Veteran's Day is a day to honor the men and women who fight for our country. On November 11, we had a Veteran's Day ceremony at school. During this time there were several students who had read poems and such, along with a speech from Mr. Hanson Sr. I have a lot of respect for Mr. Hanson; he's a very kind and caring guy and always makes things fun in and out of the classroom; but the way he presented Veteran's Day; suggesting that the Iraq War was justified disappointed me.
Mr. Hanson had been talking about how, in a previous speech, he stereotyped the middle-east in to something "bad." Throughout this year's speech, the middle-east was brought up yet again in the same sense. Overall, he was saying how the Iraq War was justified and that it's all their fault. What really happened? Well...
On September 11, 2001, 19 people from the group Al Qaeda hijacked 4 planes and attacked the U.S. It was completely unjustified. Then, we went to war with Afghanistan because we didn't understand why they would allow a terrorist group into their country. In 2002, Bush gave a speech in which he referred to Iraq as part of the "Axis of Evil." At this time, Iraq was ruled by a dictatorship, the dictator being Saddam Hussein (Who we supplied weapons with in the 1980's to fight against Iran.) Then in 1991, we ended up going against him to liberate Kuwait; and since then we haven't been fans of him. Iraq actually had nothing to do with 9/11. Nobody that was from Iraq attacked us or threatened to do so. (Saddam and Al Qaeda were enemies) So, in 2003 we attacked Iraq claiming that someday Saddam may be a threat to us or provide another country/group with weapons and such to do bad things to us. Some believed, and convinced many, that he was making weapons of mass destruction, which was never proven. So we went to Iraq and attacked them for no reason; they didn't attack or threaten us at all. The Al Qaeda group (in Iraq) that exists today didn't even start until after this war began. It's not right, nor logical.
Mr. Hanson also was saying that the middle easterners are out of their minds, and perform sneaky attacks. That statement had nothing to do with Veteran's Day and what this ceremony was supposed to be about, but it also ignores how the U.S. fights. The whole speech altogether was just a speech saying how horrible and malicious the middle eastern people are and how honorable and great we as the U.S. are. Looking at what really happened, it is we, the U.S. who should be held responsible for this war. We started this conflict, not Iraq.
Mr. Hanson Sr. is a great guy, he should have honored the veterans and their service instead of turning a day that is supposed to be about honor into a justification of an unjustified war.
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