Can we compare the war in Iraq to WWII?

Question

Yesterday Bush compared the current war with WWII and the fight against the Nazis and Japan, and that not fighting it would be immoral. Is this fair? I personally think Bush would fancy himself in the future as the lone voice of morality, and saying "I told you so" if the war in Iraq does reach WWII proportions. Do you think this will happen, or is Bush trying to make us all feel guilty and support the war and, essentially, himself? It's hard for me to see how he does compare the war to WWII, maybe you can argue for it, too.

Answer 1

Politics aside, the war in Iraq has turned into a fight against terrorists. It didn't start out that way, but there you go. It's reality now. Mujahadin are streaming into Iraq for the chance to fight Americans. The fight is on as far as they are concerned.

If we were to compare the present situation to any past conflict it would have to be Somalia. Where we also had mujahadin fighters streaming in to fight Americans in an unrelated capacity. Corpse mutilations/burnings, ambushes, using civilians for shields, random bombings against civilians, etc... were all things we experienced then. Not surprising since we are fighting the same mujahadin fighters again in Iraq right now.

In Somalia, a small number of mujahadin fighters forced the US into defeat and to withdraw simply by using brutal tactics to sway US public opinion. They are trying it again - and not surprisingly, it's working again on a large part of the public.

Terrorism and the spread of Islamic fundamentalism is proving to be stronger than the USAs will to fight. I just hope that whoever is in charge of the withdrawal does their job as well as can be done if we aren't going to fight to win.

I do not see much of a comparison with WWII. However, I believe our need to do the right thing (for ourselves and the Iraqi people) is just as strong as it was in that war. The US has a right to fight against those mujahadin fighters in Iraq in the name of self-defense.

If we don't fight them there, we will be fighting them here. And that is not just baseless scaremongering - it will just be a result of allowing terrorists to once again push the US into withdrawing when the fight is on.

Answer 2

compare all you want

But you should compare and contrast if you are being fair to yourself

I think Bush's point was that people were saying that the Japanese will never change and will never embrace democracy. Those people were wrong, but It is a stretch to compare post war Japan to Iraq. After all, Japan was a homogenious population that had surrendered unconditionally. It had been nuked and was occupied by millions of soldiers. As they say, when you got them by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.

Iraq, we all now know, is not homogenious, but a state of factious cults. They also never really surrendered. So Iraq is far from being post war Japan.

Another interesting contrast with WWII is the draft. There is none today. You can fight for the cause if you want to. Or not. In either case you can feel guilty about some aspect of the war. Or not.

Note to all those people that are saying that Saddam posed no threat to anyone and did not have or use WMDs. He did use poison gas against the Kurds and killed them by the thousands. He did have death camps. He did invade his neighbors, Kuwait and Iran. He was no Hitler, but maybe a Stalin wantabe.

Answer 3

No way can it compare to WWII, Bush laughs at himself because he knows how dumb he is. This is a ploy to try and get people to support him again. America got involved because the Germans attack the U.S and Britain. We fought to keep Democracy, everything out county was built on, in Iraq we are fighting to force democracy on them. America stayed out of WWII until Germany killed our seamen. Two totally different things, and no WWII and Iraq can never be compare d nor will it ever reach the "proportions" fighting for our beliefs in democracy is not the same as saying Iraq has weapons of mass destruction (the never found) we need to go there, then take over try and force democracy while we are trying to gain oil from them.

Answer 4

I don't see the comparison between WWII and Iraq. The Axis powers presented a greater threat to us than Iraq.
Although I believe taking Hussein out of power was the right thing to do, that is where our involvement should have ended. Even if it meant that another "Saddam" takes over. We need to quit trying to be nation builders. That is always a no win situation, for us and for the country we are trying to set up.

Answer 5

In WWII we liberated Europe. In the war on terror we have liberated Iraq and Afghanistan. We are doing what is morally right. Other than that, I don't see the comparisons. We are not fighting against any country now. We are not even fighting a uniformed army. They don't even fall under the guidelines to receive protection under the Geneva and Hague Conventions. But we give it to them anyway if they are captured.

Answer 6

Michelle, I don't believe George Bush gives a damn how you feel ! He has much larger fish to fry than to listen to some whiner who thinks she has all the answers. One thing about your generation that looms large over the landscape of this country, is all the punks who think they know more than the president of the United States because those liberal losers in Congress try to make political gains by bad mouthing the president.

These are the same losers who voted almost unanimously to back the presidents war in Iraq. You seem to be one of those, politically light in the sneakers know it alls, who blast away without knowing a damn thing about what you speak.

Sure Geore Bush would like to have support for the war, and he certainly has my support. We are fighting an Islamic jihad. I don't recall hearing that these fanatics have surrendered, so why the hell would we stop until; we've killed every last one of them? If we stop killing this scum, they will be right back at trying to kill us. They aren't going to walk away and forget about it, if we withdraw our troops. They will continue to plan harm on this country and every other non muslim country on earth. They must be stopped !

Answer 7

No. No it cannot. But to be fair it cannot be compared to vietnam like many people try to either. Each war needs to stand or fall on its own merrits. I believe that the war in Iraq was right, but trying to compare it to WWII is not going to work. Hitler was a direct threat to all of our allies, and possibly us. Sadaam, even if he had weapons hadn't used them on anybody yet.

Answer 8

World War II is the one war everyone can agree was a noble fight, so it is used frequently to justify combat. Vietnam is the one war most can agree was a failure, so it is used frequently to criticize combat. Analogies are a useful framework, but focusing on the similarities while ignoring the differences is intellectually lazy.

Answer 9

It's nothing like WW2. This is typical of Bush to tell the biggest lie he can think of.
The USA is desparate for other countries to come in and help them out of the mess.
Even talking to Syria and Iran.
All Bush's gang have deserted him , that rat Rove just jumped ship and he is feeling increasingly isolated

Answer 10

He didn't compare Iraq to WWII, he compared it to Vietnam and yes there is a lot of similarities. Like how media coverage is screwing up support with their lies and imbellishments.