President George W Bush’s actions to invade Iraq and Afghanistan in reaction to 9/11 should not be or have been a surprise given the historical precedent in the United States of militarily action when threatened, as exemplified by the invasion of Vietnam. The realization that there were no weapons of mass destruction found in Iraq, coupled with the fact that 16 years later the US continues to have a strong military presence in the Middle East, leave many people questioning the motives behind the so called ‘war on terror’ and wondering why we invaded in the first place. However, the United States has a long history of deploying military operations in places where it feels threatened. There are many similarities between Bush’s decision to invade Iraq and Afghanistan after 9/11 and Lyndon B. Johnson’s deployment of troops in Vietnam during an era of McCarthyism and fear of communism. The end of the 1940’s through the 1950’s is a period of American History known as McCarthyism ...