We Look Back As Our Troops Come Home

As Amelia has written, it is great news that our troops are coming home.  It’s not only great news for our troops and their families but for our economy. As she has stated, the government has spent trillions of dollars on this war but she wonders why. She also states that the Middle-East is “all about power” and questions the reasons behind our foreign affairs. Looking into how the Iraq war began and the objectives behind it, we can begin to understand Amelia’s questions.

First, in order to understand why we spent so much on the war, we must address the origins of the Iraq war in relation to foreign policy.  We can agree that the 9/11 attacks spurred governmental action to find the “bad guys,” but what started off as capturing the enemy in Afghanistan, spun action into another country based on a “hunch” that weapons of mass destruction were a threat and Al-Qaeda had ties with Saddam Hussein in Iraq.  It turned out that the Bush Administration failed to provide evidence and the war regimen changed.  No more incentive for WMD but establishing a democracy in Iraq became the new plan. As the United States treaded the thin line occupying Iraq, we ended up putting ourselves against a graver danger erupting a civil war between the Sunnis and Shiites and an insurgency against U.S. military. Only breaking out violence, the once objective to establish a democracy collapsed so the U.S. motive was to restore peace and security in a country complex with religious conflict. In Amelia’s statement claiming the Middle-East is “all about power” seems a bit rash. In dealing with this war and it’s specific region of Iraq, the government’s position to create democracy would seem to give Iraq “more power” but since this objective failed, the Middle-East, as a whole, will not sustain economically with its continued civil war with religion.

Now that we understand why we went to war, let’s talk numbers. The beginning proposal for our defense budget was advised to be around $100-200 billion. The Defense Secretary at the time believed it to be only $50 billion but as our debt shows, we have spent over trillions of dollars funding a war with not much to show. Did you know that for every brave soldier killed in Iraq, the family received a check of $500,000? What frustrates me is that the cost of this war will never compensate for the lives taken because of this war. My brother is a U.S. Marine and he came back safely from his tour in Afghanistan but some of his fellow soldiers did not. Even arriving back alive from this war, the mental effects of this war on our soldiers is not healthy.

Eliminating this full-fledged war presence in countries, considering different approaches to stopping terrorism, and restoring peace is necessary for not only the U.S. economy but the welfare and safety of other countries. By President Obama announcing our troops coming home, Obama’s administration platform on foreign policy seems tactful rather than tacky.