by Thomas Fischer
In March of 2003 the U.S. led coalition invaded Iraq with the goal of eliminating the regime of Saddam Hussein and any chance that he may pass nuclear, chemical or biological weapons to terrorist organizations such as Al Qaeda. For over a decade the Iraqi dictator has been a threat to his own people, to the Middle East region and to the world in general. Hussein has attempted to build weapons programs in the past and successfully used chemical weapons against Iran during the 1980s and against thousands of his own Iraqi people. In 1990, Iraq invaded its small neighbor to the south, Kuwait. The rest of the world recognized this serious aggression and the United States led a coalition of nations to remove the Iraqi Army from Kuwait in the first Gulf War.
After the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington on September 11, 2001, the United States again formed a coalition of nations to remove the Taliban government from Afghanistan. The Taliban regime protected Al Qaeda, the terrorist organization responsible for the September 11th attacks, and gave them safe haven as well as land to build training camps for their terrorist organization. Tens of thousands of extremist Muslims trained at these training camps in Afghanistan, including the 19 hijackers from September the 11th. Once the terrorist training camps were destroyed in Afghanistan, the U.S. turned its attention to other countries that were deemed by President George W. Bush as part of the Axis of Evil. (Bush, 2002).
In his 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush offered condolence to those who lost loved ones in the events of September 11, 2001. He offered thanks to those men and women who, through the course of doing their jobs as firefighters and police officers, paid the ultimate price in order to save lives. President Bush then turned his attention to the terrorists and the states that sponsor terrorism. “States like these, and their terrorist allies, constitute an axis of evil, arming to threaten the peace of the world. By seeking weapons of mass destruction, these regimes pose a grave and growing danger.” Furthermore, Bush argued that those countries that were not with the United States were with the terrorists. The president suggested that the United States would no longer sit back and wait for the next terrorist attack but instead the U.S. would take a preemptive role to eliminate the evil that has made itself known. If the U.S. were to do nothing, “the price of indifference would be catastrophic.” (Bush, 2002).
After the United Nations unanimously passed Security Council Resolution 1441, and the terms were agreed upon by Saddam Hussein’s government, weapons inspectors were allowed back into Iraq for the first time since 1998. After 60 days of inspections chief weapons inspector Hans Blix reported to the Security Council that Iraq had not been fully cooperative in the inspection process and had not granted unfettered access to all sites requested by the inspection team. (Fox News, 2003). Following the Blix report, the United States called for military action against Iraq citing the severe consequences for non-compliance mandated by resolution 1441. With some resistance from Security Council members, the United States put together a coalition of nations willing to remove Hussein from power and in March of 2003, the coalition led by the U.S. invaded Iraq.
Several nations opposed the war in Iraq because they said the U.S. did not have the authority to take unilateral military action against the Iraqi regime to remove it from power. The primary justification for the war in Iraq was written in Resolution 1441. “Recognizing the threat Iraq's noncompliance with Council resolutions and proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and long-range missiles poses to international peace and security, in that context, that the Council has repeatedly warned Iraq that it will face serious consequences as a result of its continued violations of its obligations”. (CNN, 2002).
There were other justifications for the war in Iraq besides the primary reason listed in 1441. The new policy of preemption as prescribed by President Bush in his 2002 State of the Union address required action be taken against states that seek out the proliferation of WMDs and the sponsoring of terrorism. Iraq was counted as one of the states in the axis of evil and the threat posed by Saddam Hussein was too great a risk to be ignored. The possibility that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction and that those weapons may find their way into the hands of those who may use them against the United States was too tremendous liability to overlook. This was another justification for the war in Iraq.
Yet another justification for the war in Iraq is that while the United States is removing the dictatorial regime of Saddam Hussein, after his removal, the U.S. would support a free democratic Iraq and that new democracy may help to stabilize the Middle East region. When the citizens of other non-democratic countries in the region see that a stable democratic Iraq rises from the ashes of a war they will realize first hand how a free and liberated country is better than an oppressive regime that takes everything including freedom away from individual citizens. This can only aid in the education against terrorism and is a step in ridding the world of extreme religious fundamentalism.
Opponents of the war in Iraq say that the war is not justified for several reasons including, but not limited to the idea that “the Bush Administration has failed to produce credible evidence that the Iraqi regime has any links whatsoever to Al Qaeda.” The reasons that are stated by the opponents of the war are not easily dismissed. Saudi Prince Turki bin Hussein stated that Osama bin Laden, the leader of Al Qaeda terrorist organization, views Saddam Hussein “as an apostate, an infidel, or someone who is not worthy of being a fellow Muslim.” (Zunes, 2002). The idea that Al Qaeda would never associate with the Iraqi dictator does not hold up very well to the scrutiny of an educated person. Just because a terrorist views another terrorist as an infidel does not mean there has not been a conversation between Al Qaeda agents and Iraqi intelligence operatives regarding the possible acquisition of weapons of mass destruction.
Furthermore opponents state that the United States is violating international law by invading Iraq without the express approval of the United Nations. (Zunes, 2002). The UN did however pass the resolution holding Iraq accountable for their disarmament and since they violated that agreement the United States had the authority to take military action. There may not be any substantive proof in either case but regardless of the aforementioned issues the fact remains that Iraq did not comply with the resolution laid out by the security council of the United Nations and therefore was in material breech of their obligations. This is all the justification needed to remove the Iraqi dictator from power.
When viewing the war in Iraq in the grand scheme of things it must be considered that the war on terrorism, specifically the victory over terrorism is the ultimate goal of those who desire peace and security in the world. A post Saddam Iraq with a democratic government goes a long way in stabilizing the region in the Middle East. Since Hussein did not comply with the requirement of the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions from the beginning, the war to remove him from power has been justified. There is no justifiable reason to doubt that the proper course of action was the one that was taken.
References
Bush, George W. (2002, January 29). America Must Confront the Threat Posed by Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Retrieved on August 17, 2004 from http://galenet.galegroup.com.
Unknown Author. (2002, November 8). Text of U.N. Resolution on Iraq. CNN.com/US. Retrieved August 22, 2004 from http://cnn.com.
Unknown Author. (2003, January 28). Raw Data: Hans Blix’s Report to the U.N. Fox News. Retrieved August 22, 2004 from http://foxnews.com.
Zunes, Stephen. (2002, September 30). A U.S. Invasion of Iraq is Not Justified. Opposing Viewpoints Resource Center. Retrieved on August 17, 2004 from http://galenet.galegroup.com.