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Despite insurgencies, Iraqi war still justified
With the fall of Baghdad, the official end of the war in Iraq and the capture of Saddam Hussein came the rebuilding of Iraq’s infrastructure and the long-awaited foreign aid that was prevented by U.N. sanctions that withheld aid to Iraq while Saddam was in power. Though Saddam has been captured and the Iraqi armies pacified, the frequency and fierceness of terrorist attacks and insurgent fighting has increased these past few weeks. If one were to watch the television lately, one might get the panicked impression that the American lines are being turned back, or that the whole Iraqi population is taking up arms against our forces. The insurgent enemy we are fighting consists of religious militiamen, last-ditch Saddam loyalists and al-Qaeda terrorists. These are not your average Iraqi citizens, if they were, we’d have seen the same degree of fighting when we went into Baghdad as we now see in Fallujah. At a glance it would seem the sentiments of the Iraqi people have turned in the opposite direction as it was when they were liberated. A closer look might give the impression that maybe the Iraqi people didn’t care if they were liberated or not. Many took the opportunity of the collapse of the previous government to loot—Basra, Baghdad, museums, palaces and banks were plundered by ordinary citizens lacking the required self-restraint. American supply convoys have been attacked and looted by civilians. And these are the people we’ve fought to liberate? To defend our military action and the price our nation has paid for the sake of freeing the seemingly ungrateful Iraqis, we need to look at the positives that have come out of the war: • The world became safer from at least one evil dictator who made failed attempts to build up a stockpile of weapons of mass destruction. • American resolve took a big step forward after eight years of Clinton’s steps backward. • Iraqi citizens have been given an opportunity to revamp their government and create one that doesn’t encourage U.N. sanctions. • America has allocated $21 billion to the rebuilding of Iraq, this includes the humanitarian aid to the people. • The Iraqi people will be the benefactors of the sale of the oil reserves in their nation—rather than that money going to pad Saddam’s palace while the country bordered on poverty. • A free nation in that part of the world will bring stability, safety to neighboring countries and one less contributor to terrorism. • America has had the chance to use its own blessing of freedomto give that same opportunity to others. The war will come to an end. The insurgents will be defeated. A free Iraqi nation will be established and the people will be lead toward freedom. It will take a long time—our national leaders never pretended it wouldn’t. Regrouping and reforming our strategy now is not the answer, it will only give the enemy a chance to dig in deeper while we hash out what to do next. America should not let those who would hate to see a peaceful end come to this war panic them into seeking a quick end to the war. Just because the road to a better Iraq and safer world is not easy and comes with a high price, does not mean it is not the nobler road to take. — This columnist may be reached at collegian@csufresno.edu |
