DOES anyone know!!!!????

Question

WHY ARE WE STILL AT WAR AND WHAT EXACTLY ARE WE STILL FIGHTING FOR (and by we, I mean American Soldiers). I just don't see the point anymore. I'm not being sarcastic, I just need some enlightening. Serious answers only please. I really am looking for valid POV's. Thanks!

If it's such a stupid ? mox, how come you took the time to put in your stupid 2 cents! Only people who have no clue what their talking about answer with no clue on what their talking about!

Answer 1

Does anyone know why people ask the same stupid rhetorical questions on Yahoo! Answers???

Answer 2

Well, basically there are two schools of thought:

1. We are fighting the terrorists in Iraq, so we won't have to fight them here.

2. Get out of Iraq, and short up the American borders.

I, personally, have never agreed with this war. I think it was stupid, stupid, stupid of Bush to do that. There was no hurry, and as it turns out, the reason he gave for invading was wrong as well (and some would say his reason was a lie).

What you need to understand is that by fighting in Iraq, we ARE NOT, in any way, shape, or form, preventing future terrorist activities. If anything, we are fueling them. Here's why:

Our activities in Iraq serve as a lightning rod for extremists in their recruitment efforts of new terrorists. And why not? It's an easy sell. Hey fellow extremists, look at the West. They are killing our brothers. Come join us. We will train you to fight them.

Secondly, our activities in Iraq PROMOTE terrorism by adding a perfect TRAINING GROUND for the terrorists. Bush keeps talking about the "Iraq al queda". What a load of bull. Our troops are not fighting the real enemy in Iraq.

These guys are testing their theories, gaining experience, killing Americans, and then after they are ready, America WILL suffer another terrorist attack. These people are patient.

There is no head of state to conquer. Every leader you get, 5 more spring into existence.

There are speculations as to the true reasons we are still in Iraq. I mean, even Bush is smart enough to know he isn't really fighting a terror war there anymore. Or maybe Gates was able to persuade him.

1. Oil. Protecting our middle east oil supplies.

2. Maybe it's just pure fear of what will happen if we do leave. True, the Iraq's will engage in a bloody civil war. So what? How is that much worse than what is going on now? Let them fight it out, and settle it. That's what we did some 200 years ago, right?

EDIT:

aao, you are an idiot if you think our presence in Iraq is aiding in the search for Bin Laden.

Answer 3

THe country is not stabilized basically. As a result, it would be easy for Al Qaeda or Iran to go into Iraq and take over. Although Hussien was a really bad guy, he was a balance for Iran (in that he did not permit them to get overly powerful) and he hated Al Qaeda. Now that he is no longer there the sects of Iraq are battling each other for power and Al Qaeda and Iran also have their influences in Iraq. It is a huge mess and I just read the generals are now saying that we will need a large continguent of soldiers in Iraq at least until mid-2009.

Answer 4

When you stop to think about it, the conflict in which we are currently engaged in Iraq is really not a war anymore. Rather, it is a rebuilding effort, similar to what we did in Japan and Germany after World War II. It is a peace effort at this point. We are not conquerors or warriors, anymore. We are essentially police. We are there because the Iraqis are not yet able to offer their own law enforcement in a manner adequate to the situation.

You see, there are a lot of people over there who do not want peace, and many more who only want peace through domination by Shiite or Sunni sects of Islam. We are there to prevent those who oppose the fledgling democracy from succeeding in their bid to topple it, and reestablish their strict religious fascism as the political force in Iraq. We are police.

That begs the question that if we are not really engaged in war efforts, any longer, how can we "lose the war"? Haven't we already won the war? Also, I wanted to share some data that I came across on DOD casualties since 1980... (data is available for review at http://siadapp.dmdc.osd.mil/personnel/CASUALTY/Death_Rates.pdf)

1980 2,392

1981 2,380

1982 2,319

1983 2,465

1984 1,999

1985 2,252

1986 1,984

1987 1,983

1988 1,819

1989 - 1,636

1990 - 1,507

1991 - 1,787

1992 - 1,293

1993 - 1,213

1994 - 1,075

1995 - 1,040

1996 - 974

1997 - 817

1998 - 827

1999 - 796

2000 - 758

2001 - 891

2002 - 999

2003 - 1,228 (Iraq/Afghanistan - 344)

2004 - 1,874 (Iraq/Afghanistan - 739)

2005 - 1,942 (Iraq/Afghanistan - 739)

2006 - 1,858 (Iraq/Afghanistan - 753)

A review of the information shows that accidents and illness have gone up during the war, which are also counted in the numbers that are reported in the media, but not in the combat related deaths above (in the callouts for Iraq and Afghanistan).

Even while we were in the middle of the war in Iraq, we were not losing as many military personnel as we did during most of the 80s, when we were never engaged in a major military conflict, aside from the terrorist bombing in Beirut in 1983.

I believe that the mission of the war portion of Operation Iraqi Freedom was accomplished (remember the photo shoot with President Bush and the flight suit on the Aircraft Carrier?), and we are accomplishing the peace establishment process.

I heard a really good segment on NPR (Which I, along with many others, had typecast as a liberal media establishment) of a couple of U.S. commanders who were working in one particular community where one sect of Islam lived in the North and the other in the South. They talked about how early on (2004-05), there were a lot of firefights and skirmishes with the U.S., and with each other, but that over the past 6-8 months, is has calmed down significantly, and there are mostly just disruptions in the streets between the two groups of Muslims.

The soldiers are much more involved in teaching the kids, working on training some of the adults for jobs and police positions, and just getting to know and build the trust of the locals, which you don't typically hear in the mainstream media. So, here's a shout out to great reporting by NPR.

Sure, it's one example, but, for the most part, it has become the trend. Most parts of Iraq are becoming much more stable, though the hotspots (portions of Baghdad, Mosul, Kirkuk, etc.) are seeing an entrenchment of insurgents, and the military casualties in those areas are increasing to offset the reduction in most of the country. That's why the infusion of the additional 20-30,000 troops will make a difference, because if you can wipe out these areas where the insurgents are digging in, then we can make a huge difference in the ability of the Iraqi police to maintain order, leading to a significant reduction in the number of U.S. military personnel on the ground in Iraq.

We're on the verge of complete success in Iraq. We must not let the Democrats void all of the work that we've accomplished by saying that this war is unwinnable, and pulling the funding for our efforts.

Answer 5

We are at war because we are trying to stabilize Iraq's government. We are also searching for Osama Bin Laden (you know, the man who killed approximately 3,000 innocent US citizens in a single morning on September 11, 2001). It is in the US's best interest to fight out the war since success would greatly improve the safety of our country/create an ally in the Middle East, where it seems we need one :).

Answer 6

We're still at war because Iraq, especially Baghdad is not secured. What we are fighting for is somewhat open to speculation, one thing is Iraq's sovereignty so it can govern and defend itself. Another is to counter Al Qaeda, our government refuses to allow them victory.

Answer 7

The real reason we went there was masked by excuses, like WMD's, which cia reports up to 2002 show there was none. Al-Qaida and saddm relationship, saddam was a bathist, and he would never allow terorist organizations to operate in his country.

We are fighting for the oil. U.S. soldiers are fighting to get control of oil, and for what bush personally wants dne to saddam, for trying to kill his dad.

Osama is free, that is not making us safer. Every day we are in iraq, it is strengthening terorists, because for the most part, we are leaving them alone. And it is actually spreading terrorism. Al-Qaida presence in iraq started shortly after the U.S. invasion. And, it is strengthening real teror supporting countries like iran everyday. The war is not making us safer

Answer 8

Those of us at home here only have our opinions, we aren't war experts nor can we see the future. The fact is we are at war and when it is decided by those with a lot more insight into whats going on than us we will pull out we will.

Answer 9

People can say what they want but when asked the President said "we were fighting them there so we don't have to fight them here." What ever that means, that is the official version.

Answer 10

No problem! I've checked out your other answers. Don't listen to the people whining. They expect you to be psychic, though some of them would like it if you did a search to see if this question was already answered, of course.

It's clear from your other posts that you are not a political bigot and really interested in knowing. Good to meet you.

We won the Iraq war. It's over. Saddam was executed, and a new government is in place.

We are now fighting a battle against outside insurgents. It happens to be in Iraq because they are attacking our newest ally.

We cannot win the war against terrorism. We never will. There will always be terrorists. They will always regroup. We will have infinite numbers of chances to make mistakes, do something wrong, do something unethical, etc. in our battles with them. They and their allies will use that to help them in their fight to destroy us.

Parallel argument:

We cannot win the battle against disease. We never will. There will always be disease. They will always regroup. We will have infinite numbers of chances to make mistakes, do something wrong, do something unhealthy, etc. in our battles with it. Disease and similar things like cancer will use that to help in their fight to destroy us.

The alternative, in both cases?

Give in. Give up.

Die.

Some people confuse the nature of this war. It's pretty simple.

Give in. Give up. Die.

Or

Keep fighting, just like any other day.

Answer 11

I don't know for sure but one theory suggests that the "War on Terrorism" is taking place on a foreign battlefield by drawing terrorist funding and personnel to Iraq and Afghanistan. Or it could just be that we want a puppet government firmly emplace in Iraq. Who can really say for sure?
I'd boil it down to the simple corporate greed myself.