The Great Liberation

The Iraq War and the general “War on Terror” are often thought of as only combating terrorism, but in reality, that is not the entire case. Sure, on the surface level, that was a goal but there was something else behind this move. Former Army Colonel Andrew Bacevich proposes that this is the case and that there has to be some underlying cause. Often people will assert that the US would go in for oil or natural resources, but I just find these arguments a little too convenient. Instead, I think that there is more of a nuanced view of things. I truly believe that there was a sense that America needed to liberate these people from dictatorial regimes. America as the world’s police meant that they felt there was a moral authority that called America to help liberate the world. There also is a precedent of doing this in Latin America and Post war Italy and Japan. This idea of nation building is not new and was part of the explanation for this event. In this chapter, Bacevich looks for the connection between what he calls “empire” abroad and “freedom” at home. He makes the case that as empire expands abroad, freedom at home is reduced. He points to the Patriot Act as an example, which was used to spy on Americans for “counter terrorism” purposes. Another question that arises is, Is there a way to get out of these so-called forever wars? Well not really. With the gift of hindsight we can see that attempts to get out of both Iraq and later Afghanistan have been largely unsuccessful and drawn heavy criticism. Really to get out of these wars you have to do so gradually. This is due to the massive infrastructure put into these wars as well as (in the case of Afghanistan) how weak the people in power were without US backing. Therefore, rash pulling out makes absolutely no sense when evaluating what to do.