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Life during wartime
March 19 marked the 5-year anniversary of the war in Iraq. At the start of the war, President George W. Bush told the American people that he had “no ambition in Iraq except to remove a threat and restore control of that country to its own people.” He decried what he said his intelligence reports revealed: Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, ties to Al-Qaeda, and horrors of unspeakable proportions to the Iraqi people at the hands of Saddam Hussein.
Over the course of these past five years, our country has become deeply embroiled in the culture of a war. We are familiar with images of death and destruction. As sons and daughters and mothers and fathers, our hearts break when we hear of another soldier’s death or injury. We have grown familiar with its language - insurgents, suicide bombers, weapons of mass destruction - words that serve to invoke feelings of sadness, angst and fear. But for many of us, the truth is, they evoke confusion as to the purpose of this occupation.
Five years later, most of us are still hard-pressed to answer what should be a simple question: Why are we fighting this war?
When reports of exaggerated and faulty intelligence emerged at the hands of the Bush administration, Americans became aware that, at best, they were presented with an inaccurate picture of the purpose, cost, and scope of the danger of the war. At worst, the president lied to his people for his reasoning to enter the most expensive and deadliest occupation of this generation.
Tragically, his reasoning for the war became more disturbing as he referred to Saddam Hussein as “the guy who tried to kill my dad.”
Whether or not Bush deceived American officials into voting for his war remains to be seen. But what is clear is that the weapons of mass destruction he claimed Hussein possessed in abundance and the direct link between Hussein and Osama bin Laden have yet to be proven as truth.
So instead of hard proof, we are left to speculate as to the purpose of this war as our young men and women risk their lives while serving abroad.
Is the war about obtaining a more substantial and cheaper oil supply? How ironic that the price of oil is higher than ever.
Or perhaps it was about creating an ally in the Middle East, a prospect that is certainly favorable. Unfortunately for the American people, Bush’s war has only increased anti-American sentiment as thousands of innocent Iraqis have been killed, wounded or displaced.
Or are we to believe President Bush, despite his previous transgressions, and trust that the war is part of a collective effort in the war on terror, that obscure term whose meaning escapes the best of us. But, as the saying goes, we have cut off our nose to spite our face, as terrorist attacks have increased in Iraq exponentially.
For the past five years in Iraq, countless innocent people are killed or wounded for the war that will haunt our generation. But not just for its high cost and devastating death toll, but for its lack of any real reasoning.
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