A Necessary Evil

War is evil. But sometimes it is a necessary evil. It’s a fact that a war happens every 10 years or so. War is inevitable and should always be a last resort. But when a war is fought to counteract atrocity and injustice, then war is the lesser evil, and it is just.

People need to wake up and realize that there really are people out there who hate our way of life and want to destroy us. I don’t think people take the war that seriously because they’re not the ones who have to be on the front lines. While you sit there and debate whether invading Iraq was right or wrong, American soldiers are getting shot and blown up. And you know just as well as I do that if the United States pulls out of Iraq, Iraq will be engaged in a full-scale civil war. During the Vietnam War, President LBJ said, “American boys shouldn’t be fighting a war that Asian boys should be fighting.” But the United States still sent combat troops to Vietnam. The US does not have an OBLIGATION to fight other people’s wars. But remember this: "It only takes one good man to do nothing for evil to triumph."

The United States invaded Iraq to liberate the Iraqis AND to protect our national interests. Saddam Hussein was a tyrant. Anybody who says otherwise is an idiot. Honestly, what normal human being would want to live under a brutal regime? To say that the Iraqi people did NOT want freedom from Saddam is pure bullshit. Maybe they don’t want DEMOCRACY, but they sure as hell wanted to get rid of Saddam.

Some people say that the United States invaded Iraq because Iraq was harboring Weapons of Mass Destruction, which are basically nuclear, biological, or chemical weapons. So far, biological and chemical weapons have been found, but no nuclear weapons. Yes, the United States had faulty intelligence, which led President Bush to believe that Iraq had W.M.Ds, specifically nukes, but get this: Saddam used chemical weapons to massacre thousands of Kurdish people in northern Iraq. If this doesn’t count as a WMD, then what does? Just because Saddam doesn’t have a nuke doesn’t mean he can’t kill just as many people.

Some people say that the United States invaded Iraq using the “War on Terrorism” as a cover-up for ousting Saddam and protecting our oil interests in the region. Truth is, while Iraq may have provided weapons, training, logistics, and monetary help to the terrorists, the Iraqi government itself did not have a SOLID or INTIMATE relationship with Al-Qaeda or Osama bin Laden. In fact, bin Laden HATED Saddam because Saddam was so secular. The only reason Iraq turned a “blind eye” to terrorists in Iraq was because the Arabs share a common hatred of the West and Israel. Remember how Saddam tried to look all “religious” right before the invasion? If Saddam was a true Muslim, then all the Muslims in the neighboring regions would have came to Iraq’s defense the moment American bombs started falling on Baghdad.

Contrary to what people think, war is not good for the economy. The only exception was WWII, and that was because the United States needed to manufacture military hardware, train, and mobilize American soldiers so that they could fight in Europe. Prior to WWII, the United States Army was SMALL. The Army also did not have enough equipment. To train, mobilize, and manufacture arms for our allies and for ourselves meant that more jobs needed to be created. This was the reason why there was an economic growth during that time period. Since WWII, the United States has significantly increased its military manpower, and it now has one of the largest armies in the world, surpassed only by a handful of countries (China, India, North Korea, South Korea, and Pakistan). Not only has the United States increased its manpower, but also it has the best military hardware in the world. To achieve this, the United States had to spend trillions of dollars on research and development. Now the United States has a VERY BIG arsenal. The United States does not need to create any new jobs to manufacture arms. The only new jobs created would be for special purposes, like high-tech spy planes and electronic control systems. Nothing for mass-production purposes though. The United States has gone into more debt since the start of war in Iraq.

Oil is important. Nobody can deny that. Right now, gas prices are fluctuating because of the war in Iraq. That’s another reason why we can’t just pull out of there. The new Iraqi government is not stable, and with all the chaos going on right now, oil production in Iraq is being bogged down, which is why we see a skyrocketing of gas prices from time to time. If the coalition forces leave and the terrorists take over, they can easily put a chokehold on the United States and the rest of the free world in terms of oil supplies, since most of the oil in the world is produced in that region.

The United States invaded Iraq because it acted in self-interest. Yes, removing Saddam from power was good, not only for us, but for the whole world. But to free the oppressed Iraqi people was not the MAIN reason the United States invaded Iraq. The United States invaded Iraq because evil was gaining a strong foothold in that country and the neighboring region was infested with terrorists. There needs to be a “balance” in this world between good and evil. The only real democratic country in the Middle East is Israel. Turkey and Lebanon claim to be democratic, but their government infrastructure still relies on Islam. Democracy needs a foothold in the Middle East, and with terrorism infecting Arab countries like a plague, the United States needed to act quickly and decisively. Saddam became a prime target for the United States because it was the most openly notorious country in the region.

When the United States invaded Afghanistan, the American public supported President Bush. Why? Because bin Laden is from Afghanistan and bin Laden is the mastermind behind Sept.11. We’ve been in Afghanistan longer than Iraq, and there aren’t many complaints, even from Democrats, to pull out of Afghanistan. Well, we’re waist-deep in Iraq, and it would be pointless to pull out of there now. We need to support this war even if we don’t believe in it, because it’s the only way we’ll get out of Iraq sooner. The United States has already been painted as the “Great Satan,” and has been accused of imperialism, so do we really need to tarnish our reputation even more by pulling out of Iraq? That would give the world a clear message that the United States is incompetent, irresponsible, and cowardly. Iraq is our mess, and we need to clean it up.

The Republicans don’t have a timetable for Iraq. But the Democrats don’t even have a plan. American soldiers are dying every day. To protest the war would mean that our brave soldiers have died in vain. Do we want Iraq to end up like Vietnam? Right now, “Staying the Course” is the best plan, unless the new Iraqi government gets its act together and starts fighting for their freedom… freedom that is being paid for with American blood. It doesn’t help that the Iraqi people hate each other as well. The Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, and terrorists all want control of their new country, and are eager to fill the power vacuum left in the wake of Saddam’s dethronement. These people don’t know how to compromise. The Sunnis and Shiites hate each other because of their religious backgrounds, and the Kurds want a freaking Kurdistan in Iraq. To top it off, terrorists fighting proxy wars for other Arab countries want to set up an Islamic state in Iraq. Whoever comes up with a plan that can root out the terrorists and appease the Iraqis at the same time should get the Nobel Peace Prize.

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