Was FREEING Iraq really American? Posted on Monday, November 1, 2004 The Principles of Democracy A La Carte and it’s Betrayal To the American Dream Over the course of the last few years America has slipped into a mess in the Middle East, Iraq. It seems that this war is becoming more and more dangerous and less and less rewarding. Sometimes it seems like the only good is giving Iraq a ‘democratic government’. Yet to some it doesn’t really seem much like rewards. It seems that no one has ever asked the true question of whether the Iraqis deserve that government. Our answer is no, the Iraqis don't deserve that government. Why should they earn something our soldiers fought? Our soldiers seem to be sacrificing more then the average Iraqi, who benefits from it. We don't see any Iraqi boys fighting against insurgents or trying to even protect their freedom. In the Revolutionary War 13 small colonies with pitiful militia took down the world power, Britain. Do you know we had no foreign backing till we had to win against insurmountable odds? The other European powers never gave military backing till we won the battle of Saratoga and caused ¼ of the British troops in America to surrender and proved American strength and garnered strength from other European countries. Even then it had to plead with those powers to get backing. We played for help. We didn't just let the French come in and win our war then give us the formula for the government. America earned its democracy. Iraq didn't nor did it seem to try very much. Iraq got "Democracy A La Carte". We wish to know How many Iraqi militiamen fought Saddam? How many Iraqi Civilians fought against the Saddam Military and Not the US forces? Freeing Iraq seems like a betrayal of our ancestors. 1) They never asked for our support. (America had to ask France for Backing in the Revolutionary War and didn't get it till proving our military strength by taking down 1/4 of British Forces) 2) We have never seen an Iraqi militiamen take the slightest effort against Saddam. (America Militia Men walked up and fought with determination in the revolution.) In the end we see no Iraqi getting up and fighting for their democracy. Actually I see them killing US militants and Contractors and we wonder why? We have come up with two plausible reasons. They were either a) Too lazy to fight their own foe, Saddam or Too happy to even care. Iraqis don't deserve the government they have, Only the US soldiers who fought for it. We can even compare the Iraq war to the "Splendid Little War", The Spanish American War. We freed Cuba in that one. Yes this was also freeing another country but it differed much from the Iraq War because we earned several territories, bases and even a good trade agreement. Spanish controlled Cuba. Cubans wanted freedom. So what did they do? They burned American-owned fields in Cuba. We started turning towards Cuba, Puerto Rico, Philippines. If we beat the Spanish win all those lands and we gain lots. Then with the Dulome letter (A Letter by A spanish Ambassador mocking President McKinley) and the explosion of the Maine (which was attributed to the Spanish but really was an engine error) we craved Spanish blood and so began the Spanish American War. Lasting only 4 months this war brought worthwhile lands and a sense of dignity. This is what justified fighting a revolutionary war for somone else, a BIG PAYOFF and the fact we didn't have to cost thousansads of soldiers lives. We got Puerto Rico, Guam, and the Philippines for an extremely cheap price. That's 100,000 square miles and 10 million people at the cost of 385 deaths plus we made an amendment to a bill (Platt Amendment), which regulated Cuba's trade through their constitution so that we would benefit. So what did we gain for beating Saddam and freeing Iraq? No land or money and an increasing amount of American deaths. So now we know Iraq was a war fought for the Iraqis without the big thing that justifies other wars like it, a big payoff. The military's job is too risking their lives to better America or defend America. Any other war or cost of life in the military should be attributed to the leader's fault of reasoning. So how can you send Soldiers to fight the revolutionary war in which we will gain nothing? No states, no territories, no new Americans, no money from the Iraqis. We look back to the great expansionists, and the founding fathers and see a great nation formed from them but we look towards the country at the present state in time and wonder whether or not we have betrayed their ideas? Why has the administration not decided to keep Iraq as a territory or make them pay some fee for the war, or possibly keep a portion of Saddam’s fortune? Something we wonder and have never had answered.