Independent
WHEN WILL THE IRAQ
WAR END?
The ruling Republican Party in the United States of America (USA) suffered a major
defeat in the 2006 mid-term elections, which was organized for the House of Congress and the Senate.
That was indeed received as refreshing news to many countries, especially Arab states which had opposed America''''s decision to go to war with Iraq in the year 2001.
The result of that painful loss has enabled the Democrats to gain control of both the House of Congress and the Senate. Consequently, it also compelled the then Defense Minister, Donald Rumsfeld, to tend in his resignation letter, which was accepted by the Bush administration.
A major contributory factor that brought changes in America''''s mid-term elections held last year was no other issue than the Iraq war. The defeat that was inflicted upon the Republicans by the American voters was indeed to tell President George Bush that America was fed up with the war in Iraq which was, admittedly, having catastrophic effects on both American soldiers and their economy.
It, therefore, came as no surprise when President Bush openly admitted that mistakes have been made so far as the war is concerned. That did not end there. The President also had to set up a body, the Iraq Study Group, to come out with pragmatic measures regarding how to find a lasting solution to the Iraq problem
But, it is becoming increasingly clear that the war in Iraq is far from over. And this is in view of the continuous fighting which occurs on daily
basis between American soldiers and insurgents who belong to different groups.
Prior to the war, America had put forward arguments that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, and hence was a threat to the world especially the USA. After six good years of taking their sophisticated machines and brainy weapons inspectors to Iraq, it is interesting that America have till date not found a single weapon of mass destruction-a basis for waging war in Iraq.
The question that America needs to examine very well is this: is Iraq better or worse off with the overthrow and demise of Saddam Hussein? Definitely, the Bush administration will catalogue a lot of reasons to convince the rest of the world that Iraqis are benefiting from a new era with the toppling of Saddam Hussein the dictator.
In a candid opinion to the afore question the immediate past United Nation''''s Chief, Busumuru Kofi Annan, minced no words in declaring that Iraq is worse off with the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. Kofi Annan''''s reason for stating this was that at the reign of Saddam Iraq enjoyed a relatively peaceful environment to the extent that Iraqi citizens could go about their normal businesses, although there were some intimidations from Saddam Hussein.
On the contrary the situation has changed from the time that American and its so-called allies started bombing the entire Iraq country. Iraq as of now does not enjoy the peace under Saddam. At least one thing that can be said during the regime of the late Saddam Hussein was that innocent civilians did not die in large numbers on daily basis.
For now, Iraq has become a haven where suicide bombers perpetuate their heinous crimes, particularly on innocent Iraqis and American forces. Iraqi citizens no longer feel secured in their own native because one can be killed by either a stray bullet from an American marine or a suicide bomber whose aim is to kill.
America and her allied for had anticipated that the war would have been over with the collapse of Saddam''''s regime. Little did they know that a much bigger war lies ahead of them. And this is doing battle with insurgent groups and curbing sectarian violence, which has been on the rise in recent times. Even though America and its forces have managed to defeat the insurgents with little success it has come at a great loss as many American marines have died.
Currently, from the situation in Iraq it looks as if the war will travel a long distance, perhaps a
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