Why We Fight
Why We Fight
In the documentary “Why We Fight” directed by Eugene Jarecki exhibits the dark side of the war in Iraq. The Bush Administration well planned for the invasion of Iraq ahead of the September 11, 2001 attacks. At first, I did not believe a country that my families have migrated to for freedom, for a better life can do such horrible things. Our family had suffered the war in Vietnam before, many of our relatives died in that war and our life had changed so much since. Yet, again and again, America find new target in the Middle East to display their superior power in military dominant in the world. Our military perhaps ranked number one in the world, but our people are suffering because our resources are being wasted on warhead, building tanks and fighter jets. Our military industrial had grown so large that the government has no control over it. It seems like the president of United States is a puppet to be control by CEO of weapons producing company.
After the Vietnam War, our family suffered tremendously due the lack of necessities like food, water or electric light bulbs. The war took away our roads, schools and lives of many millions uncounted lives. My father fled on boat to find better future for our family because of the condition of substandard living will exterminates our life. My mother and I stayed back to support our grandmother who is ageing promptly due to the lack of nutrition. War also took away the school near our house, that bomb dropped from that fighter jet surely missed the target, no Viet Cong there. Many of our relatives died because of the war , Uncles and Aunty even cousins from extended family tree that I’ve never met and will never meet. Then seven later, my father became American Citizen through Naturalization, sponsored my mother and I to the US. Everything was so much different, I love everything the US has to offer, especially the word Freedom and Liberty.
On September 11, I was sat down with everyone in my class and the teachers showed us channel 7 displaying Terror in New York. Commercial planes hitting the World Trade Center, I was shocked, how could someone do this to a free country? What have we done to deserve such attacked? The next day President Bush condemned those who had done it. At that time, I was naïve to believe whatever our government tells us, I wanted to join the military to help the US fight whoever it is. And I’ve watched the news constantly, and also noticed the million people of Iraq in streets with candle lights in support for the US. However, Bush and Cheney did not listen to anyone , went ahead and invade Iraq when the world protested against the war. After much research online and news reading from honorable sources, I’ve found out that our military system is extremely corrupted by the people who are running it. Cheney is the President of Halliburton, a company that rank second largest in oilfield Services Corporation in the world, and why do we fight in Iraq when it has nothing to do with the attacked? The reason is simple, our oil reserves are only 2% of the world, and Iraq has a 25% oil reserves.
Our military is known to be best in the world, but we don’t even have a health care system that care for all citizens. I think about the war in Iraq all the time because all of our school funds went to the war and left this generation deprived from education. I think of the War in Afghanistan all the time since all CEOs that are selling arms and weapons to our military are making so much money persuading our government to fight. I think all the time about War that America have involved in all the time because all wars are funded by our tax dollars. It is sad that our politicians can say one thing and do another. Just last night, a movie catches my attention, it is called “Fuel” a documentary movie made in 2008 directed by Josh Tickell. The movie was also about why we fight in Iraq, it is because of the oil. But it also showed that we do not need to be dependency on petroleum, our biodiesel technology had advanced enough to cut tie with oil. Likewise, same scenarios happened to biodiesel when Big Oil Corporations notice their popularity rises, quickly Big Oil Corporations shut it down.
In the end, why do we fight? We fight because we want your stuff and you will give it to us or we will come and take it. The Vietnam War had shattered the Vietnamese people; we had to relocate 6000 miles away to unknown land, the language barriers and society of new land didn’t except us, all this we have to bear. The invasion of Iraq is wrong and we still continuing wasteful spending and killing innocent lives. Also the war in Afghanistan is going nowhere, who are we looking for ? Osama Bin Ladin? For all we know, he might not even exist just like the Weapon of Mass Destruction. I’ve fate in America, and I hope America can return to its way, the correct way.
Corrections, suggestions in blue.Originally Posted by dai_ca
The documentary “Why We Fight” (directed by Eugene Jarecki) exhibits the dark side of the war in Iraq. The Bush Administration planned well for the invasion of Iraq ahead of the September 11, 2001 attacks.Back up your arguments with facts. Use logic. Tighten up your sentences. Make sure everything fits.
Space between paragraphs.
Re: Why We Fight
Thank Gillnetter for correcting the story above. It is good to have someone like you in this forum. Even though there were some grammar mistake in that story, but it was an interesting story to read. How old were you when you moved to the United States Dai_ca?
I shall assume that it is correct that the US has 2% of the world's oil reserves and that Iraq has 25% of the world's oil reserves. In any case, it would certainly have been far cheaper to continue buying oil from Iraq rather than go to war for it. Also, if we went to war to get Iraq's oil, why didn't we take it? We won, didn't we? If the reasons we went to war with Iraq had been more altruistic would they have been more valid? Would getting rid of a dictator who brutalizes his own people have justified the war? Or not?
It would seem that dai_ca has no intention of posting again.
Is it OK to discuss politics here?
Re: Why We Fight
Yeah, let discuss politics a little bit here!
After a little bit of googling, it seems that Iraq has five times the amount of oil reserves compared to the United States.
I am agree that it might be cheaper to buy oil from Iraq rather than make a war with the Iraqis. In fact, we are importing about 50 percent oil for domestic use from Canada and some Arab Saudi countries. Canada is an important trading partner with the US because of its proximity and political stability.So, we are currently not greatly depending on Iraq oil. However, since these Middle East countries control large amount of oil, so for long term purpose, the United States may have some incentives to invade and control Iraq. For political reason, the US government wants these countries to be stable so that we can stabilize the oil market. There are countless examples that when these Middle East countries have some major or minor conflicts, oil price goes up. It will greatly affect the US economy because we are so dependent on oil to run our economy. Therefore, the United States has obvious reasons to want to stabilize, as well as assert authority and influences on these region.
About why we did not take the Iraq oil, I think it was obviously because the US government did not want any further disagreement with them from other countries around the world. If we went on a war with Iraq to take their oil, people would certainly take a side against us. The US government were not foolish enough to do that. In stead, the government wanted to be looked as a hero who acted to reserve the right and liberty for other people.
My argument is that to make a war with Iraq, the US government must have some sort of evidences, or at least try to convince the world that we act for the good cause of Iraqis. The US government did that by accusing Saddam Hussein of possessing destructive weapons. With that accusation, the US army and allies invaded Iraq and executed Saddam Hussein. Until now, the US government still have not found any evidence to prove its accusation.
.... The fact is that I do not judge the Iraq war and our government involvement in that issue. I'm just trying to take a different side in this debate by trying to point out that in political world, everything is always explainable no matter what political standpoints a person takes. We can look at the matter in two different ways. Sometimes, it is hard to judge if a decision or an act is right or wrong, moral or immoral. Do you think that one country has a legal right to have military involved in other country's business? I don't defend Saddam Hussein here since I don't know much about him, I just give my point of views. To judge if an act is right or wrong, it always depends on social context. Some countries may judge that eating dogs is normal and acceptable. However, most Americans may not think such action is acceptable. So, should Americans judge the person who eats dog as immoral and deeply wrong?
In some senses, we can all agree that the act of killing innocent people is unacceptable in all social context.
Above are my views about this particular issue. Ronbee, what do you think?
Last edited by Slow_Learner; 02-Oct-2010 at 18:19.
The forum rules forbid posts about politics. So I shall have to discuss my political opinions elswhere if I wish to do so. (There are plenty of forums for that sort of thing.) The point I was trying to make was that if you are going to write an opinon essay you should take the trouble to distinguish between opinion and fact. You should also take the trouble to base your opinions on facts and not just thin air. Of course, you can feel free to base your opinions on nothing if you wish to. Your argument just won't be as strong.
To discover the pertinent facts, you might have to do a little research. For example, where does the US get most of its imported oil from? Canada and Mexico. How much of its oil does it get from Iraq? About 1%. (Most of the oil the US imports from the Middle East comes from Saudi Arabia.) The point is that it would not have made sense to go to oil with Iraq over oil. That argument is weak, so you should look for a better one.
If you can't discern my views on this matter then I have done my job well.
Well or unwell, I believe it's simply more than correcting language. There's a lot of nonsense said all over the world and, in my humble opinion, everybody has contributed something to it. I do correct essays sometimes too and I know it's difficult to get over it sometimes but I try to restrain my need of correcting. I'm not to fix the world, I'm to fix the language of this particular writing. When I see an idiotic argument based on poor knowledge (but linguistically correct and logical enough - in the light of the poor knowledge), I repeat to myself, "Look at the language, look at the..." But whenever there's clearly poor language or complete lack of logic in it, then it's Hannibal ad portas.If you can't discern my views on this matter then I have done my job well.
I understand that if an educated demagogue posted their essay here you'd ruthlessly correct it as well. Well, to me, it would become discussing politcs then.
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