week 2, a

Why are we in Iraq? This is the question that has been posed on Americans for the past five years. I am not the president, the army chief of staff, nor a general in our army. I am merely a plain citizen of our nation. I cannot answer for America why we are Iraq; to be honest I have no idea why we are there. For world peace, democracy in the Middle East, WMD, who knows why we are there. I have read two articles in this issue to help me better understand why we are in Iraq.
The first article I read was about the duration of a military tour is to be shortened. The general and army chief of staff have come to decide that it is more beneficial to lower the tour from 15 to 12 months. The army has decided that in order to help our soldiers, we should give them less time in the combat zone. In our fifth year of the war many soldiers are coming back to serve in Iraq for numerous times. Making the tour duration will help make a less stressful life for the soldiers. Reading this article from FOX news I get the impression that we are in Iraq as world peace keepers and our soldiers are helping make our world a better place to live for all.
Another article I read to help me better understand why we are in Iraq came from CNN. This article explains a raging battle in one small town in Iraq between US backed Iraqi soldiers and shite militia. The article explains how there is uneasy times in this town and many people are paying the price of death including Americans. I believe that this article also backs my statement of Americans being in Iraq to help bring much needed peace to the Middle East. The Americans have assumed the role as ‘world police”.

http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/04/07/iraq.sadr/index.html
http://www.foxnews.com/world/iraq/index.html