The Lasting Effects of the US-Iraq War

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 Iran-Iraq War, taking place from 1980-1988, started when Iraq, led by Saddam Hussein, tried to invade Iran, sparking an armed war between the two countries. This war had many effects on the oil industry, led to many weapon innovations in Iraq, showed the world who Saddam Hussein was, and how the treaty with the United Nations affected the world.

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.

When the United States seized control over Iraq, many Iraqi citizens were left without a job. As a result of this widespread unemployment, recruitment for Muslim extremist groups thrived. Lt. General Michael Flynn, a key figure of the War, has admitted “As brutal as Saddam Hussein was, it was a mistake to just eliminate him.” Flynn went on to say. “The same is true for Moammar Gadhafi and for Libya, which is now a failed state. The historic lesson is that it was a strategic failure to go into Iraq. History will not be and should not be kind with that

The disbanding of the Iraqi army and “debathification” or dismantling of the government in place only served to increase the casualties of American troops and Iraqi civilians as the radical Sunni insurgency expanded. This point of cause and effect, clash of two distinct political and cultural worlds, defined this war for the generation serving, at home and the future generations. The threat of increasing terrorism after the attack of September 11, 2001 was one of the driving force of invasion of Iraq. However, in one analysis the increase of global terrorism today is told to be well contributed by the conflicts that were fueled by the western presence in Iraq and the surrounding

Although severe consequences come with the decision of war with Iraq, most blinded United States of America citizens are still yet persuaded to support such a war. The Bush Administration has covered their schemes of war with lies to gain support. While weapons of mass destruction is supposedly the reason why the United States launched military action to begin with, all the clearly ignored consequences will haunt their final decision of war, and will remind them how the war is not and never was justified. Whither the war is for the protection of the United States and their alliances, or for oil production and the spread of democracy, the United States is only intensifying the aggression of the situation.

The first step in establishing an Iraqi threat was to demonstrate that Iraq possessed WMD, meaning chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons, and the means to deliver these weapons. The possession of these weapons would be in direct violation of U.N. resolutions put into effect after the Gulf War and hopefully justify any use of force under international law. Time and time again the Bush administration put forth statements that, “Saddam Hussein still has chemical and biological weapons and is increasing his capabilities to make more. And he is moving even closer to developing a nuclear weapon.” In February of 2003, one month before the U.S. waged war on Iraq, Secretary of State Colin Powell brought the administration’s case for war before the United Nations Security Council in an effort to garner U.N. support for an effort to disarm Iraq. By one count, “Powell made twenty-nine claims about Iraqi weapons, programs, behaviors,

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 the years leading up to and during the Iraq War, the United States pursued a neo-conservative agenda that aimed to dismantle Saddam Hussein’s regime, eliminate the threat of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), and install a democratic government in Iraq. To do so, U.S. policymakers deployed military forces and diplomatic ambassadors to intervene. This strategy, clearly seen during the early invasion in 2003 and the surge of 2007, produced mixed reactions. Indeed, more than a decade after the U.S. decision to mediate, the question remains: Can intervention actually work?

From the time when the United States invaded Iraq eleven years ago, a noxious insurgence aeriated at numerous customs of conflict which has attested irrepressible, malleable, and tenacious strive to convey on hostility. A nation of Saddam and al-Zarqawi, Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (ISIS) reins a third of conjointly Syria and Iraq in its charisma avowed bravura of war. Around the beginning of 2010, U.S. and Iraqi forces destroyed two topmost al-Qaeda and Iraq frontrunners; which then sanctioned Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi to become the spearhead of an assemblage destabilized by a strenuous operation directed at culminating a Sunni uprising in the country (CNN, 2015). By virtually all provision, Iraq is entangled in civil war. In addition, ISIS has engrossed nearly twelve thousand supporters from overseas already and at least three thousand devotees are from the West (Feroli & Dulin, 2013).

One of the greatest debates over the past decade has been whether the US’s effort to overthrow a tyrannical leader named Saddam Hussein was truly justified. The aim of this paper is to shed light on what the relations were between the United States and Iraq for over half a century and what factors led to such a disastrous invasion which left over half a million people dead and countless more injured. What justifications did politicians such as Vice President Dick Cheney and President George W. Bush give to the American public which convinced the masses that an invasion was necessary after disastrous examples in the past such as the invasion of Vietnam? It is important that one looks over specific turning points in history, such as the attack

In 2003, President George W. Bush and Secretary of State Colin Powell launched an invasion of the nation of Iraq. United States Secretary of State Colin Powell outlined the reasons Iraq posed a threat to international security in a speech he gave at the United Nations. Iraq’s nuclear weapons program concerned the Bush administration. Fearing Iraq might use this program to act aggressively in the region, and wanting to secure oil supplies and a friendly regime, the administration pursued a plan of action to remove Iraqi President Saddam Hussein from power (FLS 2016, 43). A constant secure supply of oil stood as a cornerstone of the military-industrial complex thriving in the United States and a friendly regime in such an oil rich country remained an important objective of President Bush. This directly conflicted with the desire of President Saddam Hussein of Iraq to remain in power.

The main reason for invading Iraq was because America is concerned about the nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons Saddam Hussein might have. Intelligence indicated Saddam was reconstituting its nuclear weapons program and maintained links to al Qaeda affiliates to whom it might give such weapons to use against the United States. After two years of examining Iraq, the weapon search group failed to find weapon of mass destruction stockpiles or any program to produce them. The Bush administration has expressed disappointment that no weapons or started programs to produce weapons were found, but the White House had been reluctant to call off the search, holding out the possibility that weapons were moved out of Iraq before the war or are hidden somewhere inside the country. But the intelligence official said that possibility is very small. It is very likely if Iraq was holding any kind of weapons that America is concerned about, they would have used it to keep U.S soldiers out of Iraq.

After the gulf wars, a ceasefire was negotiated between the United Nations coalition and Iraq. During the ceasefire, the United Nations became aware that Iraq had started a biological warfare program in the 1980s, as well as a chemical warfare program. Upon further investigation, they found that these programs had not continued after the war. As a result, the United States main focus moving forward was the removal of the Saddam regime, their official foreign policy for years to come focused on this goal. With the suspicions that Saddam Hussein had the abilities to acquire weapons of mass destruction, the Bush administration going as far as to claim he already had them, the United States and other countries began devising a plan of action. These countries strongly believed that Iraq was a treat to its neighbors and the rest of the world, and that the only solution was to invade Iraq. The United States invading Iraq in 2003 was a turning point in the reason why relationship between Iraq and the United States is the way it is today.

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