Iraq war Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Iraq war - Research Paper Example For a long time the United States and the Soviet Union were engaged in a Cold War (1946-1991) as they manifested their rivalry as superpowers economically, politically, militarily. The reasons it was termed as â€Å"Cold War† is because there was nothing like direct military engagement between the two superpowers. The Cold War included continuous bloody proxy wars that were directed to the developing countries of the Global South by the superpowers. The wildly recognized war of Cold War included - the Soviet-Afghan War 1979-1989, here the U.S. forces majorly concentrated â€Å"in the ground† while Soviet forces concentrated â€Å"on the ground.† In the American-Vietnam War 1959-1975, here while the Soviet forces were engaged â€Å"in the background,† the U.S. forces were engaged â€Å"on the ground.† However, in Afghanistan and Vietnam, both the United States and Soviet forces were defeated. Negative effects such as economic hardship, political turm oil, human devastation as well as ideological argument became the subject of discussion within the developing countries of the Global South contrary to the peaceful atmosphere that existed within the countries of the Global North. Like, the aftermath of the American-Vietnam war left 3 to 4 million Vietnamese dead and the same to 1.5 to 2 million Cambodians and Laos as well as many more million of them rendered homeless turning to be refugees, while only 58,000 U.S. soldiers were killed and 300000 were left with wounds. A number approximated to be 700,000 and 1.3 million Afghans were killed in the Soviet-Afghan War and left 4.5 million of them in refugee camps mainly in Iran and Pakistan while only 15,000 Soviet troops were left dead and 37,000 got wounds. Among the strategic goals of Israel when the Cold War was at its peak was to influence the Western powers into forcing the Soviet Union to allow Soviet