Analyzing a Proposal to Intervene in Another Country
A country must have a clear mission of what objectives they want to achieve before they send troops to war or battle. In order to meet these objectives, a way of measuring potential success should be chosen so that in the heat of battle the war can end after objectives are met. Failure to end a war at the right time can lead to increased casualties as we have seen in the Korea War.
Douglas MacArthur, an American general, decided to strain his limits of his UN mandate and invade the invader, North Korea. This provoked Chinese intervention resulting in the Korean War being prolonged for two years that lead to increased American causalities.
To keep the costs of a war for a country to be as low as possible, it should evaluate the amount of intervention that is necessary. The more soldiers that are enlisted in the war, the more chances the country is taking in having a high number of causalities.
Costs outweighed the benefits in the Vietnam War that cost 58,000 American lives. According to Stosessinger, President Lyndon Johnson made four crucial mistakes during the Vietnam War, he engaged in an American war without working through the United Nations, failed to obtain congressional endorsement for the use of war, and he became obsessed with every detail of the war rather than leaving it to the generals.
President George Bush Sr. was careful not to make the same mistakes in the Gulf War. He used caution by working with the United Nations, sought congressional approval to officially making the battle a “war”, and removed troops from the Middle East once his objectives were met.
The “use of force” resolution passed in the Senate by a vote of 52 to 47 and in the House by 250 to 183. The Gulf War marked the first time since World War II that Congress had formally authorized a President to go to war should he deem it necessary.
The field commander Norman Schwarzkopf remarked after the war that he felt that the United States could have finished off Saddam’s regime altogether if troops were not pulled out so quickly. As a result, Saddam Hussein is one of the only national leaders of a defeated country to survive two catastrophic wars. Saddam’s war-lover nature was exposed after Desert Storm in his decision to torch more than 600 oil wells in Kuwait.
Cost benefit analysis would have encouraged Operation Desert Storm to take out Saddam’s regime completely which could have eliminated this war lover from wrecking havoc in Iraq. However, if the operation continued it might also have been possible that the objective would not have been met resulting in the United States having a strained relationship with the United Nations and a massive amount of causalities; which is exactly what President Bush was trying to prevent.
National security and the survival of the state are the highest priorities a country should have. If an enemy threatens either than national defense is not only necessary but also crucial.
National security can be defined as protecting the ideals of a nation. America’s ideals are capitalism, civil liberties, and democracy. If an enemy attempts to destroy or harm these ideals than America’s national security is being threatened. The September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center threatened national security since the terrorists attempted to destroy America’s ideals of capitalism and the free market.
The survival of a state can be defined as the right for people to live safely without fear of attack. If an enemy were to attack our country, it would be violating the survival of a state. The terrorists in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks killed over 5,000 people that temporarily put the ideal of the survival of a state at risk for everyone. This resulted in the closure of many public landmarks such as the Statue of Liberty and the Empire State Building.
