Iraq war. Good thing/bad thing?
Posted by qmonkey on October 1, 2007
Obviously at the moment it seems like a silly question, and its hard to look to the future and see a time, when it would be anything other than that. But, is there scenario which would see the Iraq war being looked back on as, although mismanaged and very painful, worth it?
The Vietnam war is largely looked back on as a disastrous mistake, 
but the Korean war is largely looked back on as a painful necessity. Both had similar goals of halting Communist aggression, and both had major casualties. Counted in hundreds of thousands, rather than the hundreds and thousands of the Iraq war.
I know that there is a seriously dodgy ethic when it comes to ‘imposing’ democracy, but if a reasonably stable and prosperous Iraqi democracy emerges in the next five to ten years, will history look back on the war differently?
I’ve been watching a lot of documentaries recently about the Independence movement in India, and been struck by the turmoil, uncertainty and recriminations at the time. With almost a million people dying in the Muslim/Hindu fighting that followed the formation of Pakistan. The wounds of Independence have taken decades to heal, and looking back I’m sure many people would have done many things differently. But at the end of the day, India is emerging as a stable, reasonably peaceful free democracy. Can Iraq be the same? And can it’s success spread throughout the region? Am i ridiculously optimistic?
October 26, 2007 at 12:08 pm
It was an illegal war, sold to us on a false premise. It WAS / IS a bad thing
October 26, 2007 at 12:15 pm
I feared this might happen. The monkey defending the undefendable. All I would say is… at least here in the UK, it wasn’t an illegal war… and it disproportionately annoys me when people shout and go on about it being so.
In the UK… if the Attorney General says it’s not illegal, then by definition its not. But, as a belt and braces, the PM actually held a vote in parliament about it (which he didn’t need to), and won the vote by a mile.
Not saying that there arn’t loads of arguments and recriminations applicable against the Iraq war, but being illegal isn’t one of them.
November 7, 2007 at 1:07 pm
I think Yulla was commenting on International Law rather than UK Law. Pretty much everyone has conceded at some point that the war was illegal under Internation Law.
March 8, 2008 at 8:43 pm
I think you’re wrong, Grumpy Man I. International law governs the administrative procedures of regional and marginally localised law courts, not the parliamentary officiate. It is totally incorrect to invalidly state that the war was ‘illegal’ - following the passing of Charter 114.b back in 1914, it is only the sovereign or monarch that can declare a war as such.
March 22, 2008 at 9:29 pm
Iraq war is nessacry. Nothing false, just some chanells only say bad thing about the war and only 1 or 2 says the good stuff that happens. The USMC (United States Marine Corps) found everything that we were shearching for (enough bombs to disable the United States and United Kingdom) And parliament/Congress voted on the war and passed. Real decleration of war, Leagal war. And besides we were at threat. The middle east terrorist band together and fight United States And United Kingdom on their own soil costing more lives. Deaths have gone down, everything has improved. We are just there to train Iraq and keep borders safe/take down terrorist leaders who flea to Iraq. Iraq is the place where almost all terrorist are going so thats were this war is fought. UK/U.S are only killing terrorist no inocent Iraq people. Wich would you like better? Fight there or fight there?
April 29, 2008 at 2:52 pm
Many wonder why the U.S. went to war with Iraq on March 19, 2003. The reason the U.S. went to war with Iraq was to “disarm Iraq” said president bush in his speech. The United States did not have an obvious right to disarm Iraq. In president bush’s speech to the U.N. he said that Saddam Hussein’s government was a “grave and gathering danger.” President Bush also said that Saddam Hussein was getting weapons of mass destruction. He also talked of an “outlaw regime” providing weapons of mass destruction to terrorists. Colin Powell said “that Iraq was harboring a terrorist cell led by Abu Musab Zarqawi, a suspected associate of Al Qaeda.” Is the war with Iraq a good thing or a bad thing? The war with Iraq is a bad thing. There are three reasons why the war in Iraq is a bad thing.
May 29, 2008 at 9:54 pm
The War is a Terrible thing. It was started by Bush decieving us by making us think they were going to use nuclear weapons. That’s how he got congress to go along with the war. Not only that, but this war has gotten to be illegal. We’re doing the same thing we accused iraq of doing, so why is it okay for us to be doing it? It’s not. It’s too late now to turn around and go home. We have to end it, but unlike the way it was started, we have to end it the right way. It’s not neccissarily bad being at war, but what’s bad is the way we’re handling it. The Iraqi people don’t mind US being there, but they mind the casualties. 100 civilians die every day daily in baghdad alone. We have to find a way to peacefully end this war.