Why the U.S. Invaded Iraq in 2003

Why the U.S. Invaded Iraq in 2003

Why Did the United States Invade Iraq in 2003?

In the following essay I will attempt to answer the question of why the United States (U.S.) invaded Iraq in 2003. In doing this I will explore some of the possible answers given by the U.S., Iraq’s development of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) was given by the U.S. as the first official reason for the invasion. Once it became apparent that there were no WMD’s the U.S. claimed their purpose was to ‘liberate the country from a tyrant’. Underlying these reasons was the claim that Saddam Hussein and his Ba’ath regime had links with al Qaeda and were involved in the terrorist attacks against the U.S. on September 11th 2001. Ultimately U.S. foreign policy the ‘National Security Strategy’ led towards the invasion as the U.S. tries to enforce their value system on the rest of the world.

Before the invasion of Iraq, President Bush claimed the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had proof that Iraq had a weapons development program and lobbied the United Nations to sanction an attack. When the sanction was not received Bush and his administration forged ahead with the support of senior security advisors, most notably National Security Advisor Condolezza Rice, CIA Director George Tenet and Secretary of State Colin Powell. Unfortunately for the U.S. as little as ninety days after the invasion was complete and the U.S. had control of Baghdad no WMDs had been found and doubt was continuing to mount. After twelve months the U.S. began to believe the captured scientist who continued to tell interrogators there were no WMDs. During this time it became evident that other so called “rogue states” as well as U.S. ally Pakistan had or were developing WMDs and more importantly the Bush administration knew about them. With the power of hind sight this ‘excuse if you like’ does not stand up and the U.S.’s ‘proof’ of WMDs clearly lacks the necessary evidence for an invasion.

The apparent lack of WMDs in Iraq and the...

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