My Life Be Like…

When I opened up my internet browser today the top story was about how eight marines were charged with murder of the Hathida Killings that occurred in Iraq. Since our assignment was to write about current issues, I thought that this would be fitting.

As I said above, eight marines were charged for the Hathida Killings. These killings occurred after a marine was killed by a bomb in Hathida, apparently causing those marines to massacre two dozen civilians there in response to the death of their friend. In their defense thier attorney’s said:

their clients were doing what they had been trained to do: responding to a perceived threat with legitimate force.

Now, I know that this looks like a horrible thing, that these marines killed all of those innocent civilians, but first of all, we don’t even know if the marines did indeed kill them or not, and there is also another big issue that we are forgetting here. It is nearly impossible to separate the friend from the enemy in Iraq. Because like in Vietnam, there is no set enemy, they are not wearing uniforms, carrying guns, and riding around in tanks. The enemy looks just like you and I, dressed in civilian clothes, going about thier business during the day, and killing our soldiers at night. So, in the defense of the soldiers, they were just doing their best to respond to that threat, which is so hard to do in this instancce because they did not know who they should have been responding to.

Here, take a look for yourself at this article. Included are some interesting pictures that go along with this story. It is definately worth looking at!

Sarah Writes:

The situation in Iraq is almost a mirror image to the situation that was present in Vietnam only a few decades before and yet we have not learned from our mistakes.  Unlike during World War Two when we were actually fighting an opponant, the wars in both Vietnam and Iraq are being fought against ideas.

and I could not agree with her more! I still do not understand why the president has not taken the time to learn from his mistakes. I mean think about it. Thousands of soldiers died in the war in Vietnam. And now, the war in Iraq is dragging on longer than any of us are comfortable with. The war in vietnam lasted for almost a decade, a decade longer than it should have lasted. If the Government and the United States doesn’t do soemthing about this current situation in Iraq soon, we could end up with a momentous amount of casualties and horrible consequences.

Recently, as I am sure you have seen in the news, the Baker Report has been released. The Baker Report is a comprehensive report that predicts what could happen in Iraq if we let the situation get worse, and then it proceeds to offer suggestions as to how we could ameliorate the situation that we have on our hands.  For the most part, the Iraq Study Group which consists of Sandra Day O’Connor, Lawrence Eagleberger, Edwin Meese III, Alan K. Simpson, Vernon Jordan Jr., Leon E. Panetta, William J. Jerry, and Charles S. Robb, talked about calling for new and improved diplomatic and political efforts in Iraq and the middle east in general, and also finding a way that will allow the United States to gradually pull all troops out of Iraq.

This report was especially interesting to me because not only does it deal with the situation in Iraq, but it also sheds some light on the Israeli and Palestinian conflict going on in Israel right now, which directly effects the situation in Iraq. According to the New York Times, in a summary of the Baker Report,

The United States cannot achieve its goals in the Middle East unless it deals directly with the Arab-Israeli conflict and regional instability. There must be a renewed and sustained commitment by the United States to a comprehensive Arab Israeli peace on all fronts

I agree fully with this suggestion. I mean, this conflict has been going on for much longer than the Iraq war, this has lasted for years, even decades. Solving this conflict would be the key to fixing the situation in Iraq because if this conflict could be fixed, perhaps some of the anti-jewish and anti-american feelings that various extreme religious followers have could be wiped away, causing them to turn over a new leaf, making the situation in Iraq much more easy and pleasant to deal with.

Now, there are internal problems to be fixed within Iraq in addition to the problems I talked about above. One problem that the study group touched upon was that in a way we are “babying” the iraquis too much. We should sit back and let them set up their country for themselves. There is no need for us to stay in there, metaphorically holding their hands, while they establish a new government. The Iraquis should take control of themselves and realize that they are their own responsibilities, not ours. If the Iraquis really got involved, created more army batalions, they would have their own protection, and the United States could effectively pull out their troops from the middle east.

The baker report offeres good suggestions for what to do with the situation in iraq, which is obviously not getting any better at this point. George Bush should take some initiative to listen to what the Iraq Study Group has to say within the Baker Report, becuase it could really help improve the situation we have going on right now in Iraq.