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The US invasion and occupation of Iraq: 2003-present
Tim Keys
Rationale for the invasion
The United States justified its invasion of Iraq with claims that Saddam Hussein's regime possessed biological and chemical weapons and were attempting to develop a nuclear capability. In the period following the September 11 attacks the United States also claimed links between Iraq and al-Qaeda and that Saddam could be providing terrorist groups with access to WMDs.
The U.N Security Council had passed Resolution 1441 in November 2002; this required Iraq to confirm the existence or destruction of any remaining WMDs it possessed to U.N weapons inspectors. Failure to do this would result in action against it but the resolution did not specify what this action would take. Iraq did not comply with this resolution and the U.S sort a further resolution authorising an invasion.1 France stated they would veto such a resolution and so the U.S and coalition forces2 launched their invasion without UN authorisation, although the U.S subsequently argued that Resolution 1441's threat of action was sufficient justification. However, as we know, there were no WMD's found in Iraq after the war and the claims about obtaining the material to produce nuclear weapons were based on fabricated evidence.
U.S objectives in Iraq
Publicly stated objectives
These were based on the concept of 'regime change' and argued that American and regional security required that Saddam Hussein's Baathist government be removed from power and that Iraq would be turned into an effectively functioning democracy. The Bush administration believed that the establishment of democracy in Iraq could then lead to the evolution of democracy throughout the Arab regimes of the Middle East. Whilst these goals were in part based on security considerations, they were also predicated on a strong belief that American conceptions of democracy and its accompanying values were universal and a force for good in the world.
Unstated objectives
These goals could not be openly stated, as the public would not have accepted them as justification for the invasion. Nonetheless, they followed logically from the publicly stated objectives of regime change. They are as follows.
Strategic reasons
Iraq borders all the major Islamic countries of the Middle East and is thus significant in strategic terms. With a democratic, pro-U.S regime in place, Iraq could be a base from which America would be able to exert influence in the strategically critical Middle East region and to restrain the influence of hostile states such as Iran and Syria.
Unfinished business
Many of George W. Bush's neo-conservative advisers believed that the U.S should have taken the opportunity to remove Saddam from power in 1991 after they had forced Iraqi troops out of Kuwait during the Gulf War. It has been documented that regime change in Iraq had been a goal of U.S foreign policy before the September 11 attacks and that this policy had been a goal since the Clinton administration.3
1 Derek Scott and Anna-Louise Simpson Power and International Politics 2007, VASST
2 Ron Anderson. 2005 'Terrorism, Islamism and US foreign policy' - There were initially 33 other countries in the 'coalition of the willing', with Britain being the U.S's major ally. Australia also sent a small number of troops under U.S command. 3 countries have since withdrawn their troops
3 In Anderson, Op.Cit following Anthony Seldon, Blair p.567
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