White House Reaction

This documentary was mainly about the start of the war on terror due to the 9/11 attack in New York City. At first I thought this would be reliant on Bush and his actions taken before, during, and after the war. This documentary wasn’t about Bush nearly as much as I had thought, but mainly about Cheney and Rumsfeld. This documentary showed the actions of the White House as well as outside contributors, and what happened in Iraq due to these actions. The war on terror started out great. Supposedly killing Saddam Hussein and pulling down his statue ended the reign of terror that he brought upon the country. However, these actions were just the start of a long and treacherous road. Usually after the takeover of a tyrant, another power comes …show more content…
The United States started off with good intentions to stop Hussein and those who followed him. But in doing so we set off a chain of events that not only hurt Iraq, but our own government as well. I suggest that realism is incorrect by thinking an international power is useful in the way the world works. If people get too tied into one another’s affairs, it creates unforeseen consequences that could end up doing more damage than mending. In the case of intervening in Iraq, I think it was smart to stop the tyranny of Hussein. However, I do not believe it was smart to continue our efforts to rebuild Iraq in the way that we did. I think it would have been much more beneficial for all parties if we helped reform the Iraqi government in a way that helped rebuild their country without placing a high amount of American military force into the country. This would benefit international cooperation, rather than taking all the responsibility upon one international …show more content…
In the case of the Iraqi conflict, Rumsfeld and Cheney were working alone, shutting out other political figures, to further their own interest. In doing this, their policies were primarily egoistic and therefore ineffective in the long run. There are some who say the rational actor model is beneficial when dealing with these self-interest groups. But in my opinion, the rational actor model does not account for egocentric players. These people do not make decisions on cost/benefit for the group as a whole, but rather for themselves alone. This does not help make rational decision making and will hurt the country, like what happened with Rumsfeld and Cheney. This documentary started out as an informative movie focused on what happened in Iraq, but it really was a movie about the issues America has with knowing when to stop forcing their hand in the international system. The Iraq war would have gone much smoother if we knew when we were going too far into the affairs overseas. The documentary shows both the benefits and drawbacks of the mentality of realism in society as a