(U-WIRE) NEW YORK – Major operations began in Iraq on March 19, 2003. Five years later, a dictator was overthrown, an insurgency grew and dwindled and nearly 4,000 U.S. soldiers have died. Top student columnists sound off on if this is a just war and how the U.S. should go forward.Liberals have lost perspective on Iraq War
By Jesse Hathaway
Ohio University

Oh, the Iraq War: favorite whipping boy of the media, favorite talking point of liberals, and the two words that can stop all rational thought with a single utterance.
Let’s get down to brass tacks. In the American Civil War, a total of 354,802 souls, on both sides of the war, gave up an arm or a leg, or both, for their causes.
In World War I, the “War to End All Wars,” 204,002 Americans were wounded and 53,402 were killed. In World War II, 671,846 Americans fought against the Axis powers, and paid the cost of freedom across the world with the completeness of their body. An estimated 291,557 Americans died so that Europe could be free from the evils of the Nazi hydra.
By contrast, 3,975 American soldiers have willingly died, so that an estimated 27,499,638 Iraqis could have a chance at having a Western-style representative democracy. If one willingly gives up their life so that another can have freedom, is that not a good thing? Liberal talking heads say no, but the American populace said in 2004, in a resounding manner, “yes.”

Clear Iraq War not worth fighting
By Kristin Butler
Duke University

With a destabilized Pakistan, Iran actively expanding its uranium enrichment program and signs that the Six Party Talks on North Korea’s nuclear program could soon collapse, it would be difficult to conclude that those $3 trillion have bought us much security at all. And if we’re not getting our money’s worth in Iraq, let’s not forget all the other (better) uses that money could have been put to: Funding for schools, health care, the environment, homeland security, reductions in taxes and, yes, money for more important fronts in the war on terror.
At a cost of $3 trillion and more than 600,000 lives (and counting), some wars might be worth fighting. But it’s clear that the one in Iraq is not, and that our best option is to begin leaving as quickly and as safely as humanly possible.

The virtue of humility
By Daniel Barbaro
Harvard University
Was our venture into Iraq a just one, after so many years and so many dead? The old Christian thinkers once had something to answer questions like these called the just war theory.
According to Thomas Aquinas, the war must be legitimized by authority, must be justly intentioned, used as a last resort, be fought by just means, have a reasonable chance of success, and produce more good than evil. Given the defiance of the UN, overriding of the weapons inspectors, massive deaths, continued insurgency, and upswing in terrorism that we’ve seen, the Christianity of our leaders could perhaps be called into question. But then again, maybe we need a new theology of warfare – after all, the old one led to the bloodshed of the Crusades and the conquistadors.
America did remove a genocidal despot, has avoided an actual defeat, and has fought with respect for the civilians of Iraq. This war was the logical outcome of a school of thought that viewed as invincible America’s power to aggressively pursue evil and spread democracy. It was well-intentioned, but the road to hell is paved with good intentions.
Now, thousands are dead, Iraq is broken, and America has suffered an immeasurable cost to its prestige and trillions of dollars of lost. We must now move forward, hold our leaders accountable, and draw this war to a close.

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