In the 24 years that Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq, it is hypothesized that over 600,000 Iraqi citizens were killed. This would mean that on average, 70 to 125 Iraqi's were killed everyday. This is undoubtedly a horrifying statistic, and provides one with an understanding of why our administration in 2003 wanted to do something about the dire situation. The decision of the government to attack Iraq without the approval of the United Nations is controversial because of the debate over what is the role of the United States as the supreme power of the world. Arguments can be made that the U.S. had the responsibility to stop a dictator from ruthlessly destroying citizens of his country, but how much better is Iraq because of the U.S. invasion? Differing sources have varying numbers as to how many civilian deaths have occurred since 2003 in Iraq. Multiple sources believe that violent civilian deaths total near 100,000 but some reports estimate that this number is closer to 600,000. This would mean that since the U.S. invasion, there are still over 100 Iraqi deaths per day. Also, this does not take into account the number of children that have been left without parents, injuries, and poverty, and soldiers which have lost their lives as well. This leads to a questioning of if our invasion of Iraq has actually improved the living conditions for the country.
War has been the norm in Sudan since 1956. This crisis was brought to the attention of the world in 2003, when extremist groups began to kill thousands of civilians. Since 2003, over 400,000 people have been killed, and millions more have lost their homes, and will die in the near future. With these types of statistics, it is easy to comprehend that human suffering is horrendously high. Even though the U.S. does give a large amount of aid to Sudan in the form of Humanitarian efforts, there has not been any motive of the U.S. government to send troops in order to instill peace within the country.
Considering both of these conflict began in 2003, it is interesting that our government decided to pursue Iraq instead of the province of Darfur in Sudan. The decision of the U.S. on this behalf promotes that there are other interests, other than helping those in need, that causes the U.S. to take action. It is upsetting that we have not used more of our abilities as the largest power of the world to help those of Darfur.
http://www.iraqbodycount.org/
http://scotlandonsunday.scotsman.com/latestnews/US-publishes-Iraq-civilian-death.5682009.jp
http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/sudan/index.html
http://www.usaid.gov/locations/sub-saharan_africa/sudan/
I really like your comparison of Iraq and Darfur but wasn't the main reason we went to Iraq to prevent the spread of weapons of mass destruction. At least at the time that’s what we were told but the validity of that claim can be questioned now. I don't believe the U.S. went to war to help the people of Iraq as much as to prevent the spread of terrorism, stop a dictator who hated America, and destroy weapons of mass destruction. The fact that the Iraqi people were also being abused came as an extra benefit towards going to war. While I think the U.S. should aid countries such as Darfur and previously Iraq, I don't know that war would solve very much. What more can we do for Darfur without going to war other than sending humanitarian aid?
ReplyDeleteI think that your ideas about the reasons for the United States actions are quite reasonable, and are some of my reasons for choosing this subject for my blog. As you said, it appears that the abuse of the Iraqi people was a benefit for going into Iraq. I do not feel that this is an appropriate way for the U.S. to make decisions. Human suffering should be an issue that the U.S. addresses with priority. Your also right in saying that war may not solve very much, and there is not very much that we can do other than provide humanitarian aid, which the U.S. doe s give to many countries. My interest in this subject is also related to the question of what can we do. The war with Iraq displays that war hasn't accomplished very much, but at the same time Darfur displays that humanitarian aid is not as successful as people wish it could be. Personally, I feel that maybe the U.S. could do more by influencing the countries of the world to provide more aid to places like Darfur. Maybe war is the only thing that would lessen human suffering, which is a very sad thing.
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