The idea behind this blog began weeks ago when a sleep deprived Meghan was watching "The Colbert Report." The Iraq war had been declared as "over," and Colbert humorously dropped balloons and announced that "we did it!" Since then, she had not been able to get the idea out of her head - questioning what the end of a war really looked like and wondering if this really was the end. Well, fast forward a couple weeks and here we are. As students in The Arts and Social Studies in Elementary School (a part of the Curriculum Block at Salem State University), we are required to create a topical blog about something happening in the news now, and researching the topic as it develops. Katie and Ross got on board with Meghan's original idea, and now we are getting the ball rolling!
The Iraq War, a broad term we will use to cover all military operations in Iraq since the 2003 U.S. invasion, is an extremely divisive issue. The question of “should we be there?” has persisted since the earliest the earliest threat of invasion; however, this is not the topic we will explore with this blog. We are neither Republican nor Democrat in this blog - we just want to analyze the facts and attempt to answer some questions about the "end" of the war in Iraq.
Let's start with a small timeline.
February 2010: President Obama unveils a new strategy to bring the U.S. troops home from Iraq and increase money and training in Baghdad so it could defend itself. He also promised to have a high percentage of troops out of Iraq by September.
August 2010: Obama removes all but roughly 50,000 soldiers - saying that the remaining soldiers are not "combat" soldiers. The remaining American troops are serving largely as peacekeepers and advisors to Iraqi security personnel, while the onus of preserving the peace in Iraq is falling largely on the shoulders of the Iraqi people.[1]
August 31, 2010: President Obama declares an end to the “long and costly Iraq War” [2]. President Obama states, “The American combat mission in Iraq has ended. Operation Iraqi Freedom is over, and the Iraq people now have lead responsibility as President.” He also explains that one of the reasons for pulling out of Iraq is because he feels that his central responsibility is taking care of the limping economy on the homefront.
While the decision to remove troops from Iraq is preferable to those of us who know soldiers overseas, this raised many questions for us. Primarily:
- Is the war really over?
- Is Iraq ready to be left to its own devices?
- In what state are we leaving Iraq and its people?
Some believe that Iraq has improved greatly since 2005. Democracy is beginning to be accepted and security forces have begun taking over for U.S. military personnel, but much is left to be done in this war ravaged country. The citizens of Iraq, according to Kenneth M. Pollack of the Washington Post, still require (in large numbers) access to fresh water and electricity. Additionally, there is a very real fear within the country that the nation could succumb to the threat of civil war when the U.S. presence makes its exit from Iraq. The country is divided over the perceived preparedness (by the government) to assume control of the country; there is a small minority who feel the U.S. should leave immediately, another minority who feel the U.S. should stay forever, while the vast majority are unsure of how long they wish for American troops to remain.[3]
As you can see, this will not be a simple topic. It includes many viewpoints and factors, but we hope to make some headway in tackling such a difficult subject. We will not be able to declare a "victor" in this war - it is far too soon for that - but we will be able to see what happens in Iraq as the troops begin to leave and this may give us some indication (positive or negative) of the future.
[1] Pollack, Kenneth. 2010. Five myths about the Iraq troop withdrawal. The Washington post, August 22. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/19/AR2010081905642.html.
[2] “Obama declares end to Iraq war, pledging it’s ‘time to turn the page’ and focus on economy”. Kenneth R Bazinet and Thomas M. Defrank. August 31, 2010. New York Daily News. http://www.nydailynews.com/.../2010-08-31_obama....html
[3] Pollack, Kenneth. 2010. Five myths about the Iraq troop withdrawal. The Washington post, August 22. http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/19/AR2010081905642.html.
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