December 15th, 2003 Saddam Hussein Finally Arrested

Saddam Hussein was hiding “in a narrow hole, between 6ft and 8ft deep, beneath a two-rrom shack in the tiny village of Ad Dawr, south of Tikrit.” When he was caught, he surrendered without a fight. The senior US commander in Iraq said, “he was a tired man, resigned to his fate.”

The solider said that where Saddam Hussein was hiding was more like a garage that smells really bad. He was hiding in his cook’s house. His cook was a very trustworthy person to Saddam, and he became rich with Saddam’s help. His cook and his brother Ala were both arrested for hiding Saddam.

The US soldiers were able to find him because one of the dictator’s families provided the key information. He said, “there was a Kurdish presence in Tikrit, around 50 peshmerga. They seemed to have assisted in operational matters and in intelligence gathering.”

I thought the most interesting thing in this article was the comment made by a neighbor, who was living near where Saddam was hiding. He said, “none of us knew Saddam was in there and none of us would have told anyone anyway. None of us support the Americans. They came to occupy Iraq. They said they came to liberate, but then we found Saddam was more honest than they are.”

I knew that this was going to happen! Americans lost their trust from Iraqi people. The war went on for too long without any progress. I bet a lot of Iraqi people feel same way as the neighbor. It seems like America helped Saddam gain more support from his people when we were supposed to bring down Saddam together.

I hope the war ends peacefully without any big riots of the Iraqi people. It’s good that Saddam is finally arrested. U.S. is now able to get out of Iraq soon since our ultimate goal is accomplished. It took longer than I thought to capture just one person, but I’m glad that we finally succeeded.

 

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/dec/15/iraq.garyyounge

October 27th, 2003 Violence Scars Ramadan

Ramadan is a very important holy month for Muslims around the world. They believe that their Prophet Muhammad revealed the holy book, Quran, about 14,000 years ago during Ramadan. Muslims fast during this month. They don’t eat or drink anything when the sun is up, but they all feast together when the sun goes down.

This holy act is facing challenges because of the war. Because of the weak currency and a bread crisis, a lot of Muslims are being forced to give up some cooked food because of high prices. An Iraqi said that, “prices of all kinds of nuts and dried apricots have doubled compared to last year. Most people I know are replacing apricots with oranges to make juice for their children.” This crisis is affecting many people in Iraq. The sellers who used to sell Ramadan food have fewer customers, and people have no luxury to celebrate Ramadan.

Ramadan eve was even overshadowed by a rocket attack that killed a few people, and there are still suicide bombings happening all around the country.

I am a faithful Christian, and I always can’t wait for Christmas to come every year. I think it’s same for all believers of various religions. Ramadan is like Christmas to Muslims. They get excited when the time gets near, and they can’t wait for it. I would be very disappointed if I can’t celebrate Christmas but instead have to just listen to bomb sounds and hear how many more people died.

U.S. needs to do something about Iraq’s economy. The situation is becoming worse after the war, and U.S. has to take a lot or responsibility for that result. They should provide the civilians with more money and more jobs.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/29/world/main580619.shtml?source=search_story

October 14, 2003 U.S. Tries Again On Iraq At U.N.

There was a new U.S. draft resolution giving Iraq’s US-appointed Governing Council “to develop a timetable for elections and a new constitution until December 15.” The draft seeks international troops and money to help the US-led effort to rebuild Iraq. According to the draft, “the Governing Council must submit to the Security Council “a timetable and a program for the drafting of a new constitution for Iraq and for the holding of democratic elections under the constitution”.”

The new draft reflected the discussions among United States, the UK, Spain, and others. What are those countries thinking? Where is the most important country of all in that little discussion group? Where is Iraq? Those countries had nothing to do with Iraq before the war, and they will have nothing to do with it in the future. I think there is a little possibility that they will only think about Iraq’s benefits.

I don’t think the draft is fair also. It’s good that America is trying to help, but I think US and the UN are too much involved in the formation of government in Iraq. America made its own constitution, and we never had to get it checked by any other country. That idea would outrage thousands. It’s just crazy. Then why does Iraq have to do that? I would be ashamed if I was an Iraqi.

It’s good that there is some progress though. U.S. is actually trying to get out of Iraq by helping Iraq form its own government. U.S. should quickly help Iraq to form a stable democratic country and move out. There is too much time and money being spent on the war. I remember the speech made by President Bush in the beginning of the war. He said that the war will go on as long as it has to be. It’s been about seven months. How long does the war have to go on?

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/10/14/iraq/main577988.shtml?source=search_story

September 25th, 2003 No WMD Found In Iraq

There was a report saying that there was no illegal arms have yet been found. David Kay said that “it is not expected to reach any conclusions about Iraq’s alleged weapons program.” There were no disclosed discoveries that would prove that weapons of mass destruction were ready to use before the war.

There were contrasting opinions about WMD made by President Bush and Powell. President Bush said that, “Saddam Hussein cultivated ties to terror while he built weapons of mass destruction,” but his opponent Democrat Powell said that, “He has not developed any significant capability with respect to weapons of mass destruction. He is unable to project conventional power against his neighbors.”

Who is telling the truth? Why Americans fighting each other? I feel like we should already have found WMD. It’s been four months since the war started. I don’t think we’re making any progress. I don’t even know what exactly WMD is. I always just thought of it as a great threat to Iraqi people, and we were just trying to help, but as I read more articles about it, I feel like it’s just an excuse for President Bush to attack Iraq.

I’m on more Powell’s side than President Bush’s. President Bush is losing my trust as the war goes on and on. I bet he is losing a lot of support from America and Iraq. There better be WMD or else President Bush will be hated by many people.

 

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/25/iraq/main575078.shtml?source=search_story

July 23rd, 2003 The Death of Saddam’s Sons

Saddam’s sons were killed yesterday in a gun battle. The deaths of his most feared lieutenants “represent the biggest coup for coalition forces since the fall of Baghdad more than three months ago.” It’s a hopeful turning point. Iraq analyst said that “their deaths could sap the morale of guerilla groups fighting for the restoration of the Hussein dynasty.”

People are celebrating, and they are making a big deal out of their deaths, but I don’t really get it. It’s not like we killed Saddam himself. We just killed his sons. I don’t think they had to die. They weren’t really involved directly in anything, but I can kind of understand that, but a teenage boy was also killed yesterday in the battle just because he was Qusay’s son. Who care if he was his son? He was only fourteen. He didn’t know anything. I feel like we are killing innocent people just because they were involved in it.

The article also said that several Iraqi civilians were wounded and died. I feel sympathetic toward them. My grandmother lost a lot of her friends and relatives during Korean War even though they weren’t involved in the government at all. She still doesn’t like to talk about it. The families of the dead civilians will forever grieve about it.

Innocent people shouldn’t be killed even though it’s a really hard thing to do during war times. Even Americans succeed its goals, people will not rejoice if so many people had to pay for it.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/jul/23/iraq.garyyounge

May 29th, 2003 Papers consider missing Iraq weapons

I was shocked by this article today. It said that there might be no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. I thought Americans went there for this single mission: to destroy the weapons and capture Saddam. We haven’t even found Saddam yet, and if there is no weapon existing, that’s waste of time and money.

The article said that “Saddam Hussein’s regime may have destroyed its weapons of mass destruction before the US-led invasion of Iraq.” It contrasts what the President Bush said and the US defense secretary said. They said that they know for sure that it exists.

Daily Mail asked the prime minister: “No Saddam, no weapons, murderous anarchy in Baghdad- well, what WAS it all for?” That’s the exact question I want to ask. I was curious if all that amount of oil in Iraq had something to do with this war, but I wanted to trust President Bush. If it was just for oil, then that makes America too selfish.

I feel ashamed as an American now. I thought we would quickly help Iraqi people and get out, so that they can have their own free democratic country. The war has been going on for about two months now. People will get wary if the war doesn’t stop.

If there is really no weapon at all, we should concentrate on just finding Saddam, or we could just leave. I don’t think Saddam will once again try to gain power. I think he already faced the consequences of his actions now. He knows that America will attack and track him down again if he becomes a dictator.

 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/2945812.stm

May 15th, 2003 US accused of failing to protect mass grave

The US military is being accused of “failing to protect and properly excavate the largest mass grave discovered in Iraq.” The grave had about 3,000 bodies. Villagers were able to recognize the bodies because there were plastic bags with clothing and broken bones in them across the site.

The villagers were all helping each other to unearth the bodies and recognize them, but Lieutenant General James Conway and his unit didn’t help them at all even though they were at the site. He said, “our feeling is that you would rather do this yourself.”

Lieutenant Conway is crazy. If he felt like Iraqi people would rather clean up Saddam’s mass, then why did Americans even come to Iraq at first? Americans were there to help. Mr. Bouckaert had the same response in the article. “Why was there all this talk about the crimes of the regimen of Saddam Hussein if the effort is not being made to identify the remains and establish the evidence of these brutal crimes?”

There are more than 200,000 Iraqis have gone missing since the Ba’ath party came to power. The party became dominant after 1968. Saddam and his party killed so many people in a short period of time. I didn’t know how cruel he was until I found out how many were killed and were missing. It’s like a communist government I’ve read about in history textbooks. I’m so glad that US is able to help even though US have a lot of faults in the process.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/may/15/iraq.rorymccarthy

April 9th, 2003 Saddam statue topples with regime

Today in Baghdad, the heart of the Iraqi capital, there was a scene that will be remembered by people around the world. In the main square, Iraqi men tried to pull down the statue of Saddam Hussein in “an unprecedented show of contempt for the Iraqi leader.”

It was too hard for the men to pull it down by themselves, so the US troops joined and helped by using an armored vehicle. Before pulling it down, a US soldier climbed up with a US flag and draped the face. The crowd was outraged because it seemed as “a step too far towards American triumphalism,” so the flag was removed and was replaced by the old Iraqi flag.

The US Central Command spokesman said that, “with every day that passes, we are breaking the grip of the regime.”

I feel bad for Saddam who is currently hiding somewhere. I wouldn’t want to see a statue of mine being pulled down by my people. It seems like US soldiers and Iraqi people are bonding together against Saddam. I would feel horrible if a foreign troop pulls down a George Washington statue, but since Iraqi people were pulling the statue themselves at first, I think there is nothing to criticize about it except for the flag.

When I read about a US soldier putting up a US flag, I thought it was controversial. When the troops entered, they removed the flags on the guns because they were here as a “liberator,” but what is up with putting up the flag? I would have been outraged like the most of the Iraqi crowd who were watching the scene.

I think this happening was very symbolic. I hope we find Saddam quickly and bring him down like the statue. I also hope that US army and Iraqi people work together until the end. It seems like the relationship between them is nice and trustful.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/onthisday/hi/dates/stories/april/9/newsid_3502000/3502633.stm

March 21th, 2003 U.S. Cities 1991 U.N. Cease-Fire Resolution as the Legal Basis for Its Invasion

 

                                   

The official reason for declaring war against Iraq is because it broke the resolution adopted after the 1991 Persian Gulf War. Iraq could not have a “regime change.” Negroponte wrote “Iraq had repeatedly refused to respond to diplomatic overtures, economic sanctions and other peaceful means designed to bring about compliance with its obligation to disarm and allow inspections of its weapons programs.” He also wrote that military action was necessary to defend the U.S. and the world from the threat by Iraq and “to restore international peace and security in the area.”

There were too many technical words, so I couldn’t understand the article fully, but it seems like United States gave a lot of chances to Iraq before it declared a war. I don’t get why Iraqi leaders didn’t agree to the peace talks. U.S. is much more powerful than Iraq, so the defeat of Iraq is obvious.

I feel like the article is overreacting on some parts. It said that Iraq was a threat, so U.S. had to defend itself and the world from it. I didn’t even know about Iraq before the war. I don’t think Iraq would have been a great threat to the world. The Iraqi leaders would have been a threat to the common people of Iraq, but I don’t think it would have affected other foreign people.

Negroponte promised “to take all reasonable precautions to avoid civilian casualties.” The war seems to be started for a good cause, but the good cause may lead to bad outcome. I hope that doesn’t happen, and one way to prevent that is to protect the civilians. They should not be punished in any way just because of their race. They have nothing to do with the leader’s choices. They are just common people who have rights to enjoy their freedom and feel safe.

 

http://articles.latimes.com/2003/mar/21/news/war-reasons21

March 20th, 2003 Bid to Assassinate Saddam

 

President George Bush declared war on Iraq officially today. He said, “we will accept no outcome but victory.” The goal of this war is to assassinate Saddam, the Iraqi leader, and his sons and lieutenants. The ultimate mission is basically “to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world against a grave threat.” US launched attacks to only “selected targets,” and the agents are trying to persuade Iraqi commanders to surrender before the war.

I’ve never anything about Iraq until I read this article. It sounds like the Iraqi dictator Saddam used brutal methods to gain power and to control people. I hope the US army tries its best to help the country without too much bloodshed.

The article talked about how when the soldiers entered the country, they took the US flags off their gun turrets because they were “entering Iraq as an army of liberation, not domination.” I love that quote. I feel like this war will be different than the previous wars in we were involved in. We’re not trying to take advantage of it. We’re just trying to prevent a disaster before it happens.

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2003/mar/20/iraq.jamesmeek