Abstract
“We will defend our freedom. We will bring freedom to others and we will prevail.” With words as emphatic as these, the 79% of Americans watching President George W Bush confidently address his fellow citizens in a successful attempt to sell the invasion of Iraq couldn’t help but be patriotically led along by the message of liberation. It seemed like a foolproof case. The Iraqi people had been oppressed, abused, and forgotten by the fascist dictator Saddam Hussien for the past 24 years, and what is America if not the iron fist of democracy? America has a long history of invading nations on the principles of “democracy,” and “freedom” of foreign nations. However, in the case of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, American invasion and subsequent occupation led to increased sectarian violence, and has left Iraq as a shell of a nation with little hope for the future.
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