Chapter 3 is titled The Wedding Party and it begins with this quote.
"We did not start this war. So understand: responsibility for every single innocent casualty in this war, whether they're innocent Afghans or innocent Americans, rests at the feet of the al-Qaeda and the Taliban." - Donald Rumsfeld, December 2001
This chapter is about how the United States entered Iraq and Afghanistan, and the original plan that the United States had when the war first began. "The White House's plan called for a 'light footprint' in Afghanistan. Special Forces and the CIA would infiltrate the country, recruit allies among the Taliban's enemies, then use them - together with the wholesale application of US air power - to take the country. Once the Taliban was gone, the Afghans would rebuild their nation themselves. The United States would assist, of course, but not with troops." (page 89). Its interesting to read this quote now that the war in Iraq is over. The United States did not really follow this plan. Troops were deployed in both Iraq and Afghanisatan, and both sides have suffered tremendous casualties without very many significant and positive changes other than the death of Osama Bin Laden, the Capture of Saddam Hussein, and the long process of rebuilding a nation under a democracy, and even after the United States left Iraq the democracy is very fragile. I believe that Rumsfeld's quote from the beginning of the chapter is unfair. The United States entered Iraq and Afghanistan to search for those responsible for 9/11, and to search for weapons of mass destruction. After the United States confirmed that there were not WMD's in Iraq the country began searching for Saddam Hussein and trying to create a democratic government in Iraq. The United States goal in Iraq was no longer to find the Taliban and both sides suffered many casualties, which is the United States fault because it did not stick with its original plan.
Is the war really over though? I think that there are still some troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. I also think that in the meantime of ridding Iraq of Saddam Hussein, we still had troops searching for the Taliban. However, I do agree that the United States did stray from their objective when they established democracy in Iraq.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Brett that the war is not "over". Of course, most of our troops were pulled out of Iraq, but I have a feeling that the U.S. will always have a "big brother" presence in the nation. I feel that the U.S. never knew that their military involvement in the Middle East would not be a short-term project, or else they would have stuck to their plan. Although it may not have been public, the U.S. had a presence there for many years, and we had an option to pull out for every day of those years. But, we did not remove our troops, and thus there is a representation of the distrust that the U.S. has for those countries in which we were present with troops.
ReplyDeleteBrett- I agree with you that the Military was still searching for the Taliban, while Saddam was taken out of power, which was very good for Iraq, but perhaps the number of casualties could have been decreased if the United States stayed with its original plan
ReplyDeleteDanny- Thats a good point about the U.S. having a Big Brother presence in Iraq, and the United States distrust of Middle Eastern nations to maintain a stable democracy right now.