No connection between Hussein and al-Qaida

This is obviously very old news, but also very notable. It was announced around March 14^th by the Pentagon. Apparently they can definitively say that there never was a connection between Saddam Hussein, former leader of Iraq, and al-Qaida. I think that many people suspected this, but there’s just something about hearing the government come out and say it. We have been in this war for five years now and the majority of the United States’ rationales for entering it have been disappointed. After September 11^th, we were told that those who were responsible for the deaths would be held responsible. We were later lead to believe that Saddam Hussein was somehow linked to the terrorist group responsible for the attack and therefore was responsible himself. Now we find that this isn’t the case. We were also told that Iraq had the now famous (or infamous) “weapons of mass destruction.” We have yet to ever find those either. Remarks have been made that people in Iraq hid them, but I am curious to know how one effectively hides and moves excessively potent atomic or biological weapons. I’m guessing they’re pretty big. So now that these are disproved the only rationale we’re left with is that we’re spreading freedom to the people of Iraq. Congratulations. We’ve finally found a rationale that no one could possibly argue with without being an evil person.

The War in Iraq? Never heard of it.

Whatever happened to the War in Iraq? Although it was an extremely important and often talked about issue early on in the election, it seems to be a taboo topic anymore. And this doesn’t just include the political candidates but in the media as well. It seems to be almost possible to forget that we are even in a war that has dragged on for around 7 years.

What news you can find reporting on the subject says that there is less violence, especially in Baghdad where there are an increased number of troops actively securing the city. But others claim that the lower occurrences of violence are superficial. Since the basic root of the violence is conflict between the Sunni and the Shiites and corruption in general, are we really solving these problems? Of course the lower violence is good news but one has to wonder why the violence is decreasing. Is it simply because we have upped the security in this major city and mainly separtated the groups? And if that is true, then what happens when we leave? And even if this war does turn out alright, does this mean that we should just forget about the lack of morality surrounding its beginning?