by Bjc Chartier

Created on: April 19, 2008

Have We Won The War In Iraq?

Is this a Loaded Question? The United States committing itself to non-military solutions to regional problems that exist as a result of war?

Lets see, how successful is the effort in Iraq? Is North Korea snubbing the United States on issues such as nuclear power or other nuclear related issues? Is China keeping all of its cards on the table?

How can any conflict be resolved as long as the only acceptable solutions are Democracy or Christianity? Diversity is a wonderful facet of our world. Five hundred years ago you would have to travel hundreds or even thousands of miles to walk among a different culture. For example if you lived in the United Kingdom in the year 1500AD, you would get to Jerusalem by foot, horse, donkey and maybe on an oxen-cart. When you got there, you would quickly realize that the food was different, the language was different, essentially every facet of life as you knew-it would be very different than what you were accustomed to.

A man in the South once said, speaking about the war in Iraq, "How can we ever win a war against a culture that believes it is ok for your teenager to strap a bomb to their body and blow themselves and others up? We do not understand this mentality, in is not in our moral fabric.". I believe this is a valid point.

Were we able to change the cultures in Afghanistan or Bosnia? I think the answer to this and other questions is obvious. No.

Another good example, closer to home is the island of Cuba. Yes some people choose to hop in boats and try and get to Florida. Those are in many cases, individuals that are a burden on Cuban anyway. Recently some interesting statistics came out about Cuba. The most fascinating to me was that Cuba has the best trained physicians in the world. The health care system is exemplary. Anyone needing urgent-care or drugs for their medical condition gets them. Sure there are only two classes, rich or poor, but at the end of the day I can honestly say that I have never seen a person in Cuba starving to death or too poor to get a cancer medication they needed to survive. The only remnants of war in Cuba are the remnants from the Bay of Pigs invasion.

So back to the question at hand. Should the US military try to revive a war-battered community? Well if the US military caused the problem then perhaps the issue is more of accountability than obligation. I am not a believer that the military organization is necessarily the best organization to revive a war-battered country.

• 1
• 2
• Next Page >>