Davies
ENGL 101.014
WP4
On October 22 in 2002, a crisp, autumn, Wednesday afternoon, a man of considerable influence stood before a crowd of thousands in downtown Chicago with a clear and concise message. He confidently stated “Now let me be clear – I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied UN resolutions, thwarted UN inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity.” These words came from our future President of the United States, Barack Obama. Strong words proclaiming one thing. Saddam Hussein is a bad man. It is reasonable that one would assume from this message that Senator Obama would concede that it is in United States’ best interest to remove Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq, and overthrow his government. However, the picture becomes a bit more muddled if I read to you the words he spoke just before this proclamation. He said “That’s what I’m opposed to. A dumb war. A rash war. A war based not on reason but on passion, not on principle but on politics.” The assumption first made would be wrong. Senator Obama did not believe it to be in the best interests of our country to invade Iraq, despite his beliefs that Saddam Hussein was a bad man, and that the world would be a better place without him.
The sentiments of Senator Obama that day were shared by a number of politicians and citizens throughout the country. However, there were also a large number that would support our President at the time, George W. Bush, if he decided to move militarily against Iraq. Numbers showed that a large percentage of civilians shared Obama’s views on Saddam Hussein; however, they backed a U.S. led invasion of Iraq, whereas Senator Obama did not. What did Barack Obama know that other people did not? The Bush administration had issued statements that received intelligence positively identified Saddam possessing, and manufacturing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD). He was in clear violation of U.N. Resolution 1441, which will be discussed later. And further, he was actively attempting to procure Uranium for the purpose of attaining nuclear weapons. Without a doubt, we urgently needed to invade Iraq, and remove Saddam from power. But what if that intelligence was wrong? In this paper, I will examine the information used in declaring war on Iraq, and the ensuing post-war findings of the Iraq Survey Group (ISG).
I like what you've done for your intro. My only suggestion is that you try say something other than "bad man" when talking about Saddam. Don't get me wrong, he was a bad man, but try using something that sounds a bit more scholarly and educated. Besides that, fantastic job so far.
ReplyDeleteThis is a good start.It caught my attention right away.
ReplyDeleteGreat attention getter, using a direction quote/speech usually keeps the reader on edge. Your second paragraph I felt was kind like random facts about Saddam, I may have miss read or skipped a line.
ReplyDeleteTry to come up with a different word for bad. Another word would have more meaning I think. Bad seems elementary to me in this context.
I disagree with Jr.Knoll, I like the simplicity and ambiguity of "bad man." Aside from that, I absolutely love this introduction. I'm quite fond of politics and the issue of the current "war" is a very prevalent and great topic to research. I like the use of evidence. It wasn't too much, it was just right to lay out a solid path to your paper. Great job.
ReplyDeleteI agree with TragedyHoax--you allow the speaker to set the context for you and you rely on his words to continue with--this is an issue of defintiion and could use some thesauroscoping if you'd like--is being "bad" a good enough reason to invade? Well, if we mean by bad the scrapes teens get into when they are having fun, then no. But if bad means something different on a world scale--then maybe. I still think your thesis could be stronger--letting your reader know what you've found out in order to prepare them for what is coming--and the order it might show up.
ReplyDelete