Iraq War

In this report I will analyze the American invasion into Iraq and recommend the best way to end the conflict and begin removing troops from the nation of Iraq. I will focus on the United States' relationship with Iraq and the Gulf War of the 1990's. I will examine the reasons given by the administration of George W. Bush for the invasion such as links to terrorist organizations, the creation of weapons of mass destruction, and America's moral obligation to spread democracy around the world. I will look at the poor planning of the war and of post war activities. I will focus on the costs of the war both from an economic view and that of the cost of life and hardship for both America and Iraq. I will lastly focus on my personal views on withdraw of America forces from Iraq and how best to accomplish this goal.

Section 1:1

America had been at odds with Iraq during the 1970's and 1980's due to Iraq's support of terrorist groups such as Abu Nidal. In 1979 Iraq was placed on the United States list of state sponsors of international terrorists. During Iraq's brutal war with Iran that lasted from 1980 through 1988 the United States claimed to be neutral but had covertly supported Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi military. In March of 1982 Iran had began a counteroffensive titled Operation Undeniable Victory. With Iran's sudden dominance in the war the the United States decides to drop Iraq from its list of state sponsors of terrorist organizations even though many,including Assistant Secretary of Defense Noel Koch, was well aware that Iraq still sponsored international terrorist organizations. Saddam Hussein expelled the Abu Nidal terror organization to Syria in November of 1983 and President Ronald Regan sent Donald Rumsfeld as a special envoy to the nation of Iraq. A cease fire between Iran and Iraq began in 1988. By the end of the costly war Iraq had become bankrupt. The nation was severely in debt to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Saddam Hussein began to claim that Kuwait had been stealing Iraqi oil by methods of slant drilling. Iraq began to place troops along the Kuwait border but had promised not to invade until further rounds of discussions had taken place. With the invasion of Kuwait the Iraqi military moved swiftly into Kuwait taking control of the nation and its many productive oil fields. Many began to fear that Saddam Hussein and Iraq had its eyes on the oil fields of Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Royal Family realized that it would need assistance in protecting its nation from an Iraqi invasion. Osama Bin Laden offered his mujahideen army to protect Saudi Arabia. Fearing that the mujahideen would not be able to adequately withstand the forces of Iraq the Royal Family instead took the U.S backed support from the United Nations.

The Gulf War lasted from August 2 1990 to February 28 1991. The effort was led by a coalition of 34 nations, many of which were Middle East nations. The object was to remove the invading forces of Iraq from Kuwait. Many in America backed the war because it was well known that Iraq had committed crimes against humanity. Iraq had used poison gases not only against Iranian soldiers but also against Kurdish factions inside Iraq. Iraq was seen as an oppressor who refused all deals that had been set out before them by the United Nations and states around the globe. Forty seven percent of the coalition was made up of United States military forces. The United States was the leading force behind driving Iraqi forces from Kuwait but the United States realized the need for support from allies and partners around the world. After intense bombing operations against Iraq the coalition forces quickly removed Iraqi military from Kuwait and pushed them to within miles of Baghdad. The coalition forced decided not to remove Saddam Hussein from power but to instead imposed strict sanctions against Iraq. Even the Secretary of Defense at the time, Dick Cheney, was quoted as saying

“I would guess if we had gone in there, I would still have forces in Baghdad today. We'd be running the country. We would not have been able to get everybody out and bring everybody home.

And the final point that I think needs to be made is this question of casualties. I don't think you could have done all of that without significant additional U.S. casualties, and while everybody was tremendously impressed with the low cost of the (1991) conflict, for the 146 Americans who were killed in action and for their families, it wasn't a cheap war. And the question in my mind is, how many additional American casualties is Saddam (Hussein) worth? And the answer is, not that damned many. So, I think we got it right, both when we decided to expel him from Kuwait, but also when the President made the decision that we'd achieved our objectives and we were not going to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq.” For some reason Dick Cheney as Vice President decided that the price of American lives was now worth the sacrifice.

After the 9-11 attacks against American civilians it seems as though the administration sought any reason to attack Iraq, despite the lack of intelligence that could prove any links between the September 11th attacks or the possession of weapons of mass destruction by the nation of Iraq and it's leadership. Some who had access to the inner circle of the administration,such as Falah Aljibury among others, have claimed that the Bush administration had been drawing up plans to invade Iraq and remove Saddam Hussein from power during the first days in office. The initial plan was to create a coup in Iraq and to use privatization of Iraqi oil fields to undercut OPEC. With the release of the Downing Street memo in the Sunday Times it became known that the current administration had held secret meetings with British Labour officials. The memo goes on to state that “Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy.” Despite reports from former Ambassador Joseph Wilson that Iraq had tried to by yellow cake from Niger and George Tenet's presidential briefing that intelligence showed that Hussein and Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction the president and the cabinet ignored the intelligence and refused to inform Congress of such findings. It was these decisions that war at any cost must take place that has ultimately led to the current predicament that the U.S. military currently finds itself in.

The reasons for the invasion of Iraq were that Iraq had supported the terrorist groups who planned and executed the terrorist attacks of September 11th. These allegations