Essay about Assessment of the War in Iraq - 1621 Words

Saddam Hussein was indeed a ruthless dictator who violated human rights and caused conflicts in the Middle East. Despite this, his threat to the world community was largely overstated by the US in its justifications for going to war. His reputation as crazy and unpredictable was countered in his psychological assessment, which clearly shows his motivations and identifies the amount of foresight in every decision he makes. Basically, his main motivation was to stay in power and he did everything he could to achieve that. Drawing off of this assessment, if becomes very clear that if he wanted to stay in power, even if he did have chemical, biological, or weapons of mass destruction, he would never use those in a foreign conflict, much less†¦show more content†¦The only way to fix the human rights crisis in Iraq would be to invade and install a new government. This was not the stated goal and therefore it still was not the right course of action. Despite shortcomings with the d ecision to go to war, how the war was actually carried out posed more problems. The administration had a very favorable view of how the war would go and how post-war issues would work themselves out. They were under the impression that this war would be like any other situation where a new government was put up, like in Japan, Germany, or in many former Soviet states. The US has never dealt with this situation in the Arab world, though. In many cases, administration’s expectations for the war were simply unrealistic – some estimates had all forces out of Iraq within a year and one comment led people to believe that Iraq’s reconstruction would only cost the US $1.7 billion. Nearly everybody else had a different idea of how the post-war period should be dealt with. The Army Chief of Staff, Eric Shinseki, estimated to the Senate Armed Services Committee that several hundred thousand soldiers would be needed to occupy Iraq – much more than those needed to inv ade it. Another estimate was that the war might eventually cost $1.7 trillion. Everyone expected looting after the regime fell and called for the necessary troops to maintain order. Most people expected mass amounts of refugees within the country as the regime unleashedShow MoreRelatedPost Traumatic Stress Disorder in Troops Leaving Iraq1032 Words   |  4 PagesRunning Head: Post-traumatic stress disorder leaving Iraq Post-traumatic stress disorder leaving Iraq Introduction Recently a study has been carried by the American Army on the health of the military troops that have just returned from Iraq. It has been found that one in every right soldier is suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder. 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