War of 1812 vs. Iraq War

Since the establishment of the United States, American security has often been threatened and in a majority of these instances, the country responded to these threats in order to secure its liberty and welfare. Although America won its independence from Britain in 1776, the cruelty of the British toward America had not ceased, as can be seen in the Chesapeake Affair of 1807 in which a US naval ship was cornered by British ships . This Chesapeake Affair created hostilities between the United States and Britain and eventually led to the War of 1812. In a similar context, the Iraq War was also a direct response to the evidence supporting the fact that Iraq was connected to terrorist activities and the assumption that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction. The US response to Russia in the Cold War is similar to the US response today and set the precedent for the Iraq War. Conclusively, both the War of 1812 and the current war in Iraq can be justified considering that the country was provoked in both instances and had every right to defend itself and its people from all foreign dangers. The Chesapeake Affair is the perfect example of British infringement on American sovereignty. It was significant as it was the beginning of all British impressments toward the United States Navy. The British had cornered and then attacked the USS Chesapeake, an American naval ship, on the grounds that British sailors had fled onto American ships in order to rid themselves of all connections with the British . This action may have been proper from the perspective of the British but as the Americans see it, valuable sailors and therefore, citizens, had been lost to a country that had granted them independence half a century before. Condemnation of the British echoed all over the country in response to the unfair affair and the Britain was soon unpopular in the country, similar to the Revolutionary War . America made it clear that these impressments were not acceptable.

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