Implications Post

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have been going on for years and the only way to end the wars is to decide on when we should bring the troops home. However, if the government cannot agree on when to withdraw the troops, the wars will continue indefinitely. If the wars do not end, or if they do not end for a long time, then we will spend a ridiculous amount of money on war, when we could be using it to improve our country and economy. Our economy has already been negatively affected because it is estimated that hundreds of billions to one, two, or three trillion dollars has been spent on the war, which has added a large amount to the national debt. Therefore, if we can spend this much money after a few years of war, then can you imagine how much money we will spend and how far into debt we will go if we continue fighting these wars for another two, three, or ten years. And, this may not be imaginable, at this rate there is no real progress to ending the war. President Obama has been pushing back the deadline to start withdrawing troops, and at this point there is no end to the war in sight. And, not only will the economy suffer if we continue to spend so much money on war but, it will also affect other government programs. If more and more money is spent on war, then there will be less money available for education and healthcare. Another implication is that people may also be more apprehensive about getting involved in other foreign affairs in the future, which could be beneficial or detrimental depending on the situation. 

Political Cartoon

Theory Post

                The problem with the war right now, is there are some who do not want to continue fighting and others who want to stay in Iraq. The only real solution would be to compromise and decide on a definite deadline to start bringing troops home. But, before that can happen people need to discuss the war from an objective view point, and people either have to agree that the wars are worth continuing and there could be progress. Or, on the other side people have to agree that the wars are not making any progress and instead of helping anything we are just using money and resources that could be spent on other things. However, it is going to be difficult to agree because each side has a strong opinion. The other problem is the underlying assumptions that each side has. Some people that want to continue the war are worried about terrorists and another attack on U.S. soil. While the people that do not want to continue the war are focused on the amount of money we are spending and the fact that it is difficult to judge the progress in Iraq and Afghanistan. Therefore, because there is no way to judge the progress, some people do not think that any progress is being made. Furthermore, we have to leave the two countries eventually but, before we can do that everyone has to decide on a timeline to steadily draw troops out. President Obama did have a deadline for withdrawing most of the troops by August 2010, but the deadline has not been followed. And, now he says troops will remain until the end of 2011.

Analysis Post

In this blog post I am analyzing why the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are controversial, and how they started. I am describing the events after the wars started to explain how they started and how the general public feels about the wars.

The war in Afghanistan officially started after the 9/11 attacks. The war in Iraq started after President Bush told the American people that Saddam Hussein had “weapons of mass destruction” and the American public was told that going to war would be the best and only option if we wanted to be safe. But, after we went to war, Americans found out that there were no weapons of mass destruction. However, some sources claim that President Bush did not know that there were no weapons of mass destruction, and he had to make a decision. While many people speculate that he may have known that there were none but wanted to justify going to war. But, either way not finding weapons of mass destruction, damaged Bush’s reputation because many people thought that he lied about the weapons to justify the war,or that he was at least stretching the truth. In an article by the Washington Post it was discussed that Iraq's oil was another reason why America might have gone to war with Iraq. Because, we are so dependent on oil it isn't stretch to think that securing oil was a major part of the reasons why we went to war.  However, in an article in the New York Times, Carl Rove, Bush's chief political advisor, said that the reason they decided to go to war was the threat of weapons of mass destruction and without that threat, Bush would not have decided to go to war. In an article in Wikipedia, it said that the majority of the public did not want to go to war but, once the war started, the majority of Americans supported the war. But the number started decreasing at the end of 2004. By that point many people were beginning to think that the war was a mistake. People were not happy with the way the war was going because there was not a lot of progress and many casualties. 

The war is a controversial issue because many people were upset that the only reason why we went to war was because of weapons of mass destruction, and then there were none. And, on the other side many people think that we should have gone to Iraq to help the oppressed people of Iraq. Now, there were some positive things to come from the war. We were able to help the Iraqi people to become freer, and we also helped to spread democracy to the people of Iraq. However, there were a lot of negatives to come from the war as well. There were many lives lost, not only American and allied troops, but also Iraqi civilians. There is also a large amount of debt that is adversely affecting the economy. There is also no exit strategy in place for when we do decide to leave Iraq. Now, some people do not want to leave Iraq because they do not Iraq to become even more chaotic, but it is difficult for us to make progress and it is hurting us more than it is helping Iraq. Now, we have done some good for Iraq, but I think it is time for us to leave and let them take charge of their own country. In an article in BBC News, it discusses how there is no exit strategy, but gradual withdraw would be a good plan to consider. And, there is still a lot of debate about when and how to leave, but I think it should be sooner rather than later. 

We have already used a lot of money and resources, that could have been spent on other things to help benefit America. The economy has been in a downward spiral for awhile now, but that is not surprising considering we have spent close to a trillion dollars on the war in Iraq. If you want to see the running count of money spent on Iraq and Afghanistan go to the national priorities project. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are becoming more costly than the Vietnam war, and all the money spent on war could have been used for other things to improve our economy or the country. One article called Where Your Income Tax Money Really Goes said that not only is the U.S. the top military spending, but we also spend more than the next top 15 countries combined, this includes not only the wars but all military expenses. But, it also demonstrates how the government thinks that military is more important than other government projects that could improve our country, such as education. We could have also used the money that is spent in Iraq on alternative energy, which would improve the economy and the environment. Now, I do think that the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan used a lot of money that could have been used on improving American. But, there are a lot of ongoing debates right now about how much money President Obama has been spending. In an article on cnsnews.com, it discussed how Obama will spend a larger amount of money on welfare, than was spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Not to mention the amount of money he spent on the failed stimulus package. So the point I am trying to make is that there has been a lot of money spent on the war, but it has been spent over the span of years. And, I understand that President Bush had a tough decision that had to be made when he was deciding whether or not to go to war with Iraq. The point is that I understand why we went to war, and a trillion dollars has been spent over the course of years. But, it is still a large amount of money that could have been spent on other things. Now, while I think that we should leave Iraq because we have done about as much as we can. There are some people who do not want to leave Iraq because they think that soldiers will have died in vain, but others say that the longer we are there the more soldiers that will die unnecessarily. An article titled Iraq: A US effort that was in Vain? discusses if the war was worth it or not. I understand why Bush decided to go to war, but I think we have over stayed our welcome in Iraq. At this point there is not much more that can be accomplished and more soldiers will die and more money will be spent on a war that is going nowhere. Not to mention all the things that we could have used the money on to improve lives.

I know that I have discussed how the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; especially in Iraq, are using a large amount of money and how that money would be better spent on other things like education and other programs. However, I want to discuss some sources of bias in the news about the war. First of all, I do think that the war is a lost cause and that the money spent on the war could be better used on other things. On the other hand, I think that there may be a different side to this story or at least some things that can be considered. First of all, I read an article titled, “Little-known fact: Obama's failed stimulus program cost more than the Iraq war” where the author, Mark Tapscott, discussed the stimulus program and how it ended up costing more than the war in Iraq. And, he thinks that Democrats are leading the focus on the Iraq war because they want to prove that it is not just the Democrats that spend excessively. Now, I am not debating Obama’s stimulus package, but I will say that the stimulus didn’t really work and there was more money spent in a few months than the money spent on years of war. So, the war is not the only thing that the government is spending too much money on, but if everyone looked at the federal budget we could all find something that we would consider to be unnecessary spending. But, the war in Iraq has been going on for years and if we were to leave then we would have more money to spend in the U.S.

How the War is Adversely Affecting Our Economy

The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are detrimental to the economy because the more money that is spent on war, the less money that can be spent on projects to improve our country. The money that is used on the war could be used to improve schools, build better roads, or a number of other projects. This would not only improve the country, but it would also improve the economy, because if more money was spent in the U.S. then we would be improving the economy while creating jobs. Now, the economy and the state of the union has its ups and downs and we cannot say that the war caused all of the problems in the country, but it is a significant factor. Also, speaking of the economy, the deficit has always been increasing, but the war has added a huge amount to the debt according to one article the war has added $1 trillion to the national deficit. While the war has increased the   deficit by a trillion, the overall estimate for all the money spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan is somewhere between 1 and 2 trillion dollars. When the war started our economy was doing fine. Even after spending significant amounts of money our economy was not affected much at all. This was because there was money in the federal reserve that could be liquidated. But now the economy is starting to feel the affects of the amount of money that we have been spending on the wars.

Why We Should End the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

We have been fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan for years now, and while we have made progress, we cannot completely wipe out all terrorist activity. Now, I am not saying that we should surrender, but rather realize when we have done all we can. We have been fighting in Afghanistan for nine years and we have been fighting in Iraq for seven, and the only accomplishment is capturing and executing Saddam Hussein. If you can count that as an accomplishment; there was a line of terrorists to take his place before the rope was even tied around his neck. I also believe that leaving the war would not be the cause of terrorist attacks on U.S. soil; if terrorists do try to attack us again it will be because they hate America, not because we stopped fighting. And, terrorist attacks on international U.S. embassies have occurred since we have been in the war, so pulling out of the wars would not cause the situations to get worse. Therefore, it would be much more beneficial to the country if we stopped fighting and took the money we would save and use it on national security and other projects. I think more money spent on security would be more beneficial when it comes to preventing another terrorist attack, then being at war. As said in an article by the New York Times “Iraq $5,000 per Second?”, money that was spent on Iraq, was not spent on improving our economy. And, I think that improving our nation and our economy should be everyone’s priority.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/01/17/business/17leonhardt.html