Reason For War With Iraq

Many Americans are searching for a reason for war with Iraq. Why are we in Iraq?

This is a question I hope to answer in this writing. My answer will not be political but is based on common sense.

We hear comments daily like, “We are in Iraq so that the insurgents do not come here.” Or, “Iraq is Bush’s Vietnam. And, “There are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.” Finally, “The US is in Iraq for the oil.”

The first statement I believe is true. By being in Iraq and Afghanistan, the American military continues to disrupt the insurgent’s ability to mount any sort of offensive against the United States. Or at least our presence makes it harder. The enemy is forced to hide. He cannot arrange a meeting to meet with all the principles needed to bring about an attack on the United States. He cannot communicate. Someone is always listening hoping to get a lock on where bin Laden is.

I have heard some say that the insurgents could not attack us on our own soil. We are too prepared for this now. I would challenge this. What is to keep our enemies, like Iran from shipping a dirty bomb to Venezuela, now that Iran and President Chavez are good buddies?

Once a dirty bomb is there, how hard would it be to bring it up to the border of the United States and cross with it? Take a truck or car and park it by one of our foot ball stadiums on a Sunday. Boom! 100,000 dead in seconds. Another 200,000 in injuries. They can make 9-11 look like child’s play. A good reason for war with Iraq.

Iraq is Bush’s Vietnam. I would have to say this is false. The Vietnamese people had no way and no desire to bring the war to American soil. At least I have not been able to find anything that states this. And they did not have any means to bring this war to America.

“The United States is in Iraq for oil.” There is probably some truth to this. But it is not the primary reason for war with Iraq. And let’s be honest here. What if President Bush were to make the statement, “I can pull all the troops out of Iraq in two months.” Everyone would be elated.

Except those Americans and American companies who are making money off of this war. And no matter which side says they want the war to end, neither the Republicans nor the Democrats really want this war to end. Why? Their constituents are making a living off of this war. I bet there are about 300,000 to 400,000 Americans working in Iraq. If these people were back in the states looking for a job, what would this do to the economy?

Producing war materials here in the United States also keeps a lot of people working. Very few people really want this war to end just yet.

There are weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. This is the reason for war with Iraq that was used to take our nation into combat against Iraq.

President Bush felt he needed to do something preemptive and not just sit around and wait until terrorists attacked and the United States lost another 4,000 people.

Was the intelligence flawed that gave the United States a reason for war with Iraq? Maybe and maybe not.

This is where I want to give some details and help give a better understanding of what the military is really up against.

The ISG, Iraq Survey Group (not to be confused with the ISG, Iraq Study Group) is the group that was led by David Kay to search for the WMD. They were looking for stockpiles of the weapons.

These they did not find, but evidence was found that they could have built them and some chemical agents were found on a small scale. There was also evidence that some weapon components had been sent to Syria.

Were there WMD in Iraq sometime after the Gulf War? The evidence says yes there was, especially since Saddam used them against his own people to put down a rebellion.

So since he had them, where did they go?

Well, let’s go back to September 2002. This is a time when the United States Government believed that it needed to invade Iraq because Saddam had WMD.

Now do we think Saddam is stupid? People in the United States err when they believe that Middle Eastern people are not as intelligent as we are. Saddam was not stupid.

“The United States is gearing up for a war against me. It is obvious they think I have the WMD, which I do. So what do I do? I know, I will ship them off to other countries who are enemies of the United States as well. Let’s see there is Syria, Iran....

So Saddam moves the weapons. But he is not stupid. So he keeps some for himself and buries them deep into the sand where no one can find them, not even all the technology the United States can muster.

I wonder if some of the reluctance of some of the European countries to get involved in this war is because Saddam hired them to build underground bunkers. And these countries built these knowing that Saddam was an enemy of the United States. And it would be very embarrassing if this came to light. Not to mention the fact that ethically it looks wrong to help a country prepare for war and then go to war against that country.

There may be many classified documents that we will never see that say this very same thing. If this type of knowledge were made public, many foreign relationships would be severed and the peace that does exist would be shattered.

Many classified documents would show a reason for war with Iraq. Would we as a nation not feel betrayed if say for instance information came to light that Germany, who in my book, are the master architects at bunker building, built bunkers in Iraq to help hide WMD?

How great would the outcry be? But President Bush and others who know this information will carry it to the grave and never say a word about it even if reason for war with Iraq would improve their image in the eyes of the American people and the World.

So is it possible to hide something in the desert and never be able to find it?

Let me bring two United States examples to the table and let us examine them to determine an answer to the question. Chandra Levy was last seen on April 30, 2001.

Despite all the searches made, she was not found until May 22 of 2003. According to CNN News, “Levy's remains were found in Rock Creek Park after a man searching for turtles in "a very inaccessible area" was alerted to the remains by his dog, Ramsey said.

The park is not far from where Levy lived, and she was known to jog there.” And, “Last summer, police conducted an extensive search of the park without finding Levy.” And one last piece of information: “Police said Levy had looked at a Web site that included information about the Klingle Mansion, an 1823 farmhouse now used as park offices, the day she disappeared.”

Rock Creek Park contains 1754 acres of land. Iraq has 23,457,840 acres of land. 13,397 Rock Creek Parks will fit inside Iraq. Most of Iraq is empty and barren. The wind blows sand around constantly. With this shift in sand, what is here today is gone tomorrow. Unless you have been there it is hard to imagine.

In December 2006, three hikers went missing on Mount Hood. Many of us followed the story and hoped for the best. There was a lot to be hopeful for. There were cell phone calls from the hikers.

In various places discarded equipment was found. Current technology was used to include thermal imaging drones. Footprints were found. And there were many teams out looking for them to include helicopter searches. They found notes the men had written. And to top it all off, the men wanted to be found. They were not trying to hide.

But only one person was found. And he was dead. I could not find anything on whether the other two were ever found or not. For more on this story read the following links.

Hiker Story #1 and Hiker Story #2.

So what am I trying to say? I am saying that WMD did and still do exist in Iraq. Will we find them? Probably not. Or we have found them but to let this information out would hurt the United States' relationship with other countries, so the information stays buried, a silent reason for war with Iraq. Was the United States right to attack Iraq and remove Saddam? Yes we were. Did we have reason for war with Iraq? According to what I have read there is no direct link from Saddam to any terrorist attacks on the United States. But who is to say that he would not sell WMD to terrorists to use against the United States?

There are so many possible scenarios giving reason for war with Iraq.

This Veterans Day let us remember the sacrifice that has been made by our military and civilian people. Let us pray daily for the safety of those military and civilians who are still in the fight or heading for the fight. Their sacrifice is saving lives in the United States. They believe in a reason for war with Iraq.

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