Discussion Of Whether The War In Iraq Can Be Justified
Did you know that major news outlets, like CNN, NBC, etc., lied to you about Saddam Hussein’s Weapons of Mass Destruction? This is no surprise when you realize that this same tactic led us into Vietnam as well, after media reports claimed that North Vietnam attacked us first in the Gulf of Tonkin. Decades later, the U.S. would invade Iraq in 2003 after President Saddam Hussein supposedly developed his own WMDs and had a connection to the 9/11 attacks. Saddam was made a target by the U.S. after the 1990 Gulf War, when he invaded Kuwait in search for oil. He was driven out of Kuwait and put under economic sanctions by the UN in order to restrain his aggression, as he ruled with an iron fist, and to hinder his WMD program. Throughout the 1990’s, Saddam interfered with UN weapons inspections in Iraq and distained the weapons ban, angering President Bill Clinton into bombing Iraqi military installations in 1998, resulting in Iraq refusing any UN inspectors in search of WMDs. As the 2000’s came along, the attacks of September 11th, 2001 made the U.S. more anxious to disarm Iraq of its WMDs and overthrow the dictator Hussein. The UN demanded that they re-admit weapons inspections and although Saddam co-operated at first, President Bush claimed that they still interfered with the inspections and gave Saddam 48 hours to leave Iraq. Saddam never left and what happened was an invasion larger than D-Day. While Saddam and his WMDs were to blame for the invasion, the high cost of U.S. lives and resources after his fall question whether the mission was truly to disarm him of WMDs as none were ever found after the invasion. The war was unjustified due to false evidence of Saddam possessing WMDs and ties to the 9/11 attacks. Similar to that of the Spanish-American War, many Americans were thirsty for war and the government was more than eager. Although Saddam was overthrown, the U.S. did so with empty evidence.
Before Iraq became a target, Iraq was ruled by the Ba’athist party, which Saddam was associated with. He rose through the ranks, assimilated power as president of Iraq in 1979, and immediately jailed 68 members of the Ba’athist party who he deemed as “traitors” and out of the 68, 22 were sentenced to death, all in his first year of office. This marked the beginning of his internal reign of terror as he suppressed any and all opposition with an iron fist, similar to that of the Nazis (Bio). Although the U.S. technically supported him in the Iran-Iraq war after Iran attacked Iraqi oil shipments, the U.S. could not afford another nuclear-armed nation with a madman as their leader. After 9/11, President Bush Jr. placed Saddam on the ranks of the “Axis of Evil”, consisting of Iran and North Korea, and the UN charged Iraq with violating past resolutions and warned of “serious” consequences if Saddam should continue his vices. He continued to ignore the weapons ban and it infuriated the United States, eventually leading to an invasion, his removal of power, and soon, his trial and execution. With public opinion initially favoring an invasion at 71% in 2003, it would not be long before it flips on its side, due to the fact that there wasn’t any nuclear weapon to instigate an invasion.
As aforementioned, one of the main reasons the United States was vilinazing Iraq was for its WMDs. Since the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq has used chemical weapons against Iranian soldiers and Kurdish rebels supported by Iran, alerting the international community. As Saddam continued his internal reign of terror and with 9/11 occuring, the United States was more than willing to invade at any chance. One such person that gave them a chance was Colin Powell, the U.S. Secretary of State from 2001 to 2005. Appointed by President Bush Jr. in 2000, he first had doubts about Bush’s plans for overthrowing Saddam’s regime and believed that containment was the better option, but he started supporting it once Bush decided to invade in 2003, going so far as to urge the UN for support, claiming evidence that Iraq had been stockpiling WMDs (Bio 2). The UN agreed to support the invasion, with some opposition, and the U.S. deployed their “shock and awe” strategy on Iraq, which in return shocked and awed the many war protesters back home. The evidence that Powell claimed to the UN would soon turn out to be false as he personally told Congress in 2004 that the evidence presented to the UN was fake, with him resigning shortly thereafter. Americans were split on the resignation but at that point, Saddam had already been captured. He stated in a 2012 interview that “we got rid of the horrific Hussein” despite presenting no clear evidence that Saddam had any WMDs, as Bush believed (NTI). With the United States now under control of a Middle-Eastern country, the worst was yet to come in the years following Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” speech, where he entustiatically said that “our mission continues” in Iraq, but little did he know that the high cost would come from the insurgency after Saddam’s fall.
Once Saddam was removed from power, the entirety of Iraq turned into a free-for-all. The Ba’athist government had been removed and left in its place was nothing. Hundreds of insurgent groups were born to fill the power void, and the U.S. had no control over them. The United States put the Shiites, a Muslim majority once oppressed by the Sunni Hussein for decades, into power and they took action by oppressing the Sunnis. The United States would hold onto the country until 2011, when American troops were pulled out, ending 8 years of pointless losses. Some of the most significant losses from safeguarding the broken country was both its financial and human losses, as the U.S. spent over $1.6 trillion on the war during and after the invasion, which is about $4,920 for every U.S. citizen. The U.S. continues to spend billions on other wars following the invasion, with a bill of $5.6 trillion on our table. All that money spent trying to “eliminate” evil cannot compare to the human suffering due to our efforts. A total of 4,487 American soldiers have been killed with about 32,000 injured, and some 461,000 Iraqis have been killed as a result (BBC). Many American veterans not only come home with life-changing injuries, but also a strong sense of depression and suicide. The Iraq War has produced more PTSD than any other Middle-Eastern conflict to date, with up to 20% of veterans being affected, resulting in increased investment in health care. While the government spends more fighting terrorism abroad, the veterans are being left to aid for themselves while our Bush-era objective of “fighting terrorism” goes nowhere, with billions of taxpayers money wasted.
In all, the Iraq War certainly took a ruthless dictator out of power, but with hardly any evidence to do so. Saddam may have been a modern-day Hitler, but no one could deny the pace of his growing, oppressive regime, and the United States was the only country caple of halting such “evil”. Sprinkle in some claims of Iraqi WMD development and you have yourself a boost of support from the UN, for a while at least. Once that boost of support is over, be prepared to spend countless dollars and human lives trying to maintain a free-for-all nation because there will be hundreds of insurgency groups, all with different agendas. A high PTSD percentage among veterans is a symptom of safeguarding Iraq, and a high U.S. casualty count follows. All of these sacrifices make the Iraq War forever unjustified as the base evidence that led to the invasion was a pure fake. From the government’s perspective, the Iraq War was one for the greater good as it removed a dictator from power and allowed access to a once nationalized oil industry, which is often a main driving factor for U.S. engagement in countless conflicts around the world today. If the United States ever wishes to topple another dictator, like President Maduro of Venezuela for example, we must present clear evidence why, instead of just jumping in and hoping the mission is accomplished.
