Operation Iraqi Freedom - Research Paper Example

? Operation Iraqi Freedom: America's history of war The most interesting observation made so far about the connection between war and the the United States as a nation, is that “Americans will always buy a war if it's skillfully sold to them” (Secunda and Moran, 2007, p.1). Though obviously an overstatement, this observation has also some general correlations in the history of American wars. From the great war of independence, to the war being waged against Iraq, the US has shown some common elements of war policy and strategy through history. The history of America's wars can aptly start from the defense of the New York city carried out by George Washington against the British colonizing army (Weigley, 1977, p.4). That defense transformed itself into a protracted war which finally gave America its independence (Weigley, 1977, p.15-17). From this war, up to 2002, America has been found to have “employed military force more than 220 times in its history, yet has declared war only five times” (qtd. In Secunda and Moran, 2007, p.4). It is not only these officially declared wars of America that come under the purview of this paper but the undeclared wars as well, in an attempt to place America's war in Iraq in the correct historical and political perspectives. That is to say that war is being discussed here is in its all formal and informal forms, not limited by technical definitions. And it is concluded that Operation Iraqi freedom is nothing but a continuation of America's war agenda at large, supported by economic interests more than anything else. After independence, the major war waged by America was the Spanish-American war (Secunda and Moran, 2007, p.5). Then came the first and second world wars and indeed the cold war (though not fitting into the conventional definitions of war) against the communist block that succeeded them, and which “lasted fifty years” (Secunda and Moran, 2007, p.5). Cold war is important in the sense that it reflects a crucial American mindset, which believed that it was America's god-given duty “to fight global communism” (Secunda and Moran, 2007, p.6). And it is curious to note at this point that now the nation believes that it is its duty to combat global terrorism. It is this attitude, always wielding a higher moral ground than other nations (which is similar to the age-old notion of white man's superiority), that has eventually led to America being sarcastically called as the 'world police' by its critics (Khatib, 2006, p.180). The Korean and Vietnam wars, which were part of the wider canvas of the cold war, showed the world how much obsessively compulsive was America's urge to wipe out communism (Donaldson, 1996, p.3). And the Vietnam war ended up for the US as a total coup ditat of sorts (Donaldson, 1996, p.70). Even the Americans despised the Vietnam war and the US government had to withdraw from the war scene disgraced and defeated both on the war front and at home (Secunda and Moran, 2007, p.6). The US military intervention in Lebanon, Grenada and Panama city did not invite much global attention, but “the Persian Gulf war of 1990-91” turned out into a macabre television spectacle for the world (Secunda and Moran, 2007, p.6). This was the moment when the world started discussing America's real intentions in its wars, and even the national leadership came very close to admitting that what was really at stake for the US was the cheap and incessant supply of oil (Secunda and Moran, 2007, p.6). It was also observed that the United States went to war in Korea and Vietnam, among many other reasons, “to show the third world that the United States was the one nation willing and able to stand up to communism anywhere in the world” (Donaldson, 1996, p.70). And since the second world war, it was becoming clear that America wanted to be “the leader of the world” (Donaldson, 1996, p.192). In the Persian Gulf war of 1990, this became more evident. An added element of interest for America regarding the Gulf region was its need to oppose any “dangerous destabilizing force in the oil-rich Middle East” (Donaldson, 1996, p.192). Oil being the most crucial commodity to ensure the prosperity of any nation, and American economy being the greatest consumer of oil in the world, this interest is justified, notwithstanding the undemocratic and violent means used by the US to procure its easy availability. From the above discussion on the momentous history of American war, it can be logically concluded that it is the political and economic agendas of America rather than any threat to its national sovereignty that has provoked it into wars in the past. But the American war machinery has in the long run acquired a real national security threat on which it can now blame all its recent wars. This marks a departure from the past, all the same being its continuation as well, in a more subtle way. This third phase of American war history began with the 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center. The first response of America was to attack and conquer Afghanistan which was supposed to have been the hiding place of Osama Bin Laden (Secunda and Moran, 2007, p.7). Secondly, Iraq was attacked, the ruler, Saddam Hussein captured and hanged, and the country is still occupied by the American military forces (Secunda and Moran, 2007, p.7). The US military campaign to oust the Saddam Hussein government from power in Iraq was nicknamed as Operation Iraqi Freedom by the US (Meigs, 2003, p.1 of Introduction). The term covers the military actions and following activities of the US in Iraqi soil including, “deployment and preparation, initial attack, capture of Baghdad and regime change, and reconstruction and peace keeping” (Meigs, 2003, p.1 of Introduction). Operation Iraqi Freedom began officially with the air attack of March 19, 2003 (Meigs, 2003, p.1 of Introduction). If the previous Gulf war of 1990-91 had the approval of the UN as well as the American Congress, this time the US decided on its own to attack Iraq, only with the support of the British troops (Schmidt, Shelley and Bardes, 2011, p.336). The objective of ousting Saddam Hussein was achieved in one month's time but Iraq fell into total lawlessness and internal chaos after the fall of the Iraqi government (Schmidt, Shelley and Bardes, 2011, p.336). The claims made by the US that Iraq had in its possession, Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMDs) proved to be wrong once the war was won (Schmidt, Shelley and Bardes, 2011, p.337). Also the accusation that Saddan Hussein regime had close connection with al Qaeda was proved to be groundless (Schmidt, Shelley and Bardes, 2011, p.336). In this way, all the justifications that the US had for waging war with Iraq became nullified. It is in the name of peace keeping and reconstruction, as is prescribed under Operation Iraqi Freedom, that America is still keeping Iraq under its occupation (Meigs, 2003, p.1 of Introduction). The “American-led Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) was the interim governing arrangement that the US made for Iraq (Schmidt, Shelley and Bardes, 2011, p.336). But even at the time of its formation, CPA invited criticism that its members were selected not on merit but based on the degree of conservatism they held (Schmidt, Shelley and Bardes, 2011, p.337). When the interim Iraqi government was finally formed in 2004, the Shiite Islamic group was favored as against the Sunni group thereby putting the lives of Sunni Muslims under great threat (Schmidt, Shelley and Bardes, 2011, p.337). The Democratic Party in America had long been demanding the withdrawal of US troops from Iraq and the defeat of George Bush-led Republican Party in 2009 indicated that the American public also supported this demand (Schmidt, Shelley and Bardes, 2011, p.338). But the new Democratic President Barack Obama is yet to announce the final withdrawal of the US troops from Iraq (Schmidt, Shelley and Bardes, 2011, p.338). In the meantime, the US also waged another minuscule war in Pakistan by entering the nation's territory and killing America's long-time foe, Osama Bin Laden in a secret offensive in the month of May, 2011 (Fox News, 2011). This act had provoked a heated debate on the right of America to enter into another nation's territory without the consent of the government there. This act and the continuing occupation of Iraq also show that America having either a Republican or a Democratic President would make no changes to its war agendas and policies. Operation Iraqi Freedom had turned into 'Operation Iraqi Occupation' for America and the war is still waging in Iraq. Urban warfare is bound to cause more civilian casualties and this is why Donnelly has a quoted a Lieutenant expressing his dislike of the “prospect of fighting in the streets of Baghdad” (2004, p.14, Prologue). Urban combat has always been termed as “potentially dangerous” for the fighting soldiers as well (Donnelly, 2004, p.15, Prologue). The Iraqi casualties of Operation Iraqi Freedom is estimated to be 104,924 Iraqi deaths including 92,003 civilian casualties (Der Speigel, 2010). These figures show that a majority of the Iraqi people dead in the war was civilians. As of August 2011, the number of US casualties amounts to 4,421 (http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf). The enormity of civilian casualties has made people around the world to raise their voice against the war (Roy, 2004, p.12). The inhumane face of war was the same for Iraqis and the US soldiers. It has to be remembered that in the 1990-91 Gulf war, “tens of thousands of US soldiers ...[were]... officially declared “disabled” by a disease called Gulf War Syndrome believed in part to be caused by exposure to depleted Uranium” (Roy, 2004, p.31). Though this matter is not confirmed yet, it is true that even after alarm being raised about the ill-effects of depleted Uranium, the US army is still using this material in its warfare (Roy, 2004, p.31). The ill-treatment of prisoners in Guantanamo Bay was totally in contrast of the self-picture of the most powerful democracy that America paints before the world (Roy, 2004, p.28). Since the beginning of the Iraq war, critics of war have been drawing attention to a less understood fact - it was the American and the British governments that had been supporting “Saddam Hussein both politically and financially through his worst excesses” (Roy, 2004, p.24). Alluding to the economic side of the war, Roy (2004) has remarked: Hundreds of thousands of men, tanks, ships, choppers, bombs, ammunition, gas masks, high-protein food, whole aircrafts ferrying toilet paper, insect repellent, vitamins, and bottled mineral water are on the move. The phenomenal logistics of Operation Iraqi Freedom make it a universe unto itself. It doesn't need to justify its existence any more. It exists. It is (p.24-25). US multinational corporations like Shell, Chevron and Halliburton have been awarded the major contracts for reconstructing war-torn Iraq and running the Iraqi oil industry (Roy, 2004). It is curious to note that “the US Agency for International Development is handling the bulk of the contracts” (US American Congressional Record, n.d., p.8361). Also, many contracts were allotted “under the waiver the Bush administration granted in January allowing government agencies to handpick companies for Iraqi reconstruction contracts” (US American Congressional Record, n.d., p.8361). The economy of war is shocking when it is seen that: USAID began approaching preselected bidders for post war Iraq work as early as late January, when the possibility of going to war with Iraq was still being hotly debated at the United Nations. Requests for proposals went out for four contracts in mid February ...Altogether, the work- including rebuilding highways and bridges and rehabilitating Iraq's school system- is expected to cost at least $1.7 billion (US American Congressional Record, n.d., p.8361). This instance is just indicative of what kind of meticulous economic planning goes into every American war. It is this business-like cold-headed planning that imparts American wars a totally different kind of political undertone. And it is alleged that companies like Diligence LLC, the private intelligence company, "were powerful enough not only to profit from Iraq war and to aggravate it but also perhaps help to make it happen in the first place," which is altogether a very serious proposition (Scott, 2010, p.181). In Afghanistan also, it was pointed out that there was an illicit connection between the US war machinery and the opium lobby of Afghanistan which does drug trafficking across the globe. Scott (2010) has said: In 2000-2001 the Taliban virtually eliminated opium production in their area of Afghanistan. Thus total production for 2001 was 185 metric tons. Nearly all of this was from the northeastern corner controlled by drug-trafficking Northern Alliance, which in that year became America's ally in its invasion. Once again production soared after the US invasion in 2001, in part because the United States recruited former drug traffickers as supporting assets in its assault (p.13). The corporate-government nexus in America's wars is no secret any more. The problem with American wars has been summarised by Scott (2010) as "global dominance mind-set of a war machine" (p.207). It is the consequence of America turning into a "permanent war economy" as was envisaged by Charles Wilson in the 1950s (qtd. In Scott, 2010, p.208). And the wheels of the machine moves on well-oiled as always are. Bibliography Defenselink, n.d. "Casualty", http://www.defenselink.mil/news/casualty.pdf Der Spiegel 22 October 2010. "The WikiLeaks Iraq War Logs: Greatest Data Leak in US Military History". Last modified 22 October 2010 http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,724845,00.html.. Donaldson, Gary, 1996. America at War Since 1945: Politics and Diplomacy in Korea, Vietnam, and the Gulf War, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. Donnelly, Thomas, 2004. Operation Iraqi Freedom: A Strategic Assessment, Washington DC: American Enterprise Institute. Fox News, May 2nd, 2011. “Usama Bin Laden Killed in Firefight With U.S. Special Ops Team in Pakistan”, Last modified 2 May 2011, http://www.foxnews.com/us/2011/05/01/usama-bin-laden-dead-say-sources/ Khatib, Lina, 2006. Filming the Modern Middle East: Politics in the Cinemas of Hollywood and the Arab World, London: I.B.Tauris. Meigs, Montgomery, “Introduction”, In Operation Iraqi Freedom: The Insider Story, Marc Kusnetz, NBC News and Tom Brokaw, 1-2 of Introduction, Kansas city: Andrews McMeel Publishing. Roy, Arundhathi, 2004. An Ordinary Person's Guide to Empire, Brooklyn: South End Press. Secunda, Eugene and Terence.P.Moran, 2007. Selling War to America: From the Spanish American War to the Global War on Terror, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group. United States of America Congressional Record, n.d. Washington D.C.: Government Printing Office. Weigley, Russel Frank, 1977, The American Way of war: A History of United States Military Strategy and Policy, Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Read More