Iraq In Fragments

Iraq In Fragments

The United States entered Iraq to help liberate them from oppression Saddam Hussein. The reasons for enter Iraq was for the threat of chemical weapons that they may have. The questions have been stirring, is that what we are there for? Certain people who oppress the war say it is for the oil or so President George W. Bush can finish what his father started. The questions can be answered only through the eyes of congress and our past President. The government can dictate what it wants the people to know, very well. A real way to see if we should help the individuals who live in Iraq and were oppressed by Saddam, is to go into their land and see their lives.
Iraqis has many different opinions of the United States being in their homeland. There has obviously been oppression from the rule of Saddam Hussein. People have not been able to speak out against him and if it happened there were numerous punishments from it, such as being imprisoned, tortured, or even shot and killed. Muhammad, a child who lives in Iraq, states about his father being imprisoned, “My father was a Lieutenant, ten a policeman. One day he started talking about Saddam, then they put him in prison.” This should be more of a reason for the United States to get involved and help release these individuals. Freedom of speech and religion were the most important idea’s of our country and because of that our founding fathers put it as the first amendment. The counter argument for this would be, if the Iraqis wanted to get rid of the oppression they would themselves, that we should not lose American lives to better these individuals.
While watching the video, “Iraq In Fragments”, we see that there were both sides of this argument even in their society. Muhammad’s employer in the beginning of the movie stated that he felt the times were better while Saddam was in power. He wished for him to be back. As the film continued, they entered a Muslim temple and they were singing praises of Saddam’s oppression being gone, saying, “Be gone oppression… from Saddam.” So the real question occurs, what should we as America do?
The movie continues and shows us how bad things in Iraq are. Muhammad is in the age range of eight to ten years old. The movie starts by showing us his job and how his employer is abusive and brain washes the young child. We see this when he says, “look at me you scum!” and Muhammad replies to the interviewer by saying, “He loves me like a son.” Muhammad states his reason for working as, “I started working to support my grandmother and mother.” An eight-year-old boy should not be put into this situation.
As the movie continued we saw the young child attending school. He was held back three times, because he dropped out of school to work and support his family. Muhammad was asked to spell his name and his fathers name and he couldn’t spell his fathers name and his employer verbally abused him. Then Muhammad left his work there to work for his uncle. Muhammad was so glad to be out of that situation and we know this when he says, “I would rather kill myself then go back.” This brings up a great argument that the United States needs to intervene to not only help them from Saddam but so that children can have the opportunity to attend school and not have to worry about an angry employer who is only looking out for the money.
The movie is able to address many different audiences and able to address many questions about the situation that the people that live there have to deal with. People should not be forced to live in fear from a dictator or even their employer. I feel we should have done what we did. Now that the country is liberated we should move our troops out and put in more humanitarian aid.