Impacts of the 2003 Iraq War

Impacts of the 2003 Iraq War The impact of the 2003 Iraq war on both the war on terror  and the prospects for peace in the Middle East Introduction The reasons for the U.S. led war in Iraq in 2003 were numerous and, as it turns out, rather complicated. But, for better or worse, the U.S. led coalition of nations invaded Iraq with â€Å"shock and awe† in 2003. This war in Iraq was conducted under the banner of â€Å"the war on terror.† This second U.S. led military endeavor into Iraq had a twofold mission, which was combative and aggressive on the one hand, and more conciliatory and democratizing on the other. These were the original intentions. The questions to be explored in this paper revolve around these dual aspects of the 2003 Iraq war. How has it affected the overall and global â€Å"war on terror,† and has it achieved a measure of peace and stability in the Middle East? From the beginning of the recent U.S. led war efforts in Iraq, there has been a twofold mission announced by President George W. Bush. The first mission is centered in the war against all terrorists and those who harbor terrorist organizations.[1] The second has been the desire to plant the seed of democracy in the Middle East; a desire which the President hoped might flourish into an eventual, lasting peace. In his 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush said, â€Å"We seek a just and peaceful world beyond the war on terror.†[2] In this line, his commitment to a war against terror is evident, but so is his desire to help bring about a peaceful world. The very name of the military offensive dubbed by the Bush Administration was â€Å"Operation Iraqi Freedom.† A â€Å"Just War† and the Necessity of Peace In all recent discussions of Just War theories, scholarship is united at least in the aspect of the theory that involves the attempt at peace following the war. That is, no war can be considered â€Å"just† if the winner merely walks away from the loser of a given war without any attempt to bring about a measure of stability, security, and peace. Much of this reasoning has to do with the ideas bound up within the just-war tradition. There are many scholars, secular, Catholic, and otherwise, writing within this tradition, as it pertains to the 2003 Iraq war. As George Weigel notes in a recent essay, in the writings of contemporary scholars in this tradition (e.g., James Turner Johnson and Michael Walzer), one encounters the essence of an approach to war that is commensurate with the U.S. President’s intentions expressed above. To engage in a war justly is not only to fight those forces of evil that seek to dominate or corrupt one’s society, nor is it merely about how nations ought to engage in warfare. Although those are considerations brought to bear on just-war theorizing, the fundamental underpinning of this approach to thinking about war â€Å"is ultimately about the peace we seek to establish in contrast to the war the terrorists have set in motion.†[3] That is, the overarching goal in all wars (including the war on terror) should be the eventual achievement, not merely of removing immediate threats to national security or of pacification of an enemy, of using war as an instrument to establish peace in a land. Peace brings prosperity, whereas continual war and factionalism never bring about progress or prosperity – only suffering which seems endless to those affected by it. The Successes, Trials and Tribulations of the War Perhaps because we are still so near the beginning of the war and because the operation continues to this moment, it is difficult to gauge the relative success of the war efforts themselves and as regards the broader â€Å"war on terror.† In fact, the situation today is still the reality that the success or failure of the war depends largely on who you ask. The war effort has been a politically polarizing issue, which has certainly affected the press, as well as the scholarly community. A simple survey of the books on the shelves to the articles and essays within journals will reveal this truth. It is therefore somewhat difficult to get a proper understanding of exactly what the ramifications of the 2003 Iraq war may be for the broader war on terror, but there is at least some consensus in a few areas useful for exploration in this regard. There are those who, like Charles Hill, can find little more than wide-reaching success in the current war efforts. He writes, â€Å"Iraq is moving toward the full legitimacy that Saddam Hussein stole from the Iraqi people. Sovereignty has been restored, free elections have been held, and a constitution has been approved.†[4] The press and other scholars have, on the other hand, not been so friendly in their detractions and perceptions of the war efforts. The â€Å"Reviews Responses† section of recent editions of the journal Foreign Affairs have been filled with review essays of books very critical of the war.[5] Sometimes the reviews are sympathetic; often times they are not. All of this is supportive of the difficult task ahead of scholars regarding the effort to separate the hubris from the reality of what implications the 2003 Iraq war may have for peace and the larger war on terror. There is no denying the success of disposing of the Taliban in Afghanistan and of Saddam Hussein and his regime in Iraq. This success was decisive, dramatic, and, in the words of Victor Davis Hanson, â€Å"audacious.†[6] Both of these regimes were legitimately argued to have been the most oppressive and potentially dangerous in the region. This is perhaps one of the most compelling reasons adhered to by most Americans originally supporting both war efforts. The question on the minds of most in the scholarly community is whether there was adequate planning for the immediate post-war environment.[7] However, even for those who were very supportive of the initial decision to invade Iraq, recent events over the last year at least, have been sobering. In an article written for the April edition of the journal First Things, George Weigel identifies four distinct wars that have constituted the entire Iraq war since 2003. The first war was the obvious one of deposing Saddam Hussein and creating conditions for the responsible establishment of an interim government and relative stability. This war was concluded quickly and successfully, most all scholars agree. The second war erupted shortly after the first had ended, and this one was against the Baathist loyalists and recalcitrants. The third war broke out as Jihadists (i.e., â€Å"al-Qaeda in Iraq†) began to flood into Iraq through the under-watched and unprotected borders and tried to disrupt the democracy being established there as well as drive out the â€Å"infidels† from the Gulf. The fourth, and perhaps most danger ous today, is the practical civil war that broke out in earnest between Sunnis insurgents and Shia militias after the bombing of a major Shia shrine in February, 2006. Weigel argues that only the first of these four wars has ended. The other three continue to this day and overlap each other.[8] Is it possible that the U.S. led coalition could have anticipated these mini-wars which followed the success of the first? Is it likely that the coalition did all it could to establish a peaceful, post-war environment? Reconstruction Challenges One of the sharpest criticisms of the 2003 Iraq war, even by those who originally supported it, is that there was not enough planning in terms of rebuilding the nation after the decisive defeat of the Iraqi military. First, by any reasonable standards, the amount committed to the reconstruction of Iraq after the war was not nearly enough. In hindsight, all seem to recognize this. Though the intentions of the Bush Administration were admirable in that they sought the just-war approach, which was to replace the dangerous regime with democracy, freedom, and a re-built nation, the reality was that through the combination of inadequate funds and bloated bureaucracy, the U.S. did not adequately anticipate what would realistically be needed to bring their intentions about.[9] George Weigel points out that only $2.5 billion had been originally budgeted for reconstruction assistance, and this was far away from the actual amount needed, given the dilapidated state of the nation due to Saddamâ €™s misrule and a decade of U.N. sanctions.[10] Peace through Civil War? The war created what most analysts have agreed to be a political vacuum. Once the rule of Saddam Hussein was done away with, there was not a quick enough turnaround time for a new and, perhaps most importantly, legitimized ruling government. The largest looming danger now is the risk of civil war in Iraq, which will almost certainly follow from the near-future withdrawal of U.S. forces from the country, as most scholars agree. â€Å"Especially if the United States withdraws from Iraq, the odds are good that a military coup in which some subset of the Iraqi army leadership declares that the elected government is not working and that a strong hand is necessary to impose order will result.†[11] As alluded to above, the civil war began to erupt after the bombing of the Shia holy site in February, 2006. At this point, it seems that the Sunni minority in Iraq, which has been a constant trouble from nearly the beginning, is only exacerbating its violence against the Shia to the south . Under the self-styled leadership of Muqtada al-Sadr, the various Shia militia forces have engaged in gross acts of terror in return.[12] Conclusion In a recent article, Victor Davis Hanson takes a realistic approach to the successes in Iraq. They cannot be underplayed, nor devalued. The overturning of the Iraqi regime, which was the main goal of the war, was achieved and likely the world is better for it. On the other hand, in retrospect the post-war aftermath was not fully appreciated until it was far too late. Three separate wars therefore erupted, and the most significant (the civil war) looms on the not-too-distant horizon. The prospects for peace are still available to the Middle East but only with properly calculated U.S. led coalition strategy for the future. If nothing else, the various shortcomings of the recent war will hopefully serve as a corrective and impetus to future successes in the war on terror. Successes have occurred, to be sure, but so have enormous challenges to peace, world-wide. Bibliography Bottum, Joseph, and Michael Novak. â€Å"The Leadership of George W. Bush: Con Pro.† First Things. March, 2007, No. 171, pp. 31-35. Diamond, Larry. â€Å"The Pressure Builds.† Hoover Digest. 2006, No. 3, pp. 21-29. Dobriansky, Paula J., Henry A. Crumpton, and F. Gregory Gause III. â€Å"Tyranny and Terror: Will Democracy in the Middle East Make Us Safer?† Foreign Affairs. Jan/Feb, 2006. Vol 85, No. 1, pp. 135-138. Fearon, James D. â€Å"Iraq’s Civil War.† Foreign Affairs. Mar/Apr, 2007. Vol. 86, No. 2, pp. 2-15. Feldman, Noah. What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2004. Hanson, Victor Davis. â€Å"Five Years On.† Hoover Digest. 2006, No. 4, pp. 82-86. Hanson, Victor Davis. â€Å"Hard Pounding.† Hoover Digest. 2006, No. 3, pp. 10-17. Hill, Charles. â€Å"The Rogues are Losing: Why the Rogues of the Middle East Have a Very Short Future.† Hoover Digest. 2005, No. 4, pp. 66-68. Kagan, Frederick W. â€Å"Iraq is Not Vietnam.† Policy Review. Dec, 2005 Jan, 2006, No. 134, pp. 3-14. Weigel, George. â€Å"Just War and Iraq Wars.† First Things. April, 2007, No. 172, pp. 14-20. Yoo, John. The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs after 9/11. Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2005. 1 [1] These commitments are very readily found in his 2002, 2003 and 2004 â€Å"State of the Union† addresses, as well as in his â€Å"Address to a Joint Session of Congress and the American People,† given on September 20, 2001. All of these speeches are available at http://www.whitehouse.gov. [2] It would seem that there are few who disagree with the President’s intentions in this regard. Renowned Middle East scholar, Bernard Lewis has long argued that the war on terror and the search for freedom are bound up the one with the other. The two must exist side by side and cannot exist one without the other. NYU law professor Noah Feldman argues that â€Å"the most defensible account of our nation-building policies in Iraq 2003–4, and the standard to which future U.S. efforts should be held, is the production of a basically legitimate, functioning democracy there.† What We Owe Iraq: War and the Ethics of Nation Building (Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 2004), p. 20. [3] George Weigel, â€Å"Just War and Iraq Wars,† First Things, April, 2007, no. 172, p. 14. Weigel is here quoting James Turner Johnson. [4] Charles Hill, â€Å"The Rogues are Losing: Why the Rogues of the Middle East Have a Very Short Future,† Hoover Digest. 2005, no. 4, p. 68. In this same essay, he goes on to point out the various ramifications of the initial stages of success of the Iraq war: Saudi Arabia, Egypt and Lebanon all having positive moves and reactions to the strength of the initial war in 2003. Libya’s decision to give up its arsenal is probably the most dramatic ramification of the initial successes of the war that supporters can point to, as Hill does in his essay. [5] The January/February 2006 edition of Foreign Affairs is a perfect example of this phenomenon. Every single review essay of that edition deals with the Iraq war. [6] â€Å"Five Years On.† Hoover Digest, 2006, no. 4, p. 84. Regarding the progress wrought by the Iraq war, Hanson writes, â€Å"thousands of terrorists killed, Al Qaeda scattered, Europe galvanized about Islamism and sobered about the consequences of its cheap anti-U.S. rhetoric, Iran’s nuclear antics revealed, democracy birthed in the Middle East, Palestinian radicals exposed for their fraud, the United nations under overdue scrutiny, America much better defended at home† came largely as a result of the war on terror, beginning with Afghanistan and culminating in Iraq. There is much significant impact there to be pondered. [7] Victor Davis Hanson, â€Å"Hard Pounding,† Hoover Digest, 2006, no. 3, pp. 14-15. [8] Weigel, â€Å"Just War and Iraq Wars,† p. 15. Frederick W. Kagan agrees with this assessment of the various wars being fought in Iraq, although he believes that Weigel’s second war largely ended with the capture of Saddam Hussein. Cf. â€Å"Iraq is Not Vietnam,† Policy Review, Dec, 2005 Jan, 2006, no. 134, p. 6. [9] Although, to be fair, it should be pointed out that former Secretary of Defense, Donald Rumsfeld, did anticipate that the cost of military operations and rebuilding efforts would amount to $3.9 billion per month in 2003. Cf. John Yoo, The Powers of War and Peace: The Constitution and Foreign Affairs after 9/11 (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 2005), p. 157. [10] Weigel, p. 17. [11] James D. Fearon, â€Å"Iraq’s Civil War,† Foreign Affairs, Mar/Apr, 2007, vol. 86, no. 2, p. 6. For concurring opinions see Larry Diamond, â€Å"The Pressure Builds,† Hoover Digest, 2006, no. 3, p. 29 and Weigel, p. 19. [12] Diamond, â€Å"The Pressure Builds,† pp. 26-8.

How Does Act One of Hamlet Shape Your Understanding of the Main Concerns of the Play Essay

In the interactions of characters, Shakespeare’s Hamlet examines fundamental characteristics of society which can result in moral ambiguity for both the characters and the audience. In a time of transition between the traditional church led tenets and the emerging Renaissance humanist views, the title character is related to other characters to explore the notions of corruption, loyalty and love. Contrastingly, it is also in the rejection of others and isolation of Hamlet that questions as the nature of life is unravelled. Indeed, whilst the world of Hamlet may appear unfamiliar to a 21st century audience it is the examination of such intrinsic qualities of humans that remains pertinent. Corruption is established as a main thematic concern of Hamlet from the opening and continues throughout the play. On a political level, corruption is explored through the dissolute nature of the Danish court. This reflects the contextual concerns of Shakespeare’s world with the belief in the Divine Right of Kings. This idea believes that a monarch is subject not to earthly authority but derives his right to rule directly from the will of God. Thus, in having a king that has not been given the right from God, but rather took it and is corrupt there would be a corrupt country- as Denmark is established to be from Act One. Through the imagery of nature in a degenerated state such as an â€Å"unweeded garden† the idea of corruption in the kingdom is established. Such imagery continues throughout the play and Denmark becomes synonymous with a state of decay. The Jacobean thoughts suggest that the nation reflects a ‘diseased body’ because a state has the wrong king and thus the natural order is unbalanced. Further, moral corruptION is set up in Act One through the character of Claudius and establishes the theme for the later exploration for the moral corruptness of Hamlet. That is, in Act One, the catalyst for Hamlet to become morally corrupt occurs. Moral corruption is most obviously seen in Act One through Claudius. His first speech gives the impression that HE Claudius is a good man, upset by his brother’s death. However, it is soon discovered that he is corrupt and has wrongfully taken the throne from Hamlet. In this first speech Claudius is very controlled and uses poetic language to make the marriage seem normal despite the fact that Denmark has only recently been unbalanced by the death of their king. The use of â€Å"our† as the royal plural eans that he has adopted the language of kingship but because he has taken its wrongfully, a sense of corruption is immediately established. For a Jacobean audience, the wrongful king would make them question their own monarchy, where a very didactic Elizabeth sat on the throne. When corruption presents itself, tensions arise between a tragic individual who condemns it and their society. It is in the interaction with Claudius, as the embodiment of such corruption, that H amlet becomes disillusioned with his state. In Hamlet’s first line â€Å"a little more than kin/a little less than kind† the pun directly attacks Claudius’ facade of benevolence, utilising a pun to highlight his awareness of the deceptive appearances with the court. Moreover, Hamlet rallies against the superficial merriment of the court in his â€Å"O, that this too too solid flesh would melt† soliloquy comparing his father as a ‘Hyperion’ to Claudius as ‘a satyr. ’ Claudius tries desperately to maintain a weak and unnatural court in the balance between the supposed sorrow he feels for the king’s death and the joy he must feel for marrying his dead brother’s wife. This is supported in his inconsistency of â€Å"through yet of Hamlet our late brother’s death the memory be green†, whereby the idea of death and decay is fused with imagery of greenery, growth and renewal. Such actions lead Hamlet to question the way in which corruption can grapple his entire state, likening it to â€Å"all things rank and gross in nature. † This isolates him, despite his clearly identified place in Denmark. His â€Å"inky cloak† becomes a metaphor for both his physical and mental isolation – a result of Claudius corrupt action.

Psychopharmacology Paper Essay

The study of psychopharmacology delves into the alterations in human thinking, mood, and behavior as result of inducing drugs – how psychoactive substances are employed by people to change their moods.   The field involves research and study into the effects of numerous kinds and types of substances, and how it would impact on the psychological behavior of the individual.    Not merely elaborating the ramifications of the use of recreational drugs, the study can be a particularly helpful mechanism in determining how certain drugs can alleviate psychological diseases, like mental disorder.   The substances’ psychoactive relation with brain response and the bio-chemical implications are part and parcel of psychopharmacology.   The psychoactive drugs can be obtained from a wide range of sources, natural and synthetic. These substances interact with the nervous system, and would elicit behavioral and psychological alterations in an individual.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   The positive aspects of psychopharmacology are mainly its positive clinical effects that allow people with mental disabilities to lead lives that are normal – through the help of drugs like anti-depressants and anti-anxiety.   Also, it allows psychologists to investigate a wide range of behavior-altering substances that can be utilized for clinical purposes that can help countless patients.   Since psychopharmacology would extensively analyze drug effects, then it can suitably identify which substances can be utilized for public use and cure mental and psychological patients. It is an important aspect of mental health that allows for research and development of the field.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚   Conversely, the study has also several identified drawbacks, like the ramifications of drug testing which ultimately would involve humans.   Human testing can have unforeseen implications which can prove to be detrimental to the mental health of the test subject.   A certain drug to be able to be consumed in the market has to go through a tedious process of research and approval by the government, to ensure public safety of the drug use. References Brain, Christine. (2002). Advanced Psychology: Applications, Issues and Perspectives. United Kingdom: Nelson Thornes. Meyer, Jerrold, and Linda Quenzer. (2004). Psychopharmacology: Drugs, The Brain and Behavior. United States: Sinauer Associates. Nemeroff, Charles, and Alan Schatzberg. Eds. (2006). Essentials of Clinical Psychopharmacology. United States: American Psychiatric Publishing.

John Donne s The Good Morrow - 2527 Words

John Donne wrote â€Å"The Good Morrow† was written in 1633, and it was part of John Donne’s famous â€Å"Songs and Sonnets which was consider the corner stone of his career. Donne was a very passionate writer when it came to his love poems. He was born in London in 1572 and educated in many subjects and it showed in his poems with his very strong imagery, puns, and paradoxes. He was considered one of the best metaphysical writers ever. He liked to show his vast array of knowledge in many of his works. His love poems were a little different from his later works when he became a preacher. His earlier love poems were very passionate and dramatic it seemed to express how extreme his youthful years were. Donne was said to be part of many sexual rumors during his youth, and the audience he wrote could see that in his poem. Donne’s early life he was branded as an outsider and it did not really change throughout his life; his place in society seemed to jump around all his life from passionate bachelor to a preacher. His current status in life seemed to influence his work tremendously. Looking at his life it tells us that youth is the part of life that the idea of love is mainly concentrated during this time. Later in his life he seems to settle down with his ideas on love, and his ideas of love become more subtle. Even though Donne has study the sequences in the love poems and sonnets of Petrarchan. He has chosen a different style when writing his love poems, instead of writing about everyShow MoreRelatedAnalysis Of John Donne s The Good Morrow And Judith Wright s Woman1499 Words   |  6 Pages John Donne’s The Good Morrow and Judith Wright’s Woman to Man explore the key idea of passionate love through the appreciative tone of voice. In the opening stanza, Donne’s rhetorical question of ‘Were we not weaned till then?’ refers to how he is awaking with his lover by his side, which establishes the setting of their bedroom; whilst the hyperbole deliberately exaggerates how they were supposedly naà ¯ve and childlike before falling in love. The alliteration here serves a similar effect to emphasisRead More Light and Sight in The Good-Morrow Essay902 Words   |  4 Pages Light and Sight in The Good-Morrownbsp;nbsp; John Donne’s poetry deals with themes of creation and discovery. In his work The Good-Morrow, these issues are discussed through the use of poetic symbols. Donne gives major emphasis to the sense of sight as a way of discovering pure love. The first stanza contains images of sleep and, more generally, the ways in which one’s eyes can be closed to the world. Donne uses phrases like not weaned (2), childishly (3), and dream (7), to suggestRead MorePoems with Theme with Life and Death and Their Analysis8446 Words   |  34 Pagesconventions, which developed gradually over centuries, pastoral elegists mourn a subject by representing the mourner and the subject as shepherds in a pastoral setting. The most famous example of the pastoral elegy is Lycidas (1638), by the English poet John Milton. (In music the term elegy is frequently applied to a mournful composition.) Origins and Development: Before language was written, it was spoken. The earliest religious songs and incantations were in poetic form. The same was true of storiesRead MoreSustaining the Innovation Process: the Case of Rolls-Royce Plc13942 Words   |  56 Pagesenables the company to compete in the high-thrust turbofan market as one of the â€Å"Big Three†, along with US-based General Electric Aircraft Engines and Pratt Whitney. The technological foundation of Rolls-Royce’s competitive advantage is the RB211’s unique â€Å"three-shaft† architecture that the company began developing in the last half of 1960s. The initial attempt to develop the RB211 for the Lockheed L-1011 jumbo jet, however, drove Rolls-Royce into bankruptcy in February 1971. Yet, as a nationalised