Today I am going to talk about the Iraq war. This is a very uncertain issue with many people. First of all I am going to give you history on-(1) the country of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, and al-Qaeda. Iraq is a middle eastern country, (Area:167,975 sq mi, population in 2002 was 24,002,000). Iraq has the world's second larges proven reserves of petroleum, and it has substantial reserves of natural gas. The economy languished under a UN economic embargo imposed on Iraq in the 1990s. The embargo began to erode by the early 21 st century, but in 2003 an Anglo-American invasion drove the Bath Party from power. Now we turn our focus on Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein was born on April 28, 1937 in Tikrit, Iraq.
He briefly attended law school in Cairo. He led the nationalization of the oil industry in 1972. He was president of Iraq from 1979-2003. As president, he instituted a brutal dictatorship and directed intensive campaigns against minorities within Iraq. He was captured by U.S. forces, after several months in hiding. The man who has deluded capture, Osama bin Laden. Osama was born in 1957, in Riyadh, Saud. Ar. He was the son of a wealthy Saudi family, he joined the Muslim resistance in Afghanistan after the 1979 Soviet invasion of that country. Osama bin Laden issued several legal opinions calling on Muslims to take up (holy war) against the U.S., in the September 11 th attacks, which led to the deaths of some 3,000 people. And he is still to be captured.
The organization that you have heard about in the news, the Taliban. The Taliban is a political and religious faction, which came into power in the mid-1990s. Under the leadership of Mullah Mohammad Omar, the Taliban extended its control in Afghanistan from a single city to more than half the country. And by 1999, the Taliban controlled most of Afghanistan but failed to win international recognition of its regime because of its harsh social policies. “Now to our last history lesson.” al-Oaeda is a broad-based Islamic militant organization founded in Afghanistan. It staged numerous terrorist attacks, including the destruction of two U.S. embassies in Africa in 1998, and a suicide bomb attack against the U.S. warship Cole in 2000. The U.S. and allied forces responded by attacking the Taliban and al-Qaeda forces in Afghanistan, killing and capturing thousands and driving the remainder into hiding. (1) (Encyclopaedia Britannica 2006 CD. Iraq, Saddam Hussein, “bin Laden, Osama.”, “Taliban”, “Oaeda, al-, and some of my words added in.).
So you may ask the question, have we done any good? I would answer and say yes, because we have given people freedom, that did not know freedom, before we liberated them. We will not always agree with our president, but we can agree that the president has tried his best to protect our country. My brother is overseas and I do worry for him just like other Americans who worry for their love ones. And I hurt when I hear of a fallen U.S. troop. So in this new year, lets make it a goal to pray and stand behind our soldiers. ( some of the above I might have heard, and I have repeated it.)
