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Failures Of The United States Essay

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Previous Interventions:
As of present, the state of Iraq is plagued with a myriad of problems, each of which must be taken into consideration when determining the best possible course of action for the United States. First, previous interventions, particularly those conducted by the United States, in Iraq must be considered in order to understand how a particular course of action in the current dilemma might play out. While the United States has played a role in Iraqi coups throughout the 20th century and assisting the Kurdish population in the north, the most decisive interventions began with the Persian Gulf War. The second is the 2003 invasion and occupation of Iraq, and the third is the American-led intervention in Iraq against ISIS which is ongoing.
The first major take away from the Gulf War is the ineffectiveness of sanctions. The use of sanctions by the United States with cooperation from the international community completely failed in its goals of driving Saddam out of Kuwait. Studies have shown that sanctions only cripple infrastructure and primarily impact the middle class and not the leadership that needs to be deterred. The second major implication is how effective a military coalition can be in achieving its goals. The unipolar landscape that was brought forth by the end of the Cold War played a major role in shaping intervention policies. With Iraq being unable to fall back to the USSR if events took a turn for the worse for Iraq, the US led coalition was

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