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Over the years there have been many battles and fights over the Iran-Iraq area. Most of this fighting was over oil. Fights over oil can be traced back to the 1800s. During this time, the British controlled Iraq.
Persian Gulf
In 1990 Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait. The President at the time, Saddam Hussein, justified his attack by claiming that Kuwait’s falling oil prices were damaging Iraq’s economy. In 1991 The US became involved in the Persian Gulf War. The Persian Gulf War was a US led coalition made up of 32 countries led by US General Norman Schwarzkopf. After its army was destroyed, Iraq agreed to destroy its weapons of mass destruction.
9/11
In the 1990’s Americans believed that their country was immune to the kind of violence that wreaked havoc on the rest of the world. That opinion changed on September 11th ,2001. The war on terror is a result of 9/11. On 9/11, New York City, and just outside of Washington D.C. were attacked with hijacked commercial aircraft. Both towers of the World Trade Center, The Pentagon, and a field in Pittsburgh were the crash sites.226 crew members and passengers lost their lives. The attack on the Pentagon occurred less than one hour after the attack on the World Trade Center. Fires prevented rescue workers from entering the buildings for hours. The death toll after the attacks is estimated at about 2,800. Law enforcement conducted an intensive search and traced the attacks back to Osama Bin Laden, the head of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan. After the Soviet Union withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, a civil war broke out. Private armies battled for control of the country. In 1996, the Taliban seized the capitol of Kabul. The Taliban leaders tried to make the country go back to ancient Islamic ways by banning things like music and TV. The Taliban also provided sanctuary for Osama Bin Laden, who set up many terrorist training camps there. The United States demanded that the terrorist camps be shut down. When the Taliban refused President Bush vowed that they would “Pay the price.”
Today in Iraq
Today in Iraq a government is being set up. It is expected to need from 12 to 18 months to become an independent government. Repeated attacks are slowing the progress of the government that is trying to be set up.
Cost
On November 3rd, 2006 at 9:30am EST the running total of the cost of the War in Iraq was: $339,373,831,978. This number is the amount of taxpayer dollars that have been spent in Iraq since its beginning. This information is based on Congressional appropriations.
My Opinion
My opinion is that the U.S. should go and help in Iraq. If we hadn’t gone and helped them we would probably be dead right now. We would be dead because groups like Al Queada and the Taliban would have tried to stage more attacks like 9/11. I also think that we should keep helping Iraq to set up a government and that’s all. We are involved in Iraq too much. The U.S. should stop being over involved in the war and do what we set out to do: Destroy weapons of Mass Destruction and set up an Iraqi government. If we keep defending the Iraqi government too much, to the point where they rely on us completely, we won’t have helped them but ultimately in the end actually hurt them.
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General Schwarzkopf Schwarzkopf |
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9/11 firefighters |
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World Trade Center |
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George W. Bush |
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Iraq |
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