The Iraq War Today

I found an article from Aljezeera.net. It was called: Making the Iraq War Disappear. It was quite interesting. The article began by telling us that we have now been in Iraq for seven years. It focused on the U.S. failure not only to finish the war but it also stated that U.S. failed from the start by going to war on false pretenses. This article also was hard on the American Media. The media played a big role in this war whether they like it or not. In the beginning the media seemed to focus on nothing but this war and now its hardly talked about or covered at all. Along with the media the publics attention is gone as well. Which furthers the idea that this war is lost.

One thing that caught my attention in the article was about the division of the Muslim people by the U.S. military. The author Schechter explains: “Our media seems to have forgotten it was the US strategy to divide the Sunnis and the Shia, building walls and fostering divisions between neighbors even when we joined in the celebration of the fall of the Berlin Wall” I knew before hand that there were two different groups in the Muslim culture and that they didn’t necessarily get along, but I had no idea that our government was separating them. The comment about the Berlin wall was defiantly a powerful example that the author used to mock the government and the medias failure to get all the facts to the American people. I don’t know if it’s the fact that I don’t watch the news enough or that the media really didn’t cover this. Regardless though this is a little depressing to hear. The Berlin wall was a sign of oppression. Is that what our government has come to?

Speaking of lack of media coverage, the author explains here the lack of protest coverage: ‘the media barely covers what protest remains - much of it largely fired up by former soldiers confessing to crimes they say they committed. When "our troops" were dying, they were honored; now that many have turned on the war, they are ignored.” He’s right. I don’t remember the last time I seen any sort of coverage of a war protest. Are these protests not worthy news? Personally I think they are. They are better than some of the other stuff you see on the news, but apparently the media doesn’t think it’s that important. I typed in Iraq War protests on Google news and I found a few articles, but most were articles from other countries newspapers. Only one popped up from the U.S. and it was a college paper called the Daily Wildcat from Arizona. The article was titled: Don’t mention the War. It’s sad to see that this war is sort of long forgotten. Going to war is a big decision to be made by a country. A bigger decision to be made is calling it quits. It seems that this country has kind of quit on this war or at the very least forgotten about it as these two articles suggest.

Lastly, I just want to talk a little bit about the lives we have lost. According to an article in the Associated Press: “as of Tuesday, March 23, 2010, at least 4,386 members of the U.S. military had died in the Iraq war since it began in March 2003.” It also mentions that 3,480 resulted because of hostile action. Meaning, almost 1,000 American men and woman have lost their lives because of friendly fire, and or other accidents. When you look at the overall picture 4,386 isn’t a large number of people, but its also 4,386 people who should still be living their lives. It’s gets even more depressing if the government finally sees fit to finally pull out of Iraq and we find out that their probably is still conflict occurring there. I personally am completely against the war. I don’t see us accomplishing anything there. The one thing I think we are accomplishing and fostering is a hatred for America. This war is bourdon on this country and its people, but I guess what’s done is done.
Works Cited

Harper, Ben. “Don’t Mention the War.” Arizona Daily Wildcat. 25 Mar. 2010. 25 Mar.
2010 .

Schechter, Danny. “Making the Iraq War Disappear.” Aljezeera.net. 25 Mar. 2010 .

“US military deaths in Iraq war at 4,386.” The Associated Press. 25 Mar. 2010 .