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War in Iraq Essay The United States Governments decision to invade Iraq was a mistake and so is the decision to continue to occupy the war-country. However, more than just a mistake, the war is of course wrong, and the reasons which the US declared for the rationale of the war are based on misinformed information. There are kinds of war that can be justified if the reasons behind them are morally right — the Iraq War is not one of them. The question whether the government knew this or not is not really known. Various sides claim different things regarding the rationality of the war, but one thing is for sure: This author is not for any kind of war, including the Iraq War. Iraq War in Under Fire There are a number of reasons why the war on Iraq is to be considered a bad judgment, if not a bad â€Å"scheme. † We could go on and on with a long list, but it would take a very long time. However, the main concern of the government was that Iraq had what they called â€Å"Weapons of Mass Destruction† (WMD) that are a threat to the security of not only America but also the rest of the world. There is reason to believe that misleading information influenced the decision of the president to go to war. In a press release posted on the Central Intelligence Agencys (CIA) website, Jay Rockefeller, chair of Intelligence committee said, â€Å"In making the case for war, the Administration repeatedly presented intelligence as fact when in reality it was unsubstantiated, contradicted, or even non-existent. As a result, the American people were led to believe that the threat from Iraq was much greater than actually existed† (qtd. in United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence 1). He was right; by the time the US and coalition forces was done ransacking the country, no WMD were found. There were also no threatening biological and chemical weapons found in Iraq. There were hints that Saddam wanted to create such devious weapons, but the findings suggest that the â€Å"imminent threats† that the government was so afraid about were non-existent. With these findings alone, the main justification of the US government for going to war with Iraq is nullified. Supposedly after the US was embarrassed by their Intelligence failure, the logical thing to do was to pull out of Iraq as quickly as possible and admit they have made a mistake. Yet, instead of doing this, the government even denied it, publicly declaring Iraq as an â€Å"imminent threat† to the US (Center for American Progress 1). Of course, pulling out of the Iraq would not be that easy especially because the coalition forces have done such a good job of virtually maiming the country. The chaos that the conflict created also meant that it would be morally wrong to just leave the devastated country after doing significant damage to it. The process of pulling out the troops, however, is taking longer than necessary. US troops have been in Iraq since 2003 and until now, tens of thousands of soldiers are still in the dangerous country. The longer the troops stay in Iraq, the more body bags the army have to ship back home. Apart from the unjustified nature of the Iraq War, the casualties that the conflict created and is still creating are one of the major reasons why this war is being contested. As of June 2, 2009, there have been 4,627 coalition deaths, and these only include the coalition forces that died (Cable News Network [CNN]). According to a recent research published in the New York Times, the civilian casualties that the conflict is causing may sum up to 600,000 since the war began (Tavernise and Mcneil). That is almost a hundred thousand deaths a year, which makes this war even more wrong because of the sheer number of casualties produced. Not everybody sees this war the same way. Some argue that if Iraq was not invaded by Coalition forces, Iraq may have developed the Weapons of Mass Destruction they were so eager to find inside Iraqi territory. However, since the time when Iraq was invaded up to this date, no Weapons of Mass Destruction have been detected, making this argument invalid. For others, the war on Iraq was a necessary move of the United States in order to defend itself from foreign threats, and it was a direct action to the seemingly increasing threat that Saddam supposedly had on the US. Former US President George W. Bush claimed that war was his last option. â€Å"I didnt want war, to assume that I wanted war is just flat wrong,† George Bush said in an interview (qtd. in Shakir). However, evidence suggests that he has already made up his mind long before the first coalition forces landed on Iraqi soil. Bush and then British Prime Minister Tony Blair have already met and decided on the matter as revealed in a memo dated January 31, 2003 (Norton-Taylor). Conclusion The Iraq War is just flat out wrong. The US government pretended and projected to the people that Iraq was an imminent threat despite the lack of real evidence. The rationality of the war is just based on misleading information, therefore making it a mistake. However, more important than the rationality of the war, the number of casualties that the conflict has created and is still creating is a strong enough reason to justify the immorality and irrationality of the war. Others may claim that the war was necessary, but the hard truth is that it was indeed a mistake. The failure to find WMD has caused critics to be suspicious of the real intent of the US why they invaded Iraq — Iraq is of course an oil well capable of generating enormous amounts of money that even the already rich US government could not resist. Works Cited Cable News Network. â€Å"US and Coalition Casualties: Iraq. † CNN. com/world. 2 June 2009. 4 June 2009. http://edition. cnn. com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq/forces/casualties/. Center for American Progress. â€Å"In Their Own Words: Iraqs Imminent Threat.† Center for American Progress. 29 Jan. 2004. 4 June 2009. http://www. americanprogress. org/kf/QUOTES. PDF. Norton-Taylor, Richard. â€Å"Blair-Bush Deal Before Iraq War Revealed in Secret Memo. † 3 Feb. 2006. Guardian News and Media. 4 June 2009. http://www. guardian. co. uk/world/2006/feb/03/iraq. usa. Shakir, Faiz. â€Å"Bush Insists I Didnt Want War, Overwhelming Evidence Suggests Otherwise. † Think Progress. 21 Mar. 2006. 4 June 2009. http://thinkprogress. org/2006/03/21/made-up-his-mind/.