March 2003, the first troops set foot on Iraqi soil to make one of the biggest

wastes of the 21st century for the United States. March 20th, 2003, to be exact, was
the day when Operation Iraqi Freedom begun. This operation was to help the Iraqi
nation rid them of their dictator-like President and twice Prime Minister of Iraq,
Saddam Hussein. Other objectives included to eliminate and isolate Iraq’s weapons
of mass destruction, search for, capture and drive out terrorists, to accumulate
intelligence related to the illicit network of weapons of mass destruction, to secure
Iraq’s oil fields, and to help the Iraqi people transition into a representative
government such as democracy.

There were claims that Iraq was attempting to buy uranium from Niger. In the
January, 2003 State of the Union address, President Bush said that Iraq had
obtained uranium. In September 2002, George Tenet briefed the President that
Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction, this intelligence was
dismissed and never was shared with Congress or the top CIA agents inspecting
Saddam for weapons. President’s administration made a total of 935 false
statements between 2001 and 2003 about Iraq. In September 2002, the Bush
administration claimed that Iraq had attempted to acquire high-strength aluminum
tubes, these tubes were supposed to be use to enrich uranium. In October 2002,
about 75 senators were told that Saddam Hussein had the means of attacking the
eastern seaboard of the United States. On March 20th, 2003, the United State-led
invasion of Iraq began. The coalition was mainly composed of U.S. and UK troops.
The initial military forces were about 300,000.

On April 9th, U.S. forces captured the Baath Party ministries and tore down the
iron statue of Saddam, this ended Saddam’s 24-year rule. This led to intense civil
disorder and increased crime. In about a month of invasion, 139 U.S. military
personnel and 33 UK military personnel were reported dead, while on the other side,
about 9,200 combatants 7,299 civilians were killed by U.S. ground and air forces. As
the International Herald Tribune states that on May 21, 2008 4,079 U.S. service
members and eight military civilians have died supporting U.S. Operations in Iraq.
More than 4, 087 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the
Iraq war in March 2003. As of March 30th, 2008, about 91,703 Iraqi civilians have
been killed because of the war.

“[H]e was caught like a rat.” The statement by Major General Raymond
Odierno after the U.S. forces had intelligence of Saddam and they captured him. On
December 13, 2003, on a farm near Tikrit, Iraq, Saddam was captured. After the
capture of Saddam, insurgency was expected to be lower and a new democratic
government was hoped for.

The Iraq War has been the most costly military operation so far, paralleling
the degree of the Vietnam War. The American taxpayers will be paying $1.9 trillion.
The financial cost of the war has been more than £4.5 billion ($9 billion) to the UK
and about $845 billion to the U.S. The estimated health care costs for the veterans
would range from $250 billion to $650 billion.
 In 2008, there are an immense amount of things that the politicians have to
address to the American public, but just because the American people have to
worry about health or what happens to their child’s school doesn’t mean that the
Government can forget about our troops in Iraq. About 170,000 troops have been
deployed to Iraq since 2003. Approximately 177,000 troops are still in Iraq. These
are our people, our neighbors, our family members, and it might even end up being
us. The 2008 election has to focus on how to help Iraq to win its democratic
government over the other Post-Baathist governments. Many people want the
politicians to focus on universal health care, abortion, gay rights, education, and
social security, but we can’t forget that all these require a government with money,
and if we don’t have the money to carry out these social programs then we can’t
even vote for it. The Iraq war should be the most important issue of the 2008
elections because it would end our deprivation of finances for social programs. Why
do we, as taxpayers, have to pay for those who are killing our own? Sure we can be
helping out a few but if to help one out we kill their neighbor, I believe it won’t make
the Isolationist American look any good.

Are we going to go on living our lives thinking that nothing or nobody’s gone
away from our streets or if our neighbor’s home? Of course, most American pretend
to be isolationists, but we do end up depending on family and friends, and almost
everyone in this country has someone in Iraq deployed. So for 2008, we must
remember that anything we want the politicians to change, we must have them
change our international status with countries like Iraq and Afghanistan.
Isolationism doesn’t mean that the people want to be kept ignorant of the truth
overseas.

As of May 20th, 2008, no weapons of mass destruction have been found.

Minor attacks and a few serious kidnappings by Al Qaeda in Iraq shouldn’t give us a
reason to have so many of ours die. About 800-1,000 members of Al Qaeda are
found in Iraq and most have dismembered since leader Abu Musab Zarqawi’s death.
Iraq isn’t where the search for terrorists should be carried out.

Word Count : 911

 Word Cited

1. "Documented Civilian Deaths." Iraq Body Count. 2008. 21 May 2008

<http://www.iraqbodycount.org/database/>.

2. "Iraq War." Wikipedia.org. 2008. 20 May 2008

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_war#1991.E2.80.932003:_U.N._inspecto
rs_and_the _no-fly_zones>.

3. Blumenthal, Sidney. "Bush knew Saddam had no weapons of mass

destruction."
Salon.com. 2007. Salon Media Group. 21 May 2008
<http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2007/09/06/bush_wmd/>.

4. Taylor, Andrew. "Senate proposal seeks $165B for war." Associated Press.
2008. The Associated Press. 21 May 2008

<http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hj7bLU_VVjrxBnHiIQbBEZqK4FhAD9
0QFD980>.

5. "US deaths in Iraq war." International Herald Tribune. 2008. The

Associated Press. 21 May 2008
<http://www.iht.com/articles/ap/2008/05/22/america/Iraq-Toll.php>.

6. Taylor, Andrew. "Deal allows for Senate vote on war funding." Google News. 2008. The
Associated Press. 21 May 2008
<http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5hj7bLU_VVjrxBnHiIQbBEZqK4FhAD90QDUE8
A>.