Can someone explain in laymens term "Why are we in Iraq?"?

Question

Try not to let dislike or discord get in the way from an explaination.

Answer 1

We are in Iraq to implement the Neocons' grandiose scheme to remake the Middle East to make it safe for Israel. (How's it working?) They used our outrage over 9/11 and an implied connection of 9/11 to Iraq to get us to go along with it, plus all the bad intelligence they could cherrypick.

Answer 2

We are in Iraq because there are innocent people who live in a country that is being torn apart by people with different ideas of how this country should be. One side thinks it should be under their control, you know the ones who have no problem strapping bombs to themselves and walking into courtyard cafes. schoolyards, malls etc. and the other side wants to live in a time where people can work, go to school, walk down the street and not fear getting killed just for being there....

That is why we are there, trying to give this country a chance.. talk to a soldier who has seen the things we have done first hand.. the good things that have happened.. The medical clinics we have help build, the schools we have help build, the electricity that is in villages that have never had it before, water in areas that have never had it.. These are what are American Soldiers are doing.....

It is not all about the fighting... this is just what we see and hear from the news.. there is so much more then this.

I hope ths was laymen enough.. My son returns back over there for his 3rd tour and yes... it is hard and scary.. but what they are doing is their job and I will I stand behind them 100 % until they all come home..

Answer 3

Saddam Hussein once plotted to kill George Bush the elder. The son, Baby Bush, currently President, given the golden opportunity of 9/11, beat the drums of war with some fabricated lies about Iraq and weapons of mass destruction. The American people, wanting nothing more than some arabs to kill after the attack, were more than willing to believe his lies. That the Iraqis were not involved was immaterial. They were moslem, and we wanted to kill some moslems, guilty or not. The CIA was basically, however informally, instructed to back up the administrations lies. Hussien, a thoroughly evil human as he may have been, was put in the spot of proving he didn't have weapons of mass destruction. No one can prove such a thing. The US invaded, the large and well equipped Iraqi army was savaged by brilliant US tactics, and Iraq was defeated. Bush's dream was to install a US style democracy in the region (although his basic drive had been revenge)_Unfortunately the Iraqi public isn't really capable of US style democracy. Religious hatred of opposing Islamic sects is far more on their mind than coexistence. And once the Americans were settling in for an occupation, killing the foreign infidels with the abundance of left over Iraqi ordincance seemed a great idea. Everying else has been simple inertia.

Answer 4

Ok, in laymans terms we are in Iraq right now because after the invasion and subsequent three week war, the allies dismantled Iraqs army and police forces.

This means that instead of going there and simply beating them militarily, ousting the regime, and then coming home, we ended up as the only security in the country.

Thats why we cannot just come home, because ordinary Iraqis would fall to the rule of the mob and the criminal.

Make no mistake, our soldiers, generals and politicians want the troops home but cannot do it until the Iraqis are ready to take over.

If your question was actually "why did we go to Iraq in the first place" you will not get a straight and unbiased answer on here as no-one knows but everyone has an opinion based on unclear information.

Hope that helps.

Answer 5

Actually the true answer is not the one we would expect, but I firmly believe it.

No one knows why we are in Iraq. No one can adequately explain it, not now and probably not even historians in the future.

Doubt this?

Well it has happened before.

No historian, for instance, can convincingly explain to you why America fought in World War I.

It's also pretty amazing how many people posting here still believe all the lies they were told, even after massive evidence as been presented that they were either lies or gross miscalculations.

There WERE NO WMDs

Al Queda was NOT in Iraq

Iraq had nothing to do with 9-11

These are TRUTHS and Americans should have the guts to at least understand that much about Iraq.

An ignorant democracy will fail.

Answer 6

Roger, The United States only had one Friendly country in the middle east, its Israel. In a Sea of Arabic countries that for all intents and purposes hate our guts, and as part of the more strategic outlook on the global war on terror, Iraq was the most hostile nation towards us, we'd been at war with them before and that wasn't going to change. Also Saddam was bank rolling self bombers that where blowing up Israel', and we also wanted to make sure Ossama had nowhere to go, at least in Iraq to set up shop. We are attempting (Jury is still out) To help make a nation that would be a friend or at least not hostile to us in a sea of angry folks.

Answer 7

Because at a point in time it was a known FACT that they had Weapons Of Mass Destruction. They were ordered numerous times to destroy them AND SHOW PROOF THAT THEY WERE DESTROYED. When they failed to show proof The United Nations imposed sanctions upon them. As these sanctions are useless they were ignored.

Since most of the nations in the UN are pacifists. That left only the strong and the right minded nations to enforce the SANCTIONS IMPOSED BY THE UNITED NATIONS.

The United States has the largest force there by far in part because it has one of the largest military forces in the world.

The military force is still there today because with out a proper defense force No Government can stand for long.

Answer 8

I can point you to the War on Terror Blog: http://blog.360.yahoo.com/blog-DfkctJU7dK5B7LcNROoyVQ--;_ylt=AvKCmn92W_FCk0ugZGetFge0AOJ3?cq=1
Read the Highlighted blogs to the right or click on the tags to the left that most closely represent your questions.

The Middle East is a complicated place with thought processes very different than our own and I cannot fit the entire answer here in this space.

Answer 9

The simple fact is that Saddam Hussein was an evil dictator, enough said. Other reasons put forth include

1. WMD -We actually sold him such wapons in the 80s as part of Iran-Crota affair
2. UN violations -(count them sometime)
3. Ties to extremist organizations -Paid a bounty to families of sucide bombers
4. Past use of military to invade American allies
5. The fact that we have had to deploy military forces there on and off since he 80s
6. Iran hosstage Crisis in the 70s

Answer 10

We are there to secure supplies of oil... who ever controls the oil will be rich. Our country and others like Japan depend on foreign sources of energy. Without a steady supply our economy goes into turmoil. Just look at what happened in the 70's when the Saudis "stopped" oil shipments (they still sent a little bit unofficially). Also all that oil brings a lot of wealth to whoever controls Iraq... if it's the islamist then they will have access to better more destructive weapons. Even a dictator like Saddam would be preferable to islamist. A dictator can be coerced into cooperation, islamists just want to kill us.

Answer 11

If you need to know why we are there, now, in 2007, then there's a lot you need to be explained and I don't have the space for it here.