Why Did the US-Led Coalition Invade Iraq in 2003? Essay

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U.S. Invasion of Iraq- Reasons

US Invasion of Iraq: Reasons

The Republic of Iraq is located in South West Asia. Baghdad is its capital and Kuwait, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, the Persian Gulf, Iran and Turkey are its neighboring countries. More than 95% of the population in Iraq is Muslim. The members of Shiites sect are the main inhabitants of the country (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2009).

Saddam Hussein Takriti came in power after the resignation of President Bakr in 1979. It was immediately after his presumptuous control that a fight with Iran began which continued for eight years. The war ended in 1988 with a cessation of hostilities by the United Nations. Although Iraq was supported by the United States in Iran-Iraq war but it strongly criticized Hussein's tyrannical strategies and unrelenting arms increase. In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. International trade sanctions were established on Iraq by the United Nations but Hussein did not ordered the troops to withdraw. In the following year, however, Iraqi armed forces surrendered to U.S.-led coalition forces. The war impacted the country severely. Most of the cities and ports get destroyed. Thousands of people fled to neighboring countries due to food shortage and lack of infrastructure (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2009).

During Hussein's presidency, the relations between United States and Iraq remained critical. Due to Saddam's stubborn nature and frequent violation of Persian Gulf War cease-fire terms, Iraq was smacked by the U.S. And other coalition members twice in 1993. Iraq had been found using nuclear weapons in the Iran-Iraq war. In 1997, the disarmament commission of United Nations wrapped up that Iraq is putting information regarding organic weapons out of sight. It also concluded that data pertaining chemical weapons and missiles is being concealed by the Iraqi government. As a reaction, Iraq stopped cooperating with the UN authorities. Following this, USA and Britain started an air raid on Iraq in which they targeted the military assets and oil refineries in Iraq. These raids did not end until the 2003 war (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2009).

In Dec. 1999, the UN Security Council developed a fresh arms inspection plan. Iraq strongly rejected the plan and disagreed to any offered 'arms assessment' policy. However, after consistent negotiations, sanctions were revised for Iraq in 2002. The U.S. government officials recommended carrying out operations against Iraq and Afghanistan to inflate the 'war on terrorism'. In the September of same year, Iraq allowed the UN inspectors to return as United States government incessantly insisted that Iraq is building up mass destruction weapons. A referendum regarding presidency of Saddam Hussein was conducted the following month which he won and was given an extension of seven more years to rule Iraq. The U.S. Congress agreed to employ force against Iraq the same month. In November, a 'last chance' was given to Iraq by the Security Council of United Nations. Iraq was provided this chance to cooperate on the inquiry of weapons. Iraq declared that there are no weapons present in the country which can cause mass destruction. This claim was disagreed by the U.S. In fact, no verification could be provided by the UN inspectors that Iraq is involved in building up of weapons of mass destruction. Nevertheless, it was also pointed out that there is not enough cooperation by Iraqi officials. In the intervening time, the United States of America and Britain sustained their planning and preparations to attack Iraq whenever required (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2009).

United States and Britain stressed that their national security and that of their allies is threatened with the possibility of hidden weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Thus, attacks began to invade Iraq on March 19, 2003. Within a month, major cities of Iraq were conquered by the U.S. led coalition forces and Hussein's autocratic rule malformed (The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition 2009).

Reasons of Iraq Invasion

1. Military Reason

The efforts of United Nations to neutralize Iraq of its eccentric weapons programs continued from 1991 to 1998. However, this procedure of disarmament struggle was aggravated due to the Iraqi government's confrontation. Therefore, no substantial progress was made in this regard (Deaver 2001). The American government took the awkward and challenging mission of invading and rejuvenating Iraq on the account that this Muslim country possesses weapons of mass destruction and has strong connection with the Al-Qaeda network (Zumes 2004).

It is a general perception that the United States has a custom of causing downfalls of sovereign governments in other countries.

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However, this is not regarded as respecting the international law. If Iraq is to be discussed, one will find that it was the only Arab state that had a combination of considerable educated people, huge oil resources and water supplies availability. These characteristics made it possible for the country to have a foreign policy of its own and do not follow what America wanted it to pursue. Saddam Hussein, knowing the mentioned facts, failed to hold on the U.S. 'revolutionary' programs which made U.S. To go back to its old ways of military intervention in Iraq. The United States wanted to leave no choice for Iraq but to engage in recreation according to America's rule (Zumes 2004).

The United Nations and its allies justified their invasion of Iraq by concluding that it was important to do so to 'self-defense' themselves. The Iraq's possession of deadly weapons and its links with the biggest terrorist group Al-Qaeda gave United States a 'just' reason to intervene in Iraq militarily. The American government also insisted that the invasion was also necessary to save the Iraqi people. It said that one of the major purposes to conquer Iraq is to bring democracy to the region (Enemark and Michaelsen 2005, 545+).

United States and its allies asserted that 'self-defense' is extremely important as the 'hated West' is greatly threatened by the Iraqi possession of weapons of mass destruction. Thus, they invaded Iraq in order to keep them out of danger from any future Iraqi threat to their national security. According to the UN Charter, the precautionary use of armed forces is justified as self-defense provided that the state can prove that an attack by the opponent state is forthcoming. However, after the 9/11 attacks, the Bush administration insisted that this perception of 'pending' threat must be changed. It squabbled that there is a need to stretch out the impression of 'self-defense'. Thus, the United Stated led coalition forces to invade Iraq by following the mentioned conception of 'self-defense' (Enemark and Michaelsen 2005, 545+).

1. Strategic reason

The invasion of Iraq was the result of the strategy of the United States of America under the administration of Bush. American policy of the global domination has always been on its height and to invade Iraq was one of the stepping stone to intimidate the world. As a reaction to the 9/11 attacks, the National Security of 2002 and the Bush dogma devised the strategy of 'defensive wars'. The mentioned stratagems suggested that in order to avoid any resistance, U.S. shall not only use the policy of simple inhibition. The utilization of the extraordinary and incomparable military competence of America was the main point of the Bush administration's policy of domination (Hinnebusch 2007).

The Muslim Middle East has always confronted the U.S. supremacy. This resistance is fuelled by two main reasons. The first reason is American government's support for Israel. The second reason is the persistent Western intercession to have power over the oil resources and supplies in the Middle East region. Thus, it was fundamental for America to invade Iraq in order to be successful in its project of supremacy and restructure Middle East. The invasion of Iraq meant that America could have power over the oil reserves present in the Muslim country. It is a known fact that oil is a strategic product that is the need of every nation. Oil is also exceptionally important to armed forces. The control of oil reserves concerted in the Persian Gulf meant that America can reach the height of domination globally (Hinnebusch 2007).

Iraq, by no means, was involved in the 9/11 terrorist attacks. However, the Bush administration considered the attacks on the twin towers as a golden opportunity to invade Iraq. American government thought that a war with Iraq would suit U.S. interests significantly and would be crucial in the Middle East renovation (Hinnebusch 2007).

The Caspian Sea region (Central Asia) was considered to be a significant region where unexploited oil was present in abundance. It was thought that the specified region holds about 200 billion barrels of intact oil. In May 2001, American Vice President Cheney released an energy plan in which the oil reserves present in the Caspian region were a central constituent. In order to lessen the reliance on Middle East oil, the U.S. government made it a strategic goal to satisfy their increasing energy demand by utilizing the untapped oil reserves in the Caspian.....

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