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Austin Squire
English II and U.S. History
The U.S. War on Iraq Research Paper (Final Draft)
18 May 2015
The Impacts of The U.S. War on Iraq
The U.S. War on Iraq has deeply impacted the U.S. and Iraq. The U.S. War on Iraq was
started because of Bushs newly found foreign policy called The War on Terror, which was put
into play after the 9/11 attack. The United States goal was to take out Saddam Hussein and his
weapons of mass destruction, to establish a democracy, and take out Al-Qaeda (Foreign
Affairs). After the war, the U.S. did not accomplish a democracy, to this day Iraq is politically
divided and still has Al-Qaeda and now ISIS (U.S. News). Also they soon found out that
Saddam Hussein didnt have any real weapons of mass destruction (U.S. News). These impacts
are just the tip of the iceberg of the wars impacts, the United States and Iraq are impacted
politically, economically, and are impacted mentally and humanitarianly by the war.
First from the list of impacts are political impacts of the Iraq War. The impact of the Iraq
war had a big impact on U.S. politics. For example, Bush was once supported during his
presidency when he started the war on Iraq, but as the war was taking off he began to lose
support over the war (CBS News). He began to lose support over the war because of many
reasons. One reason was because the war was costing more and more money (Global Policy
Forum). Another reason was because the public was beginning to feel that the expense of U.S.
troops and money wasnt worth it. Also the people of the U.S. felt the war wasnt going as good
as they had originally planned, in 2004 there were 52% of americans felt this way. Plus the U.S.
did not find any real weapons of mass destruction. They did remove any way that they could

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develop any weapons of mass destruction (U.S. News). The final reason is time, the war was
taking too long to the public. All of these are examples of the public turning against Bush and the
war effort. Also this lead to the Democratic party to become the leading position on national
security (CBS News). Also the Democratic Party began to take more control in the Congress
(Global Policy Forum). The war shifted the role of national security from one political party to
the other, and lead to Obama becoming president (CBS News).
Also Iraq was impacted politically by the war. Iraq to this day is politically divided into
three. Actually the country was separated into three, Sunni, Shiites, and Kurdish. This was
caused because of the passing of the non binding resolution by the U.S. Congress in October of
2007. The initial goal of the U.S. was to turn Iraq into a democratic state and to rebuild it, but
instead they separated it, because the U.S. thinks that the cause of violence in Iraq is due to the
civil war between the different groups (Global Policy Forum). The U.S. has failed to
accomplish their goal, they left before they could accomplish it. The U.S. also failed at taking out
the Al-Qaeda forces. Not only did they fail, but Al-Qaeda got stronger in the first three years.
Between 2006 and 2012 Al-Qaeda was weakened, but is still around(U.S. News). Also the
political and military failures of Iraq led to ISIS (a terrorist group) taking over many of the main
parts of Iraq to this day (NBC News).
Not only was there political impacts of the war, but there also were economical impacts
as well. The U.S. spent a lot of money and troops on the war. At first the U.S. were planning to
spend more than 3 trillion dollars on the war. The U.S. had already spent 600 billion dollars on
the war in 2007, but in 2008 President Bush wanted an extra 196 billion dollars for the war
efforts we had in Iraq and Afghanistan. This made the Congress begin to cut down on the
spending of the war. Some say that at the rate the U.S. was going that by 2008 the war will have

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costed more than the Korean War and reach the cost of the Vietnam War (Global Policy
Forum). Usually when the U.S. goes to war it helps the economy (Council on Foreign
Relations). For example, when the U.S. was going through the Great Depression, they began to
come up with ideas like the New Deal to get out of the Great Depression. But the U.S. never
fully gotten out of depression until they got into World War II. This lowered the unemployment
rate and got the economy moving again. In the case of the Iraq war, the experts in economy say
that the cost of the war will extremely outweigh the lasting benefits (U.S. News). The U.S.
didnt take a total loss from the war. The U.S. managed to sneak in some of their oil companies
into Iraq during and after they withdrawn from the war. For example; you have the worlds
largest oil companies like Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP, and Shell going into Iraq and taking their
oil. All of the other countries who have oil companies in Iraq are making a lot of money off of
Iraqs oil, but Iraq isnt getting a dime of it (CNN).
Iraq as well are feeling the strain of the war on their economy. After the first 4 years of
the U.S. occupation, Iraq began to experience an extremely high unemployment and a lot of
poverty. This is because there are 4 million refugees that were displaced everywhere(Global
Policy Forum). Also Colin Rowat, who is an expert on the Iraqi economy, found that the war as
of 2006 is costing Iraq 40% of its national income. He came up with this by making several very
complicated calculations. He also came up with a theory that if there was no war, and Iraq was
was producing oil at a steady rate that Iraqs economy would have increased by 12% per year.
This wouldve made Iraq the fastest growing economy in the world (The New York Times).
But now Iraq is war torn, and the U.S. plans for the reconstruction of their country is now no
longer on the table. It will take Iraq years to recover from all of these consequences of the war
(Global Policy Forum). Not only that but the U.S. along with other countries have gone into

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Iraq and started taking their oil, and that money that is being raised from the oil that is in the
country is not trickling its way into Iraqs economy (CNN). Iraq and its oil has become the
new Open Door Policy to the world.
There were many impacts of the U.S. War on Iraq, the final impacts are humanitarian and
the mentality impact on the soldiers. There are so many mental problems that soldiers of the Iraq
War have. One mental problem is violence in the soldiers of war. Which the first mental problem
goes along with this one, and that is Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is when the person
who has this is always frightened even when they are not in danger. A soldier or person who is
diagnosed with PTSD can cause them to attack people who arent threatening them. Even to
those who are closest to them (National Institute of Mental Health). Depression and suicides
are also very high in soldiers of war. In 2012, there were 349 soldiers who committed suicide.
This concludes that the suicide rate increased by 16% between 2011 and 2012. Not only did it
increase, but it hasnt been like this in 26 years (Foreign Policy).
Not only did the U.S. soldiers suffered mental impacts of war, but Iraqi soldiers and
citizens are suffering mentally as well. As of 2011, there was an estimate of 4.5 million Iraqi
orphans, and an estimated 70% of them lost their parents due to the U.S. occupation of Iraq. The
Iraqi children are growing up in a society where there are homes being looted and neighborhoods
are getting blown up, while they are suppressing their anxiety, which causes many of mental
disorders (Foreign Policy). As they grow up they will have been used to it, and they have a
higher probability of doing all that stuff as well. Not only that but the country is in poverty, and
there is very little education (Global Policy Forum). Also the necessities of our lives like
drinking water, food, sanitation, and electricity is something many Iraqi dont have (Costs of
War). This caused many deaths on Iraqis because of illness and infectious diseases that could

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have been prevented if health care and the basic necessities werent sabotaged. There are also
many Iraqi citizens who have PTSD as well, because they were experiencing the war on their
home front (Foreign Policy). Which many hospitals dont have much supplies or doctors to
care for the physically and mentally wounded, half of the doctors in Iraq fled the country (Costs
of War). War changes everyone mentally, it just depends on how each person experienced war
(Foreign Policy). The mortality rate of Iraq has risen, to about 100 Iraqis killed each day (The
New York Times).
The war impacted both countries politically, economically, and mentally and
humanitarianly very deeply. Iraq has very little education, healthcare, and lack the basic
necessities of life (Global Policy Forum). They are politically divided and still have Al-Qaeda
and now ISIS in their country (U.S. News). They are also in some extreme poverty and have
very high unemployment. The U.S. had a major shift in politics, the Democratic party took over
Congress and the role of National Security (CBS News). The U.S. also has spent a lot of
money and troops on the war, but also got some of their big oil companies into Iraq (CNN).
The U.S. also suffered a lot of lost troops, and have a lot of troops that are mentally ill from the
effect of war on them. Just like Iraq, they have soldiers and citizens who are going through some
mental problems from the impact the war had (Foreign Policy). There are so many good and
bad impacts for each country, it is hard to say whether or not the war turned out good. That all
depends on what perspective you are looking at it. If youre an American, you will debate
whether or not the war turned out alright. If youre an Iraqi, you will probably think that it didnt
turn out as great as you hoped. Either way its a tough debate for both perspectives.

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Works Cited
Baker, Dean.Council on Foreign Relations.May 2007.Council on Foreign Relations.11 May
2015.<http://www.cfr.org/defense-budget/cepr-economic-impact-iraq-war-higher-militaryspending/p13366>.
Behrouzan, Orkideh.Foreign Policy.23 April 2013.Foreign Policy.11 May
2015.<http://foreignpolicy.com/2013/04/23/the-psychological-impact-of-the-iraq-war/>.
Bemasek, Anna.The New York Times.24 October 2006.The New York Times Company.17 May
2015.<http://www.nytimes.com/2006/10/24/business/worldbusiness/24ihtiraqcon.3267268.html?_r=1&>.
Condon, Stephanie.CBS News.19 March 2013.CBS Interactive Inc. 10 May
2015.<http://www.cbsnews.com/news/10-years-later-the-iraq-wars-lasting-impact-on-uspolitics/2/>.

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Connable, Ben.U.S. News.21 March 2013.U.S. News & World Report LP. 17 May
2015.<http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/world-report/2013/03/21/the-deeply-mixedresults-of-the-iraq-wars>.
Costs of War.2011.Watson Institute.11 May 2015<http://costsofwar.org/article/iraqi-civilians>.
Global Policy Forum.2015.Global Policy Forum.11 May
2015.<https://www.globalpolicy.org/humanitarian-issues-in-iraq/consequences-of-the-warand-occupation-of-iraq>.
Juhasz, Antonia.CNN.15 April 2013.Cable News Network.Turner Broadcasting System, Inc.11
May 2015.<http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/19/opinion/iraq-war-oil-juhasz/>.
Kurtzleben, Danielle.U.S. News.15 December 2011.U.S. News & World Report LP. 17 May
2015.<http://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2011/12/15/what-did-the-iraq-war-costmore-than-you-think>.
Murray, Mark.NBC News.8 Aug. 2014.CBS Corporation.17 May
2015.<http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/iraq-turmoil/iraq-shakes-u-s-politics-oncemore-n176276>.
National Institute of Mental Health.U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.17 May
2015.<http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/topics/post-traumatic-stress-disorderptsd/index.shtml>.
Thompson, Mark.Time.22 Jun. 2011.Time Inc.11 May
2015.<http://nation.time.com/2011/06/22/what-the-iraqi-people-think-of-our-war-againsttheir-nation/>.
Yew, Lee.Foreign Affairs.Feb. 2007.Council on Foreign Relations.15 May
2015.<https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/iraq/2007-01-01/united-states-iraq-andwar-terror>.