Portfolio : critical thinking questions - Term Paper Example

However, this responsibility is too often sidestepped or avoided so that the president can feel free to send U.S. troops overseas to fight and die in foreign lands, far away from their homes, without approval of the public or their elected representatives. Even so, the home front during the first World War was able to unite behind this sacrifice; they understood the chain of causes and reasons. In Iraq, what started as a logical war on terror focused on the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks, turned into a situation consisting of the president sending off troops on his own against other perceived enemies than the Taliban.

“An opening section of the report, “Indicators of the Spread of the Global Jihadist Movement,” cites the Iraq war as a reason for the diffusion of jihad ideology. The report “says that the Iraq war has made the overall terrorism problem worse,” said one American intelligence official” (Mazetti, 1) The Iraq war did not help the war on terrorism, and may have even hindered it; the first World War helped stop, or at least stall, the spread of German imperialism. #2 The creation of the “new Iraq” led to many problems.

Bush took advantage of the public’s fear and insecurity to sell them a bill of goods and invade Iraq, and part of this bill of goods was that a war in Iraq would help to stop international terrorism and terrorist movements. The preemptive offensive strike against this country then resulted in a complete destabilization of its infrastructure and the rise of a strong terrorist insurgency force against the backdrop of a puppet democracy; to this date insurgents have taken the lives of thousands of American soldiers, and have injured tens of thousands more.

At the same time, the disbanding of the Iraqi army guaranteed further chaos. The aftermath of the invasion on Iraq can be looked at by a wide variety of viewpoints, in terms of why George W. Bush went to war, what he told the public, the intelligence that he was given that didn’t link Iraq and Al Qaeda, and other important issues to consider in terms of the setup of the “new Iraq” itself. This also brings up the issue of the public’s approval of then-president Bush’s policies and his handling of the country’s economic situation before and after the 9/11 attacks.

#3 Bush did compare Saddam Hussein to Adolf Hitler. This showed flawed logic. Although many Americans stated that they strongly supported Bush’s administration directly following the terrorist attacks, there were gradations when thinking of specific policies rather than an overall impression of the president’s leadership during Operation Iraqi Freedom. But the direct influence of his handling of the September 11th attacks as polled after the attacks shows that public support of Bush was heightened directly after the attacks, and then fell afterwards, particularly when it became clear that the U.S. had invaded Iraq under false pretenses (something that Hitler himself did to Poland).

“Although the president's speech yesterday was persuasive in many respects, he was neither specific nor compelling in his effort to link Saddam Hussein to other, more urgent threats. As evil as Mr. Hussein is, he is not the reason antiaircraft guns ring the capital (and) civil liberties are being compromised” (Strobel 2). #4 Women are limited in active combat duty, but often are called upon even in support roles to take combat roles as well. The presentation of these roles through