War Crimes In Iraq

Invading Iraq was—and remains—a highly debated and controversial decision within both world politics and the academic disciplines of politics and international relations. With a growing number of deaths, rising tensions in the Middle East, and a failure to find any weapons of mass destruction (WMD), the voices condemning the Bush administration have been increasing ever since the decision to go to war was announced. While many scholars have traditionally argued against the war, this paper will argue that the Iraq War can be justified.

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 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

The My Lai massacre and the Abu Ghraib torture prison were both tragic events in history that Americans were involved in. The My Lai massacre took place during the Vietnam war in 1968. Lieutenant William Calley ordered the Charlie Company to proceed with the attack on the village of My Lai. Their goal was to exterminate the Viet Cong combatants and any one who stood in their way, but they ended up killing hundreds of innocent unarmed civilians instead. The Abu Ghraib torture and prison was an american military run prison that was active during the Iraqi war in 2003 until 2006. They captured Iraqi soldiers and tortured them in extremely inhumane and unimaginable ways. These horrific occurrences made an impact on a countless amount of communities and people’s lives around the world whether they had connections to the incidents or not, which is why this issue is such an important matter to discuss. The concepts that will be discussed in this essay are the similarities between the events of the My Lai massacre and Abu Ghraib prison, the major difference between the two, considering who was truly responsible for the events at the Abu Ghraib prison, discussing whether or not the lessons of My Lai were learnt, and the steps to take to insure nothing alike these events would ever take place in the world again.

…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

Matthew Lippman provides that the Lai Massacre violated the international humanitarian law of war. The Lai Massacre and the Vietnam War raises critical questions about how America conduct war and its military leadership in Vietnam. The massacre of innocent unarmed civilians illustrates the horrendous war crime committed by American soldiers. Lippman discusses how the United States tried to keep the events of My Lai Massacre from the public. The My Lai Massacre makes me wonder if this was only one of the many massacres in Vietnam War and if the higher US officials managed to cover-up the other massacres. The trials for the crimes committed in My Lai were held separately from the Nuremberg trails because officials wanted to avoid creating parallels between the two events. However, parallels can be drawn with American conduct in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay. Troops who were in violation of international law and committed war crimes in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo Bay were not held accountable for their action to their full extent. In fact, those who were convicted were not necessarily charged with war crimes. This leads us to question whether the events of my Lai and Nuremberg could ever be reconciled. Allan Ryan makes the argument that the Nuremberg Tribunals was the most significant development of international human rights law. I agree with Ryan as many tribunals following the events of World War II have been modeled after the Nuremberg Tribunals. For instance, this is true in

resident Bush announced in 2003 the intentions to invade Iraq, and dismantle Saddam Hussein’s regime "to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger." and from a state department's reason to go to war against Iraq “Defeated a regime that developed and used weapons of mass destruction, that harbored and supported terrorists, committed outrageous human rights abuses, and defied the just demands of the United Nations and the world.” These reasons led to thousands of dead on both sides, 612 Billion dollars, and another terror organization taken root. Originally in the 1980s, the U.S supported Saddam Hussein’s war against Iran and aided them with weapons, and money. During this period was when Saddam’s major human

After the horrors of the Holocaust came to light, the international community came together to create a new set of standards concerning a specific kind of crime against humanity. Prior to WWII, violence existed and people were murdered in cold blood, but nothing as systematic and

The United States has been at war since its creation in 1776. Notably, one of the most crucial wars was the War on Terror. Beginning in March of 2003, this war initially served the purpose of getting rid of the country 's leader Saddam Hussein to prevent his use of suspected stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. Hussein was best-known as a Middle Eastern ruler with a violent regime. He governed Iraq from 1979 until his capture in 2003when President Bush presumed he was harboring chemical weapons such as synthetic warheads, shells, or aviation bombs. While politics justified invading Iraq, the conflict between the U.S. and Iraq began long before the war. In the post-election leading up to the war, political officials such as George Bush attested repeatedly that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction and posed a danger to the U.S. and other targets. Bush sold the war to Americans by attesting these cases of threat to Americans openly with supreme certainty. The United States of America should not have invaded Iraq as it allowed the establishment of government power and democracy without evidence under prior resolutions, increased violence, and forced American citizens to inquire significant debt including the injuries and hardships sustained by U.S. soldiers.

WWI and WWII: Genocide World War I and World War II greatly impacted different areas of the world. During both wars used a new way of executing their “enemies” through mass killings of a certain group of people called genocide. Although both wars had many similarities on the way each carried out genocide, the difference of methods used in each war occurred as well. Though each war started at a different time in history, they have many similarities between the two.

The war in Iraq began in March of 2003. During this war personnel of the United States Army and the Central Intelligence Agency committed a chain of human rights violations. This was against prisoners in the Abu Ghraib Prison, which was in Iraq. These violations included torture, sodomy, sexual and physical abuse, rape, and murder. The abuse captured public attention and was widespread. The incidents received widespread condemnation both within the United States and abroad, because of the photographs and publication of the abuse by the news in April of 2004. Meanwhile, the soldiers received support from some conservative media within the United States.

It was in December 1948, when it was approved unanimous the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide at France which became the 260th resolution of the General Assembly of the United Nations. What made the leaders of the 41 States create and sign this document in which the term Genocide was legally defined? This document serves as a permanent reminder of the actions made by the Nazis and their leader Adolf Hitler during the Holocaust where more than five million of European Jews were killed. In summary I will explain what were the events that leaded the ordinary Germans kill more than six million Jews in less than five years. To achieve this goal, I will base my arguments on the Double Spiral Degeneration Model

Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, there has been a lot of controversy about the legality of the United Sates invasion. Many war critics claim that it was illegal and ones who caused or contributed to the war should be punished. There has also been many stories of war crimes committed in Iraq. Many soldiers have come back from war apologizing for what they have done.

However, many of those regimes were supplied and funded by the West in the first place. Occupation is not to make welfare accessible to the public. It is taking the resources they are currently lacking. As a result, the same civilians the West is supposed to be “protecting” they are the same ones forced to join regimes, often not because of shared ideological beliefs but out of the need for survival. For providing themselves and their family more water, better food, decent shelter (Where in the World is Osama?). America had promised to rebuild several schools in the Middle East blown apart by explosives. Years later, rubble still remains and more schools are still being blown up (Where in the World is Osama?).

As of today, 6,845 Americans have died in Iraq and Afghanistan and over 900,000 Americans have been injured in both wars. (Goodman 1) Sending those troops over to these places to fight will just cause more damage. How much more lost lives does it take for the government to realize that the places they are sending these troops over to is not getting anywhere. The U.S just keeps going up a hill that never ends, instead of going up they are rolling down it. Digging a bigger hole for the U.S to get buried in. The great leaders in American history learned from the mistakes of the past. It is something we ought to remember when it comes to sending ground troops to remove the Islamic State group. Although ISIS needs to be defeated, the President should