy or friend... nonetheless, the true underpinnings of those wars were still primarily economic, as financial means are always the most important and sought-after objective of world leaders.

After World War II, rather than having all-out conflicts of nation-state coalitions, there was a more ideological war being waged; that of communism vs. capitalism. Since all-out war between the dominant superpowers would have been too devastating for either side to bear, the fighting was more about preventing smaller pivotal states from falling into the influence of either side, with avoidance of direct confrontation between the major powers (the US and the USSR). In that way, both sides were fighting to gain a stronger foothold over global economic interests without fighting one another directly.

This is why we cared about Korea and Vietnam, because they were extensions of the economic battle being waged against the Soviet bloc. If we lost too many pieces of the puzzle, we would lose active players in the global economy, and the Soviet Union would gain allies and give them more leverage in enforcing their will on the world.

In the case of Iraq, we are now at a time in history where the key ingredient to the global economy is crude oil. Prior to the 1970s, petroleum-based technology was not as globally widespread as it is today, and the major oil reserves were still being discovered. Around the 1970s is when we saw the end of the tunnel approaching, with the limited nature of US and US-influenced reserves becoming more obvious and with Western control in the Middle East dwindling. Several of those nations, including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, have allied with the Western nations and are willing to keep reserves open to Western powers in high quantity, and hence at low price.

Iraq was a key exception; following the Iran/Iraq conflict, the nation was in severe debt, and they sought out some degree of debt forgiveness and to allow regional oil reserves to be released in lower quantity, thus raising prices and enabling them to address their debt. Hussein argued that they fought the war in the interests of the region as a whole, so in a sense the loans othe rcountries offered to Iraq were for their own good. Kuwait and Saudi Arabia refused, and Kuwait added insult to injury by inflating their debt claims and slant-drilling into Iraqi reserves.

This was seen as just cause for invasion, and of course the United States took the side of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, since they were in favor of keeping oil prices low. Even though high oil prices would generate more money for their countries, the US formed alliances with their royal families and business leaders and agreed that they would personally be rewarded for preserving American interests.

So, since Hussein in a sense was a hero to his people, in that he could have reaped huge wealth from the US if he agreed to play along with the US, at a cost to his people, but he decided against this and chose not to sell out and to pursue the wealth of his nation, and not just his personal wealth like our middle eastern allies did. Thus, it was in our interests to depose his leadership and implant a government more willing to work with us, particularly in the area of allowing the US to draw plentiful quantities of oil from their reserves. Whatever else they do is of no concern to us, so long as they can prevent rebel forces from alligning and overthrowing the government.

Which brings us to Hussein the Murderer... surely he didn't care for his country, because look at what he was convicted for, right? Gassing Kurds, assaulting villages, torturing insurgents, and so forth. Well, now that the Ba'athist party is no longer in control, it is much easier for us to see the anatomy of the Iraqi culture. There are many different groups that exist within its borders; the city-dwellers and the herders and nomads; the Sunnis and the Shi'ites; the Arabs and the Kurds... they ahve a long history of violent conflict, and if unchecked, they will tend towards complete civil unrest and barbarous war.

They are a violent, violent culture. Hussein was faced with the task of forming an economically viable nation out of a large group of extremely destructive people, and his means were effective- he showed them that he would not tolerate insurrection and he ruled by fear because fear is all they understood. And we will eventually learn that civil government will not work and that the people of Iraq NEED dictatorship because fear and death is the only language they understand. He may have killed thousands, but without his dictatorship, the various factions would have killed each other by the tens of thousands, as they are doing now. That is why his execution was no more justified than the murder of any world leader in history by an invading power. I'm sure Brutus and Marc Anthony could have come up with reasons why Julius Cesar deserved execution... most world leaders have a great deal of blood on their hands, certainly including ours, so it's very easy to call your enemy a murderer, whoever they may be. But it is hypocracy to call him a murderer of his people and then proceed to murder more of his people in our military campaigns. They are seeing more death without Hussein than they ever did with him.

So was the war a mistake? Based on the REAL intentions of the war, the major objectives were met; we now have access to their oil reserves, which will allow us to keep petroleum prices under control for quite a bit longer than if we didn't. However, if the violence persists and we end up having to battle off insurrection after insurrection to protect our interests, then it is questionable as to whether the costs exceed the benefits. In retrospect, we may wish that we had kept Hussein in control and managed to broker some sort of deal with him, as the French were attempting to do. We scorn them for not taking our side, but we are starting to realize they were probably more in the right. (this has nothing to do with the "average American," who will always support whatever pride, patriotism, or propaganda dictates; I'm talking about the US Intelligence Community and those who follow the events in more detail)

The downside to modern warfare, of course, is that superpowers do not attack one another, so the wars end up being fought on foreign soil over foreign interests. The end result is the same; every war is a battle to maintain economic dominance. But now the arguments structured for war are more complex and prone to fault; losing Vietnam did not give China and the Soviet Union enough swing in the region to enduce a devastating domino effect; and perhaps if we left Iraq alone, we would not have been crippled by devastatingly-high oil prices. But those who felt otherwise won the debate behind closed doors, and lives were lost. This is how war happens.

Was the Iraq war over terrorism or weapons of mass destruction? Absolutely not; that was pure propaganda deep enough to compete with what Goebels was pumping out in Nazi Germany. Was it to free the Iraqi people from oppression? Listen to me and listen close- we are not invested in the fate of masses of poor foreign people. Every country, including America, has enough problems in its own borders to worry about, and the world is so full of poverty and injustice that we could never possibly stamp out every human rights violation. That is pure fantasy, just like the Tooth Fairy.

Wars are fought for the benefit of the nations involved. We fought that war to help prevent an economic disaster down the road if Hussein was able to leverage high oil prices, which may have caused a Great Depression and opened the potential for the US to lose its status as the richest and most powerful nation. The people who conceived of the war do truly believe that the future of America was in the balance, so I would not consider the Neo-Cons horrible people; the fate of their nation was in the balance, as they saw it. History may simply rule out that they were incorrect in thinking that toppling the Iraqi government was necessary to prevent an economic disaster.

Answer 2

as with any war one raises to wonder why did they die. I think even GW Bush doesn't understand why they died. He knew why he sent his army there nl. To gain control of Iraq's oil supply but as a complete idiot he walked in to a bee hive without looking where he went. I think the comparison to Vietnam is not unfitting. Another useless war in which the almighty American army got it's butt kicked by an "inferior enemy" of which they had to flee in shame when all was over. Still Bush is so stuck in the clouds he's to ignorant to realise that he's losing control over the conflict wasting life after life of his own young men and women. If Vietnam proved one thing than it's that you can't fight an enemy you can not see. Unfortunately even after so many years and so many deaths some people are to ignorant to draw lessons from the past.

Answer 3

How long can you sit at home staring at the TV????


People need jobs and the government doesn't want to pay for unemployment.

A little loss of life is alright as there are others being born to replenish the supply

Answer 4

Because you in the US are unfortunate enough to have a stupid president and we in the UK have a poodle for a prime minister who has gone along with Bush's stupid adventures. You also had a belligerent and arrogant Defence Secretary who should be put on trial for the appalling carnage for which he is responsible. There were NO weapons of mass destruction, which was purportedly the reason for going to war, then, having invaded Iraq, the Iraqi army and police forces were disbanded. The US's foreign policy in relation to the Middle East is utterly banal and its reputation in the world is now in tatters - and unfortunately, so is the UK's.

Answer 5

Lines in the Mind, Not in the World

The earth was formed whole and continuous in the universe, without lines.

The human mind arose in the universe needing lines, boundaries, distinctions. Here and not there. This and not that. Mine and not yours.

That is sea and this is land, the mind thinks, and here is the line between them. See? It's very clear on the map.

But, as the linguists say, the map is not the territory. The line on the map is not to be found at the edge of the sea.

Humans build houses on the land beside the sea, and the sea comes and takes them away.

That is not land, says the sea. It is also not sea. Look at the territory, which God created, not the map, which you created. There is no exact place where land ends and sea begins.

The large places that are not-land, not-sea, are beautiful, functional, fecund. Humans do not treasure them, in fact they barely see them, because those spaces do not fit the lines in the mind. Humans keep busy dredging, filling, building, diking, draining the places between land and sea, trying to make them either one or the other.

* * * * *

Here is the line, the human mind says, between Poland and Russia, between France and Germany, between Jordan and Israel. Here is the Iron Curtain between East and West. Here is the line around the United States, separating Us from Not-Us. It's very clear here, on the map.

The cosmonauts and astronauts in space (cosmonauts are Theirs, astronauts are Ours) look down and see no truth to the lines. They are created only by minds, and they shift in history as minds change.

On the earth's time-scale, human-invented lines shift very quickly. The maps of 50 years ago, of 100 years ago, of 1000 years ago are very different from the maps of today. The planet is 4 billion years old. Human lines are ephemeral, though people kill each other over them.

Even during the fleeting moments of planetary time when the lines between nations are held still, immigrants cross them legally and illegally. Money and goods cross them legally and illegally. Migrating birds cross them, acid rain crosses them, radioactive debris from Chernobyl crosses them. Ideas cross them with the speed of sound and light. Even where Idea Police stand guard, ideas are not stopped by the lines. How could they be? The lines are themselves only ideas.

* * * * *

Between me and not-me there is surely a line, a clear distinction, or so it seems. But, now that I look, where is that line?

This fresh apple, still cold and crisp from the morning dew, is not-me only until I eat it. When I eat, I eat the soil that nourished the apple. When I drink, the waters of the earth become me. With every breath I take in I draw in not-me and make it me. With every breath out I exhale me into not-me.

If the air and the waters and the soils are poisoned, I am poisoned. Only if I believe the fiction of the lines more than the truth of the lineless planet, will I poison the earth, which is myself.

* * * * *

Between you and me, now there is a line. No other line feels more certain than that one. Sometimes it seems not a line but a canyon, a yawning empty space, across which I cannot reach.

Yet you keep reappearing in my awareness. Even when you are far away, something of you surfaces constantly in my wandering thoughts. When you are nearby, I feel your presence, I sense your mood. Even when I try not to. Especially when I try not to.

If you are on the other side of the planet, if I don't know your name, if you speak a language I don't understand, even then, when I see a picture of your face, full of joy, I feel your joy. When your face shows suffering, I feel that too. Even when I try not to. Especially then.

I have to work hard not to pay attention to you. When I succeed, when I have closed my mind to you with walls of indifference, then the presence of those walls, which constrain my own aliveness, are reminders of you.

And when I do pay attention, very close attention, when I open myself fully to your humanity, your complexity, your reality, then I find, always, under every other feeling and judgement and emotion, that I love you.

Even between you and me, even there, the lines are only of our own making.

That too. Even when I try not to. Especially then.

Answer 6

They were soldiers. Their job was to follow orders. They understood the risks when they joined up.

They went into a hostile area and thus ran the risk of dieing.

I do not think it is right but it was definitely to be expected.

Answer 7

For your right to ask this cowardly question. I beleive it started in our country, ever heard of the world trade center? Why don't you get off the computer and join the service so you can help these men and women keep you free.

Answer 8

IT all about the fictional WMD. ( IT NEVER Existed)Yes you are right. That makes a lot of sense to me. More would soon follow if we don't pull out, it might head towards 4 thousand. These suicide bombers have no valve for their lives where as we do. LET US ALL SUPPORT THE DEMOCRAT!!

Answer 9

Was Germany, Japan, France, Korea, Vietnam, etc., their country either?

Answer 10

They died implementing the lie of removal of weapons of mass destruction. More are going to die because US policy dictated by our President wants to fix his mess and legacy. The war will stop when democrats cut funding for the war. You want this war to stop contact your local representatives. God bless America, especially now.

Answer 11

My Heart bleeds for them and their poor relatives.....what a waste.