Early 2000's and the Iraq War

      In the 2000's, the most influential presidents were Barrack Obama and George Bush, and they tackled with the same problem. They both were involved in the Iraq war. They know what it means to make mistakes in war and they know what it means to grasp victory. They've dealt with joyful weeping as well as mournful tears. A lot of pressure is put on them to choose wisely, and sometimes they really mess up. It's easy to accredit every failure and success of war to the presidents in charge at the time. At the same time, maybe we give them a little bit too much credit for the events that transpire.
      War is confusing. Good intentions can end up killing thousands. Ideology clashes, and each side see's the other as some sort of monster. Sometimes brother fights against father, and cousin fights against aunt. The real question going through everyone's mind, though, is; who's the good guy? In perfect honesty, neither side is ever going to be purely good. Both sides are putting a value to human life, and neither value can ever be perfect. Further, war is not made up of only a couple opponents; it's made up of thousands. Each side consists of individuals. Some of those individuals may fight righteously, sparing civilians, but others will torture and mock. In the Iraq war, we Americans were shocked when we discovered the misdeeds of some of our soldiers. Some were reported to have hooked Iraqis up to electrical units and tortured them. We had determined ourselves to be the heroes, but in reality, American forces weren't pure as salt.

      One little seen consequence of war is the drastic effect it has on it's veterans. Veterans often come home psychologically compromised and with few options. Especially after the Iraq War, such veterans weren't treated nearly as they should have been. Many soldiers reported they were denied help from the government in order to get new education for work. Vets also have reported long waits for medical attention after getting home, sometimes up to six months. Besides these problems, vets had a hard time reconnecting with others and with a normal lifestyle. Not all vets experienced these difficulties; in fact, the majority of them thrived after coming home. But what about the ones who got left behind?  It's probably a sign the government needs to be more careful, but it might also just mean that life isn't always fair. Either way, these veterans felt and probably still do feel the injustice.

      The thing about the Iraq war that made it different, was that it wasn't a war fought for personal gain. In fact, we were fighting with Iraq for the rights of the people of Iraq. Why? We wanted to defend and uphold justice, and we believed that the Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, was hugely trespassing those ethics. In addition, we were defending ourselves from possible terrorism by Saddam Hussein. We fought the war to defend, virtue and people, but ironically we began the war, being thus offenders. The Iraq war shows how dynamic war can be in this respect and how defense doesn't always have to be fought on one's own territory. It also shows how sometimes, defense and offense are the same thing.

      Just like neither side of a war is ever 100% good, neither side of a war ever 100% wins. In the Iraq war, Americans lost thousands of soldiers and around 2 trillion dollars. In Iraq, terrorism increased, thousands of lives were lost, and leadership became chaotic once Saddam Hussein was off his throne. His debunkment may have been the only semi-good thing they got out of the war besides unseeable domino effects. Even though war sometimes accomplishes it's goal, the consequences of death and debt sober the victory.
      War has an annoying tendency to seem necessary yet to never seem quite justifiable. Sometimes when a war fails, we blame it's failure on whoever is at the head of things, but in reality, failure is a combined effort. In addition neither side of a war is usually extremely good or extremely bad, which can make things confusing. Soldiers coming home from war experience difficulties readjusting. Wars can be fought with the intention of defending another but end up attacking that other. Lastly, no matter what, neither side of any war is completely victorious. When it comes down to it, war isn't avoidable, but it always causes pain; that's because it's one of the consequences of sin in the world.