Utilitarianism applied to post war Iraq.

Essay by killerHigh School, 11th grade June 2003

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Utilitarianism provides us with a moral basis for judging actions, in promoting the idea that what is good is that which provides us the greatest good or happiness for the greatest number. In this essay, I will apply the moral system of utilitarianism towards the situation of post-war Iraq, and suggest a solution to the problems that face the region. Before we seek to apply moral utilitarianism to the political situation of post-war Iraq, we must first learn the makeup of the population of Iraq, so as to see who we are to provide these principles to.

Iraq can be divided into three populations: the Kurds, the Sunnis and the Shiites. The Kurds are a Muslim minority, who are on the receiving end of the genocide in Iran, Turkey and Iraq during the reign of Saddam Hussein. The Sunnis are a moderate Muslim minority, and were the main support base for Saddam Hussein's populist-socialist society, the Ba'athists, which severely broken the Shiites and the Kurds.

The Shiites are the majority of Iraq's population, and the Shia Islam is a purist version of Sunni Islam, and has been accused as being the foundation for much of Islamic terrorism, in their firm belief that then Muslim world should be united under an Islamic theocracy (government ruled by a religious authority), and the infidels (that is foreigners), should not be allowed to have control over any Muslim territory, especially Saudi Arabia.

All three groups mentioned above have been at ends with each other throughout history, and this has resulted in many wars. While both the Shiites and the Sunnis are both Arabs by traditions, the Kurds are their own cultural group, holding their own identity based on language, culture and blood (the Kurds are not Arabs, but hold more in common with the...