Welcome...and initial guidelines...

This blog will be used in the spring of 2008 by 80+ students at Drexel University to investigate the effects of Iraq on culture and the reverse. Our goal will be to better understand why the US is in Iraq, and to question whether literature can help us on this journey.

Weekly plans and other materials will always be posted in Vista, not this blog. So go to Bb Vista to get the discussion prompts and other instructions.

I intend this blog to manage our discussions and track our collective investigation.

You should have received an email from me inviting you to become a contributor to this blog. The email was sent Monday afternoon to your official Drexel email address.

Thursday, April 3, 2008

Person Views on the Iraqi War

Personal Views on the Iraqi War

When the war in Iraq first began I was a mix of emotions. I remember feeling like there had been a shift in the world. I think I was more attuned to what was going on than most because my brother’s best friend, Nick, was going to fight in Iraq. He had told us before the war started that if we went to Iraq his company was going. I had never been aware of our military fighting before so I tried to think of past wars, especially from WWII, because to most that was considered a “noble” war. I wanted to justify why we were going and understand why someone I cared for might die.
I thought and still think that taking Saddam Hussein out of power was a good thing. Maybe it wasn’t necessary for America’s immediate well being, but he was a sadistic violent man who tortured and killed his people and I don’t see much difference between him and Hitler. He didn’t gain as much power as Hitler, but what I do think would have had as much power as Mussolini. I think the true “Hitler” esque character in this war is the president of Iran, Ahmadinejad. But Mussolini was a great help to Hitler so maybe we hindered the “enemy” in a different way. Now I use the term “enemy” loosely because I am aware the “enemy” is terrorism, but terrorism has to be funded by someone.
As far as pulling out of Iraq I am torn. I would love to say, “Our troops should go home right now!” But I don’t think that would be responsible or realistic. I think that we should be making more of an effort to put Iraqi’s in power and training more Iraqi’s to defend themselves. I know that’s what we’re supposedly doing but I think that should be focused upon more.

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