In Iraq, Abandoning Our Friends

I would say this article has a much stronger argument than the last one. Perhaps this is only because this author is angry and upset, while the other writer seemed optimistic. Either way, the writer of this article had strong appeals to logos, ethos and pathos. He used logos by using statistics and comparing the current situation in Iraq to past historical issues, such as the Revolutionary War and the Vietnam War. Pathos was appealed to when he said how many people were dying. He said we were committing "betrayal" and sarcastically remarked "If you can survive the next 18 months, maybe we’ll let you in," regarding American allies in Iraq. Ethos was strong as well because the writer of this article actually founded an organization dedicated to helping our allies in Iraq. Overall, the article is powerful, well-written and persuasive.
Personally, I was very upset by this article, but not particularly surprised. One comment that struck me was when the article said "The sorry truth is that we don’t need them anymore now that we’re leaving, and resettling refugees is not a winning campaign issue." After all, that seems to be the only things politicians concern themselves with now. They need to dedicate one hundred percent of their time to creating a good reputation and sabotaging the reputations of their competition. They don't have any time left to actually act based on their beliefs and American ideals. It's the same in the upcoming election. All the candidates for the Republican primary are attacking each other- when one of them is chosen, all the fighting against other candidates will have weakened their reputation and hurt their chance to win the actual election. Shouldn't their first goal be to put their party in power, so that their beliefs can prevail? No, candidates nowadays care more about having the power themselves. I find it sad how politics work nowadays, and the knowledge that our loyal allies in Iraq are dying because of it is very disturbing. The article quotes Obama years ago, promising not to abandon our allies. But, like most politicians, he does not seem to be keeping his word since it is not one of the big, popular issues. Maybe it's really the voters' faults. If we looked at the actual actions and beliefs of the politicians, instead of putting so much emphasis on personality and image, maybe politicians would have the confidence to follow their beliefs and go through with their promises.


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