Do you truly understand what the iraq war is really about?

Question

Why do you think I am fishing for Gods sakes? I am Canadian and our soldiers are fighting and dying as well. I just dont know what to believe when I hear things. I hear its about oil then I wonder. Just asking. Put all your suspicious provoking minds to rest, it was a sincere question..

To the gentlemen who asked me what side I am on? Sorry but that is very confrontational. I am in Canada and just watching and wishing it would just all end before more lives are lost and taken.

Answer 1

It's not about oil. Over 80% of Iraq's oil output is under contract to a French firm, Compagnie Petrol De Francais. The reasons for our military offensive against Iraq are clearly listed in Public Law #107-243, which was the Congressional authorization to carry out those operations. The link to that law is below.
Many of those reasons can also be found in an earlier law, Public Law #105-338, the Iraq Liberatio Act. It was passed in October of 1998, long before the 2001 attack on America.
Canada's military involvement in Afghanistan is a result of NATO invoking Article 6 of the NATO Treaty after the attack of September 11, 2001. That article says that an attack on any one NATO member is an attack on all. Canada is, of course, a member state in NATO.
I believe some of the confusion (on both sides of the border) regarding military operations in Iraq is the result of poor reporting by the media. Great emphasis is placed on the number of U.S. personnel killed. Yet, 18% of those casualties are non-combat deaths. Add to that the fact that 9,555 U.S. active duty deaths happened between 1980 and 1984 (when no one was shooting at us), compared to 3,739 deaths in four years in Iraq, and a hint of favoritism towards one political stance over another appears to be the case.
As a retired U.S. Naval officer I am happy that Canada is in the fight in Afghanistan. That nation's record of having sent military personnel to every Chapter Six (Peace Keeping) and Chapter Seven (Peace Enforcment) operation in the history of the United Nations is remarkable for a force of less than 100,000. A color photo of the Peacekeepers' Monument at the base of Parliament Hill in Ottawa adorns the wall of my patio.

Answer 2

As an American citizen and future U.S. Marine (11 months), I would strongly urge you to pay attention to the opinions of those who are in the military and pay close attention to the words of those who have, or are, fighting the War on Terror (Iraq & Afghanistan). Because the opinion of those who have been to a war zone matters to me more than any poll on EARTH!!! I have very little use for American mainstream media, the story they tell the World isn't the story of the people who have served. That's my perspective, maybe this will help answer your question.

Answer 3

Desert Viking and M1A1mikegolf are right on the ball; considering their military experience, I would put a lot more weight on answers like theirs than mispelled answers bleating about "oil" from people who've never even set foot outside their home state.

The vast majority of veterans of the Iraq war will tell you it's a worthy cause, and want to see success of our mission there. Understandable, wouldn't you say? Considering all the time, energy, and sacrifice all of us have put in to seeing it work... and, understandably, most of us are royally pissed off at snide assclowns back home calling us babykillers and mindless proles who couldn't get a "real job". Wouldn't you be just a bit miffed at that??

The Iraq war is NOT about oil, NOT about 9-11, and is NOT about WMD's--not anymore, and hasn't been for several years now. Claims that we never found WMD's are incorrect; we found and still find chemical weapons all the time. Saddam used them many times in the past against his own people, and terrorists in the country use them now--so the "we never found WMD's" argument is bunk. The "oil" claim is a mindless rant people use when they think they want to weigh in on the subject of the war but don't know jackshit about it, and only shows their ignorance of the reality of what's going on the the world (I refer to DesertViking's excellent answer on that matter). No one ever said Iraq was about 9-11, so I find that argument childish and ignorant. Afghanistan--where Canadians and Americans alike are fighting--was and is about 9-11. Iraq was about Saddam and the spectre of his influence in the region and on his neighbors. It was about his non-compliance with UN resolution after UN resolution--which he ignored, knowing full well the UN is a joke and has no real muscle--about his state sponsorship of terrorism, sending his own money to Hezbollah in Lebanon and Palestinian suicide bombers in Palestine. It was about the terrorism he imposed on his OWN PEOPLE. I've met victims of his personally, and I can tell you that although most Iraqis do indeed want the occupation to end, they also are overwhelmingly grateful to us ridding him for them, and know full well what will happen to them if we leave prematurely. Why do you think they repeatedly keep telling us NOT to leave?? Or do their opinions matter??

As always... it all depends on whether you bother to listen to the news, politicians, or actual soldiers who have been to these places. I can tell you that most Americans foolishly choose to ignore--even spite--those with the only legitimate experience and opinion on the matter. This doesn't bide well for the future state of American society.

Answer 4

Iraq did not do 9-11. No WMD. No threat to the USA or your country. The Iraq war is about a bad mistake. In fact 70% of Americans are against the Iraq war.

Answer 5

yes, I do understand what is all about, and so is my 35 year old son getting ready to go on his second tour in this war (third in all). Where would you rather have my son and the children of others fight the radicals, in Iraq or your front lawn?

Answer 6

Strategic. Look at a map of the region.

Answer 7

I wish. I have lots of ideas, notions and suspicions: control of Iraq's oil fields and money for Exxon Mobil, something for the dominionists and other end times evangelists to point to as proof of the coming Apocalypse, money for the military-industrial complex and contractors like Halliburton, revenge against the U.S. puppet, Saddam Husein for trying to pull his own strings, a rationale for the ever-growing defense budget, rationale for/distraction from the loss of U.S. citizen's civil liberties and Constitutional and human rights, rationale for a totalitarian theocracy...etc. I doubt we'll ever know who the true architects of the Iraq war were, let alone what their motives were.

Answer 8

Oil

Answer 9

Yes I do.

I was there during the run-up for and the process of the first elections.

It is about freedom for 23 million people.

We have a choice about who rules Iraq - the representatives elected in UN-certified elections - or the terrorists.

Which side are _you_ on?

Answer 10

I Do.

It has ALWAYS Been about Oil.

9/11 was just the perfect excuse for the US Government to start invading Iraq.