Saddam Hussein Ideology

In 2003, President George Walker Bush and his administration sent the United States military to war in Iraq to overthrow Saddam Hussein, Iraq’s ruler and dictator, who murdered over 600,000 innocent people, and “...used chemical weapons to remove Kurds from their villages in northern Iraq…” (Rosenberg 2). According to the Department of Defense’s website, the war removed Saddam Hussein from power, ending an era when “Iraqis had fewer rights than when its representatives signed the Human Rights Declaration in 1948” (1). American blood, money, and honor was spent in what was allegedly a personal war and perhaps a fight to gain oil and natural resources, but only history may reveal the truth. Although the Iraq War removed tyrant Saddam Hussein from power, the failures of the war dwarf the successes.

…The U.S. began the Iraq war with the goal of ridding the region of a tyrannical government that didn’t protect its people. However, a decade later, at the conclusion of the U.S. military mission in Iraq, the people are perhaps worse off than they were before the

Much like The Vale Kingdom in Game of Thrones, which experienced a power vacuum following the death of Jon Arryn, Iraq has been plagued by a power vacuum following the death of its previous leader. Before the US invasion in 2003, Iraq was a fairly successful country. While they did indeed have problems, their monarch-esque government was stable and the economy was flourishing in the 80’s. While the Iraq-Iran war and invasion took a heavy toll on the Iraq, things started to look better again in the 90’s (Wael). But alas, in 2003, the United States of America (backed the British) invaded Iraqi soil. Victor Hanson of The National Review, discusses how “The invasion of Iraq was a perfect storm predicated on [many] suppositions”, many of which could have been avoided, he says. The two most pushed reasons for the invasion were the war on “terrorism” and the removal of Saddam Hussein (Hanson). Hussein was the seen as the epitome of corruption and therefore had to be removed. Senators from both parties and numerous world leader agreed with this reasoning. While many had other interests in the region, the “war on terror” was the international cover-up they all used (Henke 122). Whether or not this decision was a mistake is up for debate, but the real mistake the US made, was winning the

Saddam Hussein's Baathist Party military was dismantled and left many soldiers homeless and anger, leading them to join jihadist groups. “Iraq is not a

Bush, asserted that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), multiple Iraqi human rights violations stemming from the WMDs, and the suspected Iraqi support for al-Qa’ida, who had been previously chased out of Afghanistan. After the initial invasion, however, U.S.-led Coalition Forces were unable to locate any significant evidence of WMDs. Back in the U.S., investigative committees subsequently concluded that Iraq possessed no WMDs and did not harbor any connections to terrorist organizations. Moreover, Hussein had been successful at evading capture despite an intensive manhunt, and U.S. forces seemingly were unable to play a domestic security role, further leading to the dissolution of Iraqi security services and ushering in widespread looting and disorder. This highlighted that the invasion of Iraq was not be an easy victory as originally surmised. Since that time, many scholars have focused on the effects of the Iraq War, speculating on the Bush Administration’s motives for the decision. While some within scholarly circles have attributed the invasion of Iraq to groupthink, a theory that has recently become a staple in understanding foreign policy disasters, there is little literature that has been applied to the rationality of the decision to invade and whether groupthink influenced the decision-making process. Therefore, this paper will seek to examine the decision to launch the invasion of Iraq and the clearly failed planning for the occupation of the

Before the American intervention, Iraq was safer and wealthier. It was a relatively wealthy nation in the 70’s to the 80’s, until Saddam Hussein went to war with Iran. After the war, Iraq needed a lot of money to help fix it’s main infrastructure. He was accused by locals of not spending to fix the infrastructure, instead spending money on a lavish lifestyle, including construction of palaces for himself. Saddam Hussein's autocracy gave base camps, working bases, and other backing to terrorists battling the administrations of neighboring Turkey and Iran, and in addition to hard-line Palestinian organizations. Amid the 1991 Gulf War, Saddam charged a few fizzled terrorist assaults on U.S. offices. Preceding the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the State Department recorded Iraq as a

Following the attacks in America on September 11, 1999, there was a public outcry for justice throughout the country. Even with significant public support to wage war against Iraq, there was not enough reason to persuade congress. Over the course of two years, President George W. Bush proved that there was a purpose in the war, not only seek vengeance against terrorism; but, gift a people freedom from dictatorship. Yet, there were still downsides to war including inevitable loss of American life and damaged reputation for our country. For that reason, the United States of America should not have gone to war with Iraq in 2003 due to the extensive federal funding for undesirable warfare which took away from domestic prosperity, the preventable injury to veterans as well as violence against civilians, and the country’s damaged reputation achieved due to the illegitimacy of the war.

In recent years, the Iraqi nation has endured a crisis that will forever remain in the hearts and minds of the Middle Eastern culture. However, the outcomes of the War on Iraq will not change the long-lasting and passionate traditions and memories that have been held in the country for decades. One major event that happened in Iraq’s history is that on October 3, 1932 Iraq was established as an independent nation. Iraq has always been a country in which respect and generosity have been highly valued and play an important cultural role in everyday life. Additionally, approximately ninety-five percent of Iraqis are Muslim, and therefore Islam is the official religion of this nation (Gutierrez 1). Furthermore, Iraq is a

Why did America invade Iraq in 2003 and how does it affect today's world? The Iraq war started with President George W. Bush on Thursday, March 20, 2003, and end with President Barack Obama on Sunday, December 18, 2011, when the last troops were ordered to pull out. Although the Iraq war officially ended in 2011, many long-lasting effects of the war have yet to be adequately addressed by the United States. The Iraq war was not only the catalyst for increased instability in the middle east but also created vast terrorist networks, which eventually became ISIS, as well as an enormous economic and societal cost due to the war. The damage caused by the Iraq war ranges from an increase in a common anti-American sentiment to corruption in the Iraqi

In 2004, the United States armed forces supplanted itself in Iraq under the guise of finding Saddam Hussein’s imaginary weapons of mass destruction, deposing the Iraqi dictator and building stable democratic institutions. Despite never finding any evidence of WMDs, the US remained in Iraq even after the creation of a new, questionably democratic government. Why did the US prolong its stay in the middle east? Regional stability, specifically, economic stability concerning oil exports and prices. Despite its efforts, the US’ quest to stabilize the country and the region remain arguable at best.

When one thinks of Iraq war, the two key players are perceived to be George W. Bush and Saddam Hussein. As leaders of the opposing sides, they are also perceived as the decision makers. In the individual and sub group levels of analysis, toppling of the Hussein’s regime in Iraq was a success. This success

The Iraq War, also known as Operation Iraqi Freedom, took place in 2003 and dragged on for almost nine years, until the withdrawal of US troops in December 2011. The invasion was justified by the US using the new National Security Strategy that was proposed by the Bush administration. One of the key features of the National Security strategy was the justification that the US could preemptively strike targets nations that it deemed a threat to the security of the US. In order to justify the invasion of Iraq, the governmental leaders in the US claimed that Saddam Hussein had ties to Al-Qaeda and other terror groups, as well as using Saddam’s use of chemical weapons as legitimization for the war. Once the war began on March 20, 2003, the original

The Iraq War was a conflict that lasted from 2003-2011, and many gave their lives to see this conflict end. While many supported the war at the beginning, opinions of the war quickly began to change as to whether the war was justifiable. Many who supported the war justified it saying the war routed out terrorist and brought stability to the region, but opponents argued that the war generated more violence and destabilized the area. There are several points for each reason, and both opinions are valid. However, the majority of opinions at the beginning say that going into the Iraq War made no mistakes, but five years later, the public opinion said that going into Iraq was a mistake (Evans, 2009). Then a few more years

By definition, Islam is a religion of those who obey the doctrines of the Prophet Muhammad. Muhammad, who in the 7th century lived in Arabia, initiated a religious movement that throughout the Middle East was supported by the Arabs. Today, not only in Middle East origins, Islam has adherents, where it is the dominant religion in all countries (Non-Arab, and Arab), but also in other parts of Africa, Asia and, of course, as well as in the United States. Those who are loyal to Islam are called Muslims. The Sunni, Shiite conflict in Iraq started long before the ruling of Saddam Hussein, but when Hussein became Prime Minister of the country the conflict between the two religious sects was taken to a new level. Right when Hussein gained full power, under his control, began years of persecution of the Shiite Muslims in the country. But, before this happened, the conflict was based upon Muhammad and who was to rule after he had died. When Muhammad had died there were many disputes on who should succeed the Prophet Muhammad after his death in 632. Shiites believed that the prophet’s son-in-law, Ali, was to be the successor. Both consider the Koran the word of God. But, devoutness and religious practice distinguish between the two sects. However, Islam teaches that all Islam is equal so Sunni and Shiite sects fight with each other not only because of “hatred” but, also because of religious

In order to fully interpret the nation of Iraq’s holistic condition during and after the Saddam Era, Social, Political, and Economic factors must be weighed accordingly and in contrast to each other. In order to do this, the span of years leading up to 1989, and