by Melissa Arnold

Created on: March 16, 2009

An Uncivil War?

"I find it helpful during my time in Iraq to reflect on our own history," states Ryan Croker, U.S. Ambassador to Iraq. "At many points in our early years, our survival as a nation was questionable.
Our efforts to build the institutions of government were not always successful in the first instance and universal suffrage, civil rights and state rights were only resolved after acrimonious debate and sometimes violence." While the American government does not apply the words civil war' to Iraq, they often compare our nation's earliest challenges to Iraq's current situation.

Although our laws and government were established through trial and error, America never had an occupying force within its borders when the Civil War took place. The Second Confiscation Act of the Emancipation Proclamation states: "That if any person shall hereafter incite, set on foot, assist or engage in any rebellion or insurrection against the authority of the United States or the laws thereof, such a person shall be punished by imprisonment for a period not exceeding ten years, or by a fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars, and by the liberation of all his slaves, if any he have; or by both of said punishments, at the discretion of the court." While this law applied the U.S. citizens, it also implicated the involvement of other countries as well. Regardless, the pulse of every strong nation beats within the hearts of citizens who fought for their own independence and won liberation.

During our own Revolution, American men and women were seen as terrorist and rebels in the eyes of Britain. American citizens used guerrilla tactics to ambush British convoys and attack their camps.
Men and women of all ages, who were capable of bearing arms, sabotaged the infrastructure of an organized military to break Britain's grasp on our country. Children became freedom fighters or Minutemen and we praise them still as patriots. The parallels to Iraq are amazing, especially when our own camps and convoys are constantly under attack by various tribes and militant groups. Rebels' pretending to be allies infiltrate our bases and the similarities do not stop there.

Many of the things we try to build or fix are oftentimes destroyed. These very schools, hospitals, bridges, roads, utility stations, and oil refineries that benefit the Iraqi people become targets for terrorism, in hopes that we might give up and leave some day. How long will it be before everyone forgets what they are fighting

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