This War is no longer a war.

Iraq, as the United States has deemed it, is the model that they want the Middle East to follow once the Iraqi government establishes itself as an autonomous entity. The war was waged with a basis that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction. A basis that was backed up with intelligence gathered by the different agencies and departments. As president, George W. Bush took the intelligence, consulted, and acted as he saw fit. The war was waged and has been declared over. What is left is the occupation of a Middle Eastern country. The view of a democratic state within the confines of such a religious and cultural haven has in fact enraged and infuriated the neighboring states (Iranian produced weapons etc.). The dissent comes from those who believe that Saddam Hussein was wrongly removed from power and that The United States is destroying their country. With that said, with the events of September 11, 2001 and the threat of a radical dictator having control of weapons of mass destruction, the intentions of the war were to preserve and protect the United States. Now, while people go quick to point the finger at all the deaths endured on both sides of the conflict, many disregard the abundance of terrorist activity in other countries and only focus on the negative aspects of this conflict that is publicized. There are US military personnel installations around the world, the Iraqi conflict is just one part of the war on terror. Islamic extremist regimes, for example, in the Philippines have long been monitored due to the contact with Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda. And people will say, "why haven't we captured Osama?" and the fact remains we will not capture Osama until the mentality of terrorism is eliminated from the world. The United States removed a leader who used biological weapons on his own people. "Iraqis don't want us there" many will also say, but my high school history teacher, a Lieutenant Colonel in the United States Marine Corps, who is a military historian that was deployed in Iraq brought in and showed us the Iraqi ballots for elections, elections with more than one person on it, not just the Saddam-led Baath party, but parties that represented all walks of life within the Iraqi cultural community. Terrorism sees Iraq as a valuable possession as the US troops are still there, so that they can inflict more attacks on the US-backed government. Terrorism isn't just Al Qaeda, it isn't one certain goup of people, it is an idea that by placing terror in the enemies mind they will inevitably lead the enemy to destroy itself. Iraq is no longer the site of a war, it is an occupation that only history will be able to examine as the right or wrong choice for America.