Unveiling the Complex Factors Behind the Invasion of Iraq

The invasion has also been referred to as the third gulf war. It was undertaken as a military invasion into Iraq in order to end the regime of Saddam Hussien and in the hope to establish democracy in the region. However from the very start until now it has been quite a controversial move that was undertaken by the bush government as US supported their arguments with a lot of claims against Iraq. These claims were not all proven as facts subsequently. Bush government had stated that it was retaliating to the attack of 911 as it believed that Iraq along with countries like iran and north korea had been a part of the axis of evil in supporting terrorism In their states. The main reasons for the war was to end saddam hussiens regime and to get rid his party call the bath party. Even with the defeat of the the Iraqi army and the execution of Saddam Hussien the invasion has been stated as a failure, which led to several casualities from both sides the paper discusses all consequenses of the war and also speculations on possibly the real intentions of the war.

It is said that one of the few main reasons behind the invasion was firstly, the abolishment of Saddam Hussein and his party's regime in order to establish democracy in the region, secondly to destroy all the weapons of mass destructions as and the long range missiles because it was said that Iraq not only were working on such projects but were also indulging in the use of chemical weapons which by the end of the war US could not find any evidence of their claims. Third, the second invasion post September 2001 also had taken place because US under took there fight against terrorism in which Iraq was showcased as a supporter of the Al Qaeda.

By undertaking the invasion the political motive of the US was to ensure that the new government that would come into power would be democratic in nature in the sense that they would be elected by and would speak for all the communities in Iraq the sunnis , kurds, and the shiites as under Saddam Hussien the kurds had been slaughtered and even chemical weapons may have been used to suppress these communities which constituted the minority in the state. Shiites in Iraq were also to an extend being influenced by the new Shiite government of Iran which aimed to unite the Shiite of the region. Saddam Hussiens party consisted of majority of the leaders from the sunni community and Saddam himself in his early days when was the vice president of the state had executed innocent jews publicly to give a strong message to rest of the nation on how things will be under him. The Dictator in the UN had even been accused of exploiting and failing to provide the basic human rights to his people on the humanitarian front . On the other hand not only they wanted to stop saddam hussien by destroying all the possible sites where the long range missiles and weapons of mass destructions could've been kept which would even keep him from waging war against the US and other countries in the world but they also speculated that the Iraqi intelligence had links with Laden, had even invited Taliban to there country on several occasion which they had no proof of. According to some reports the pilot who crashed the plain into the twin tower had met one of the official from the Iraqi Intellegence. Whereas by some poltical thinkers it is said that the whole of the invasion took place potraying humanitarian objectives behind them with false accusation against Iraq in order to solely fullfil the their economic agendas and keep the flow of oil to the Gulf countries.

It was after presenting evidence of illegal activities under the ruling party in Iraq in the security council in the UN that the US and the UK did not get approval to attack as China, Russia and France would've used their veto against them, they decided to attack without approval from the security council after which this action was criticized world wide especially in Europe. Some believed that Iraq had already suffered a lot in the past few years and that the war would only worsen the situation for the population of Iraq economically and in terms of casualities as the long war against Iran had proven to be unnesecary with no outcome apart from loss of human lives and a lot of money spent on war though Saddam had declared victory over Iran in the war.

The war today has been referred to as a lack of far sightedness by the Bush regime as both the sides had to pay an enormous price for it, especially Iraq population several were left displaced and many fled to other countries about 1.3 million Iraqis died with loss of homes and infrastructure. While for the US it lost the position and the prestige it had post cold war with the fall of USSR, it showed that it US did not know how to act as a hegemon with no competitor US itself ended up spending more money than they would've assumed which was about 50 trilion dollars with almost 5000 service personnel dead in the course. US also failed the transfer and the smooth transition of the new government as it had thought it would, since the execution of the supreme leader Saddam Hussien situations in Iraq have worsened and Iraq struggles to get back till date. US even failed to prove that Iraq had been involved in the development of such weapons, US had also been criticized as they did not say a word against Saddam when the relations between the two countries were good and till they needed Saddam's support but years later they charged him for his actions in the past.

In the fourty years relationship between US and Iraq, Saddam Hussien remained the supreme leader of his country while he saw 9 presidents change in the United States. US saw themselves more like the guardian of the middle east and Saddam Hussien was considered as the master of the arabs, in the relationship both proved to be necessary evils to one another. Though its been an example of one of the most tragic misalliance on the international stage.

Initially for both US and Saddam the Communists were the common enemy so they needed each other. Later however we saw how one of the prime reasons to invade Iraq was to overthrow the regime of the baath party, Saddam had been a very party worker of this political party and was even appointed the torturer before under taking the post for the vice president of Iraq. As the torturer he tried giving strong and loud messages for the world to see as he had once undertaken trails for treason where the accused who mainly were Jews were executed infront of the Iraqi people.

The US regime itself was a two faced regime and embarrassing for themselves from the international perspective. In April 1972, during the cold war era Iraq even signed a treaty of friendship with the USSR and even nationalized their oil. This move when denounced the American imperialism Iraq smartly opened up his country to the west and in early 70s the nation even moved towards westernization to an extend.

During the 70s both the nations confined no trust in each other they were neither friends nor enemy but soon this changed and the change in power in Iran helped bring the two countries together. The radical and extremist shia leader Khameni came to power and Irani was fled to the US. It could unite the shia of Iraq as Saddam had a history of brutalizing Shias in his country even with a majority Shiite population Saddam had become the undisputed leader, on the other hand America feared for the oil and Israel as the new government in Iran seemed to be a threat.In 1979 Al Bakr was forced to resign and Saddam declared himself the leader after which for him to become uncontested at power 19 member were killed. Within a short period of coming into power Saddam declared war against Iran and it was specified that the war isn't to facilitate the American motives.

In 1987 a tragic event happened which made it look like US was willing to forgive everything. A stock leading ship of the US had missiles fired on it by Iraq pilot which killed 37 crew men. Iraq quickly apologized and the whole incident was brushed off by Ronald Reagan's government as an accident. Usually such an incident could easily be a cause of war. In 1988 Saddam's army gassed 5000 civilians from the Kurdish community, even this was ignored by America.

It was still believed that if the US wanted to stop the Iran Iraq war they could have easily done it but it is speculated that they wanted the war to continue. On an occasion US were even accused by Iraq of supplying weapons to Iran and US promised Saddam to not do it apart from that exception. Finally 1988 the war came to end and Iraq were declared winners.

When George bush came to power situations had changed as the Soviet Union was falling the communist were no longer a threat to the US and bush did not need the support of Saddam any more. Iraq which just got out of war underwent a hard time economically. Kuwait somehow managed to lower their oil prices which directly affected Iraq, everytime Kuwait decreased their oil prices by one dollar Iraq faced a loss of one billion dollar. Iraq tried negotiating with Kuwait after which they invaded Kuwait. By invading Kuwait Saddam triggered a process he could not stop and immediately after the invasion US condemned the attack and voted for the use of force against Iraq for their actions. America wanted to put an end to a man to serve their own interest and Saddam was portrayed as an evil dictator. Saddam's army was crushed and Saddam was left humiliated and isolated in 1991 after failed negotiations between US led coalition forces and Iraq to liberate Kuwait.

In Iraq soon the shias wanted their own government and the rebellions started , the shias had hoped for help from US after the defeat of Saddam in Kuwait but US did not provide help even after false governmental indications before as a result the rebellion was crushed by the Iraqi government.

There was a point when US did realize that a change in regime in Iraq would prove to be very chaotic, and they could never find an alternative to Saddam. Iraq had to face a lot of government sanctions while half of the population starved, UN was urged to take back the sanctions but taking the sanctions back would have meant that the US did not have an upper hand over Saddam. The sanctions damaged Iraq enormously and so the west gives an ultimatum to Saddam either to give up the missiles and the chemical weapons also known as weapons of mass destructions to have the sanctions lifted but Saddam refused to comply as he denied of having possession of such WMDs.