The war in Iraq has brought about a level of enmity between political parties that only few wars in history have. Americans wish what is best for their country, but people often differ in their views of what is best. In the essay, “I Am Iraq”, Michael Ignatieff proposes that the argument of going to war in Iraq “is not so much a clash of competing moral identities as a battle within each of us to balance competing moral arguments.”
Ignatieff states bluntly that he dislikes the party that supports the war in Iraq, but he feels that they are right on the issue of going to war. Ignatieff detests the president's domestic policies. Ignatieff's friends believe that his support for this war is “naïve”. author, nevertheless, supports the war because he won the war within himself. Supporting the war is the conqueror of his personal battle. The author supported his thesis well by contrasting the points of President Bush's policy that he agreed with and the points with which he disagreed.
Once Ignatieff acknowledged that the issue is not whether the Iraqis benefited from the invasion but whether it was “prudent” to invade he showed the two philosophical opponents of this “battle within each of us”. He identified the “consequential”, or “the ends justify the means” approach to this war as well as the “deontological”, or the “this war is morally wrong so we shouldn't be in it” approach.
Concluding his essay, Ignatieff empowers his thesis by writing “the fact is that America is neither the redeemer nation nor the evil empire.” The battle that must go on within us now is the whether the risks we are taking are worth running.
The author's opinion on this subject is just how I feel. We are not only fighting a global war on terror but also a war within ourselves. The outcome of the global conflict will be largely decided by the prevailing philosophical idea from our personal battles. I align myself with the consequential side of this argument. I feel that our cause in Iraq is justified through liberating 25 million people. This article was written some time ago, however, and I believe the argument has broadened somewhat. The personal battles are no longer reserved for Americans exclusively. The war in Iraq must be decided when the Iraqis answer whether the ends - a peaceful Iraq - justify the means - supporting their new government and ending the violence.
