Operation of Iraqi Occupation

One of readers had a long comment in my last post, which needed a comprehensive response. That’s why this post is devoted to him. You can find his comment at the bottom of this post (or in last post’s comments).

Dear Flea,

Thanks for your careful reading and your brainstorming. On American power in military and other respects I said “No need to say that United States has most of the world’s resources and therefore, is world’s first military and economic power and in some other issues as well”. But I believe it is not as easy as having too many forces and equipment.

Actually I disagree on your ideas regarding defeating Saddam Hussein. Because US had only walked in Iraq, while there was no military obstacle in front them, except some public defense.

Again I disagree on what you call “Operation of Iraqi Freedom”. This is a wrong expression. Because as US officials confessed, they lied on the reason to go to Iraq (for WMD), whereas they couldn’t even find a small part approving their sayings in UN.

On the other hand, a quick comparison of Saddam’s regime to this time can easily make us believe that, Saddam’s era was much more better than now, in Iraqis eyes, and to the security of the region.

After the early months of the attacks, it was crystal clear that US was there for Iraqi oil, helping out its weapon factories and security and … contractors, and threatening Iran. So you can see that the expression of “Operation of Iraqi Freedom” is a total nonsense.

In spite of all the above mentioned ideas, if US could accept to get out of Iraq in due time according to UN, we probably could accept its true purpose of liberating Iraq but, as you could see and we all see, US officials do not tend to get out of Iraq in two centuries. Therefore I call it “Operation of Iraqi Occupation”.

I may be an ignorant person, but I would like to know what type of better life you mean US wants to give to Iraqis? Do you mean the deaths of one million Iraqis and wandering 2 millions as a better life? What on earth you are talking about?

Moreover, war is war. Soldiers are not going to Hawaii to play, they are supposed to fight. Back in the country, economic and political situations are also part of the war.

As a matter of fact, I can promise you, if the US leaves Iraq, the peace will come into the country. This is not only I believe but many other Iraqi citizens also believe the same.

At the end I would like to point out one more issue. As an Iranian, I respect all people on this planet including American people, whom I believe are more intelligent than their current movement. I don’t say what I believe is certainly true, but am sure that the western media are always playing with words, showing the untrue side of the world conflicts. Although i think we could come to a better conclusion by brainstorming in our weblogs.

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Flea Says:

Ghadeer,

I respectfully disagree with your thoughts on the strength of the United States military. The United States defeated Saddam Hussein’s military and took control of the country within a few weeks. Operation Iraqi Freedom began March 19, 2003 and by April 9, 2003, Baghdad was liberated (you may recall the topple of the statue of Saddam on this day).

Iraq invaded Iran in 1980, which after 8 years of bloody fighting, the war ended in stalemate.

Vietnam was lost due to political un-rest back in the United States more so than losing militarily. The people were sick of fighting war after war (finishing up World World II and the Korean war) and simply did not want another war to deal with so as political un-rest swelled, the reason to fight was lost.

Back to Iraq, you might content that while the United States defeated Saddam in three weeks, we are currently still there and suffering a few deaths every day. I would argue it’s not that the United States is not strong enough to finish this militarily, rather the United States is trying to re-build the country and help the Iraqi people have a better life than that under Saddam.

No other country in the history of civilization has fought a war and simultaneously tried to rebuild the country at the same time. I believe that is why the United States is perceived as either losing or occupying, because they are trying to rebuild the country while attempting to keep it safe.

I just want to make a few more comments Ghadeer. First of all, I hope you keep my post on your blog. I respect you and quite frankly I find it refreshing to hear from an intelligent person like yourself from Iran. Although I disagree with some of your opinions, as an American, I am glad to see you speaking your mind. I plan to follow your blog and read your post, because I value what you have to say.

Take care my friend,
-Flea#, 25
United States of America

Tags: Freedom, Iran, Iraq, Occupation, Oil, Saddam, United States