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=Iraq (2001- ?)=

Overview[[image:http://www.mapsofworld.com/iraq/iraq-map.jpg width="150" height="174" align="right" caption="Iraq map" link="http://www.mapsofworld.com/iraq/iraq-map.jpg"]]
Iraq has been a nation in the world of interested for a long time now. It started to be an interest after it invaded Kuwait, and was in a war with Iran before that. We are teaching them to govern themselves and to hold off the Iraq radicals from taking over control of the country again as well. We are currently pulling out of Iraq. Iraq's history of conflicts and wars are important because without it no-one would be looking at them so much most likely. Three recent wars have put them into major news, one is the Iran- Iraq war, the second is desert shield/storm, and the third is the war occurring now. Iraq from all those conflicts with other nations have people that were born into fighting and were always fighting because it really has not stop yet. Each Conflict are each 9 to 12 years apart from one another. The Iran- Iraq war was from 1979-1988. Operation Desert Shield/Storm were from 1990 to 1991. The Iraq War from 2001 to today.

Critical Issues
==== The Iran- Iraq war lasted 9 years. It was a big reason Saddam invaded Kuwait for multiple reasons. The Iraqi leaders afte r the war believed the other nations around them were out to get them because they would not raise the oil prices. They were also is major debt from the Iran- Iraq war and decided to invade Kuwait because of it. It can also be considered a religious war as well because the Iraqi Sunni's were at war the Iranian Shiite's. Saddam started the war by attacking an Iranian village while there armies were still in a confusion because of revolution that still happening between radicals and religious fundamentals. He used Iraqi planes to attack the village. During the war Iran encouraged Shiite's to start a revolution in Iraq and that did not help for peace. Allies Israel and Syria sided with Iran during the war and with that it ended in a draw. Currently we are pulling out of Iraq. President Barack Obama hopes to get all our troops out by 2012. Some believe it was a mistake to get involved in Iraq all together, because of history and we would have problems knowing which person was our enemies. They also are willing to give up their lives, just like the Japanese kamikaze's during ww2 but they use car bombs. They also use IED's which are placed by a rode and explode and inure our soldiers. Iraq's funding is costing us a lot of money, and time. General Norman Schwarzkopf even told our government after Desert Storm that if we got involved in Iraq we would fight it a lone, have to pay for it all ourselves, and would get stuck into fighting there for a long time. So far it is all true, except Britain is in it but are pulling out now faster than we are. Iraq has gotten better because of us, and Barack Obama would have had a bit harder time winning his presidency if it wasn't such a hot topic.

Conclusion
Iraq is a major nation of interest for good reason. They started to be in the world's view after they took over Kuwait, and other countries around it. We then with help of the United Nations forced Iraq's forces back and liberated Kuwait. Saddam then remained in power and exploited his people, and was believed to have helped terrorists attack us. They were also involved in a war with Iran which was basically a religious war over anything else. Finally we fought and helped topple the old government that was ruled by Saddam are currently fighting the left over radicals. We are currently pulling out as well, and at the same time training the Iraqi's how fend for themselves. The troops are being moved from Iraq to Afghanistan so we are finally getting out of a war that started in 2001. Saddam was captured and hung after being put on trial for his crimes he committed after we invaded Iraq.