The Magic Moment

Leena
4008 words

The invasion of Iraq

       Saddam Hussein became the dictator of Iraq in the year of 1979. People became poor and lots of Iraqi people were killed under his control. Saddam was interested in acquiring or developing Weapons of Mass Destruction. Iraq didn’t have a close relationship with its neighboring countries, because they used to be at war with them (i.e. Iran, Kuwait) or the war known as Persian Gulf War. In 1990, America placed troops in Saudi Arabia to help Kuwait. Iraq under Saddam sought to create or possess weapons that were capable of causing great damage. America thought that this would be bad for the world. America considered that for Iraq to have control of WMD wasn’t good for mankind, because of their power to destroy many things and destabilize the Middle East.  

       The 2003 war between Iraq and America made people in many countries, including Americans, change their thought about America, because America was in the United Nations. People hoped that America would not go to war, but they did. People also believed that the attack on 2001 September11, lead to the war with Iraq. 

       The invasion of Iraq started on March 20, 2003. The president of America (George W. Bush) stated that the objectives of the invasion were to disarm Iraq of Weapons of Mass Destruction, to end Saddam’s support for terrorism, and to free the Iraqi people. America’s objectives of attack Iraq were; to over thrown Saddam and to change Iraqi government because it would be good for American economy. Iraq is the second biggest oil producer and oil exporter. If America got control of Iraq, American’s economy would become very strong as its demand for oil could be more easily met. They would also become the most powerful presence in Middle East.

            The Iraq war was the consequence of the first Persian Gulf War, which was between Iraq and Kuwait. In 1990, on the second of August, Iraq sent troops to invade Kuwait. The U.S, which was Kuwait’s ally, helped Kuwait by cooperating with the U.N. (who had a duty to protect their members from invasion). The U.N. placed troops in Saudi Arabia and then sent the troops to Iraq which was lead by America. The war lasted for one month and a few days. Later on Iraqi soldiers tried to get rid of the Kurdish people who lived in the northern part of Iraq. Iraqi soldiers ruthlessly and illegally used chemical weapons against them. America, Britain, and France helped the Kurdish people by forcing Iraq to obey the two no-fly zones, which were in north and south of the Iraq. Allied air forces patrolled over Iraq and Iraqi air-defense installations repeatedly targeted than after the war. The United Nations forced Iraq to destroy their chemical and biological weapons, and their Weapons of Mass Destruction. The U.N. also sent weapons inspectors to Iraq to verify the presence and destruction of WMD. The problems remained unsolved after the inspectors left in 1998, and the U.N. also faced a lack of cooperation by the Iraqi government.

            After the attack on of the World Trade Center, on September 11, 2001, American people became frightened. Later on America had a war with Afghanistan. They would control Afghanistan until the next election, this marked that Bush turned his attention to the country that developed weapons. He also declared war on terrorism and stated his goal of catching Osama Bin laden and Al-Qaeda to prevent the terrorist network. The U.N. sent inspectors to Iraq again to see whether they had WMD or not. Iraq agreed to destroy all of their WMD and the inspectors didn’t find any of them. America refused to believe Iraq, so America requested the U.N. to let them use troops to find the WMD in Iraq. France, Russia, and China, who were U.N. Security Council members objected,. America launched pre-emptive strikes against Iraq, which meant they would attack Iraq before Iraq attacked them with destructive weapons. America thought that this was the best way to protect them. In 2003, on the 18^th of March, Bush declared the deadline had passed for Saddam and his son to get out of the country within forty-eight hours. Saddam didn’t leave his country and he declared to fight against American’s troops. In March 20, 2003, a few hours after the deadline had passed, the invasion began.

            The war between Iraq and America took placed in Iraq. From 21 March to 9 April 2003, the American and Britain troops were hardly attacked on Iraq, their armies and air forces started by invading Iraq in the south. The troops went through many Iraq cities until they reached Baghdad. In 9 April 2003, they felled the Saddam Hussein Statue (the statue was set in the capital city of Iraq.) which meant they successfully overthrown Saddam government. After they won some several fights in the important cities in northern part of Iraq, the American and Britain troops took control of Mosul and lots of cities. The last city that they attacked was Tikrit which was the city that Saddam had born. They took control of Tikrit in 14 April 2003; this marked the end of the second Persian Gulf War. Later on America established democracy in Iraq. The country planned to rebuild. The police lieutenant general, Jay Garner and the voluntary soldiers were the Iraq care takers until Iraq was completely democratic. The United Nations (U.N.) took care of developing and rebuilding Iraq.  The war between Iraq and America had been unfair for Iraq.

            American chose to make war with Iraq because they wanted to overthrow Saddam Hussein. They also wanted to change the way that the government ran in Iraq. They considered that condition of Iraqi people was bad because they were poor but the dictator was rich. The reasons that Bush revealed before they attacked Iraq were; America thought that Iraq was a treat to American interest, particularly because Iraq possessed Weapons of Mass Destruction. Since the Persian Gulf War, Saddam had acted as America’s enemy, and provoked American power. America believed that Saddam would assist anyone who wanted to attack America. They also believed that Saddam would support anything that might make America lose stability. Bush couldn’t let Iraq develop or posses Weapons of Mass Destruction anymore, because Iraq had used chemical weapons against the Kurdish rebels before, during and after the First Persian Gulf War, indirect contravention of the Geneva convention and hadn’t cooperated with the United Nations weapon inspectors, which made America suspect that Iraq still had lots of WMD. Even though the inspectors didn’t find any evidence, America still didn’t want to risk the chance of Iraq having WMD. America was scared of the damage that Iraq could do in the future, so they justified the invasion of Iraq as self defense. America also believed that Saddam was supporting Al Qaeda which had Osama bin Laden as a leader. George W. Bush confirmed that these were the reasons that they invaded Iraq on March 2003, to the American people. Later America and Britain said that they should have invaded Iraq before Iraq was ready. They thought would be harder for them to invade or attack Iraq when Iraq was ready with the WMD. It wasn’t fair to attack the country that wasn’t ready yet.  The indirect reason that America attacked Iraq was because of the good that America benefits from after they changed Iraq’s government. It wasn’t fair for Iraq to be attacked by America; they might just find a good reason to attack Iraq for the benefit for their future. The direct and indirect benefits that America would gain after they took control of Iraq were enormous. America would be richer because they could have control of the oil production, and the oil export. Iraq was the second largest oil producer in the world. If they controlled Iraq oil production, America would be the country that can set the oil price and decrease the action of Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), these benefitting the economy. Since America was the country that used the most oil in the world, about twenty-five percent of oil products were sent to America. The oil price could be a tactic for America to attack the other country’s economy. American oil investors also got benefits after the war. This war encouraged the America economy. They used about one hundred thousand million dollar on this war that would help the weapon industries a lot. After the war American businesses also had many ways to enter Iraq and seek benefits during the rebuilding Iraq. American businesses, investors, and industries that came to rebuild Iraq became richer. It wasn’t fair for Iraq that American companies came into the country and changed everything and also got benefits from their country. America also got control of the oil industries, which were the most important exports in Iraq. America also became more powerful in the Middle East and they might invade other oil rich counties. America used its military superiority over Iraq to show that America was powerful. America believed that they were superior. They believed that they were better than the other and they could organize the world. America wanted to show all countries that being against America or opposing them, to know that any countries provoking America would be in a big trouble. Iraq was the example. America changed Iraq to be democratic, influencing the other Arab states to change to be democratic. America thought that they would be able to control the thinking of the countries in Middle East. Beside the American economy benefits, Bush also could make people concentrate on the Iraq war more than their country’s economy. Bush didn’t want people in his country to think that the way he ran the country’s economy was negative. He made the war happened to make people concentrate on war more than his failure. He did this in order to get votes from people again in the next election.

            The alliance was the main help to encourage soldiers in the fighting. Both America and Iraq needed to find their alliance and helper troops from other countries. They also needed to obstruct the other side so the other side couldn’t be able to get alliances and helpers. The alliance and the united front of America were a great deal less than first Persian Gulf War, because America didn’t get approval from the U.N. to invade Iraq. They got Resolution 144 that gave them some legitimacy. In the Persian Gulf War, America got support form thirty-four countries. Moreover the alliance ideas of invasion were split up. France and Germany, which had been in NATO, were greatly against America’s idea. Many people in many countries were against this war, even people in America and England, who spoke out against their leaders. However America still had an alliance that supported them, and which sent the troops to help America. The American allies were both overt and covert nations that allowed America to fly though their counties. Before America stared the war, they said about forty-five countries were supporting them. Of all of the forty-five countries, only the English strongly supported America by sending the troops. The Americans had 146000 soldiers, the English sent 8500 soldiers, which was a lot more than other country, because English and American old allies and the English also wanted to take action as a powerful nation. England also expected to get part of benefit of the oil production country that was the reason why English joined the war. English also expected to get benefits of the oil production after the war ended. For other countries that supported America, those countries tried to eliminate sabotage and also wanted to make a good alliance with America. In Eastern Europe there were some countries that supported America, maybe because they were formerly communism and wanted America to help them build their economies and policies. Countries which in Persian Gulf were supported America) because they wanted to have good relationship with America. Some countries in Asia also supported U.S., because of benefits to their countries and continued good relationship with America. The countries that sent troops to America were England, Korea (they sent 2300 soldiers), Australia (sent 1400 soldiers) and Poland (sent 900 soldiers. Even though America had fewer supporters than in the first Persian Gulf War, they got troops that sent from other country.

            Iraq sought assistance from other countries, especially countries that opposed the war. Iraq had some success, they got some supporters. Iraq denied that they were helping Al Qaeda which had Osama Bin laden as a leader and they also denied that they had developed any WMD. Saddam tried to make world community council and countries that were Islamic, to think that America attacked the weaker country only for oil industries and overthrown Saddam. It wasn’t a fair that the strongest or most powerful country in the world should do this. Iraq also said that if America successfully conquered Iraq, some day other countries would be same as Iraq. In this war Iraq got many big supporters such as France, Germany, Russia, and China. These countries were openly opposed this war. They might think that they were U.N. member so they wanted to peacefully ended the war but actually they got some benefit from Iraq’s oil. They also had deals with Iraq’s weapon industries. These countries hoped to be an ally with Iraq in the future. These countries didn’t want America to be the most powerful country in the world and didn’t want America to take military action that wasn’t approved by the U.N. Other countries that were against this war were countries that were in Arab league and countries that were neutral, especially countries that were Muslim. Even these countries would opposed the war but none of them were openly help Iraq. They didn’t want to declare themselves enemies to America. Even Iraq got support from powerful countries but none of them sent troops to help Iraq. This wasn’t fair for Iraq they weren’t ready and didn’t get troops from their allies. Iraq wasn’t able to win.

            The advantages to America in this war were that America had nuclear weapons that could greatly destroy things, houses or cities. American weapons could destroy the other side accurately from a great distance. America used technologies which could hardly be defended against. They could mobilize a vast amount of troops in a short space of time. America had the war control systems that had great ability. Soldiers could integrate easily with the weapon. America had an air force that could strike quickly and accurately against a variety of targets. Their soldiers were trained to solve the problems immediately. They also could manage time for fighting, deciding how long that they would fight in each battle. America and English soldiers were experienced. They had high ability in the style of warfare common in Iraq. Iraq’s neighbors were disliked America. The U.S. had a higher information warfare capability than Iraq. American soldier were highly trained in places that were similar to Iraq, and the soldiers believed that they were going to win. The disadvantages of America were; America policy had restrictions in the use of soldiers. Based on American law, people in the country and House of Parliament needed to allow first before they used the soldiers. The United State was the most powerful country, they had a responsibility to take care of other countries. If other countries were attacked, America needed to help them, so they couldn’t send all of their soldiers to Iraq. America was not able to use their alliance base in Persian Gulf because some countries around there did not support them. American people were highly sensitive about the death of soldiers and civilians. It was a disadvantage because if American soldiers killed too much people, people in America would highly oppose the war and they wouldn’t have victory.

            The advantages of Iraq were, they were received sympathy from the world community such as Russia, France, and China. People around the world were opposed the war. Saddam had the power to do anything to his soldiers. Iraqi soldiers were trained to fight in many ways. Iraqi soldiers knew their land. Iraq could accept the losses more than America. Disadvantage of Iraq, The Republican Guard and Fedayeen were loyal to their American weapons. Iraq’s troops were weaker America. Iraq had almost no air force or navy. The Iraq army wasn’t particularly capable. The Iraq control system was dependent on Saddam. Even though they had set soldiers in many groups and they were trained in many ways, if they had no Saddam that meant they couldn’t do anything. Most of the Iraqi soldiers which guarded Baghdad weren’t experenced. They couldn’t mobilize fast enough. They couldn’t send troops to places that were far away. Saddam was faced hate from people in his own country. They also hated the government such as the Kurds who lived in the northern part of Iraq. Some Iraqi people changed to the American side because they hated Saddam. Iraq had received no help from their alliances because they afraid that America would attack them. This war should have ended in a short period of time because if any side had too many deaths, people from around the world wouldn’t let it continued and it would cause more problems. Many countries would take action and many countries would choose sides and a bigger war would appear. This war wasn’t fair for the Iraq because American soldiers were well trained and they also had more powerful weapons. American weapons were more accurate than Iraq’s. Even though Americans were highly sensitive of the death of civilians and soldiers, but they just wanted to overthrow Saddam. If the American success that meant entire country would not be able to do anything, so America could achieve victory easily.   

              The important condition that would end the war was the overthrown of Saddam Hussein, then the establishment of a democratic process. The first condition was successful on 9 April 2003. The mark of the first condition was when America soldiers went in to Iraq and demolished the Saddam Statue which was placed in the middle of Baghdad. The second condition was America set Lieutenant Jay Garner and voluntary soldiers to take care of Iraq until they finished establishing a democratic process. President George W. Bush declared their victory on the Abraham Lincoln air craft carrier on 2 May 2003, but he didn’t declare that the war was over. If he declared that the war had ended, he might need to withdraw the troops and release captives that might make it harder to establish democracy in Iraq, and some groups of people might rebel. People were still not sure whether Saddam was alive or dead. There were many people that were still loyal to Saddam. Bush was afraid that these people might find a chance to attack American soldiers. The people who were loyal to Saddam might do something more dangerous if America couldn’t develop the Iraqi peoples’ economy in a short period of time. Iraqi people weren’t feeling friendly with American soldiers. They suspected that the American people had come to get advantage of their oil production and destroy their belief in Islam. After the fighting ended, there were some problems about oil production. America wanted to own the oil production and wanted their country to get benefits from rebuilding Iraq but France, Russia, and Germany said that the U.N. should be taking care of Iraq oil production and rebuilding Iraq, if any countries got less benefit than what they thought they should get, it might lead to cold war or these powerful countries might support the anti-America.

            America usually did things that passed the U.N., but with the Iraq war, America didn’t get support from by U.N. and the people in its country, but it still continued to have a war. Even though the war had ended, America didn’t want the U.N. to rebuild Iraq. The Iraq war made the U.N. seem unreliable. The U.N. was afraid that other countries would do the same thing as America, which was to attack the weaker country for their revenge and benefit. The Iraq war made Muslim people hate American more than before because they considered that America was supporting Israel against the Palestinians. The Muslim people believed that America just wanted Iraq’s goods. Muslim people might make rebellion around the world, especially the countries that were in an alliance with America. The effect that appeared after America changed Iraq to be democratic while countries around Middle East were mostly controlled by dictators. This might cause problems, countries might have governmental conflicts because democracy and dictatorships have completely different ideas. It might affect the oil price and people in the world would be in trouble. Iraq was the world’s second biggest oil producer and if America had influence in oil export after the war ended, it might greatly affect the oil price which OPEC was taking care of. The Iraq war also affects countries in Southeast Asia. The countries that supported and the countries that opposed the war were split up to two groups. The countries that supported America wanted to have some benefit from the oil. The countries that opposed America would be more likely to support the rebellion. Many Muslim people live in Southeast Asia and if they opposed America, America might attack Asia one day.

            In conclusion, the Iraq war of 2003 followed the Persian Gulf War. Iraq invaded Kuwait, and then America assisted Kuwait in many ways such as chasing the Iraqi army out of Kuwait and sending U.N. weapon inspectors to look for WMD. Until America lost the World Trade Center, Bush declared that he would be at war with the people who made rebellion (such as Osama bin Laden). They would overthrow the Taliban government, then Saddam’s government. America wanted to establish the new government in Iraq. America said that they should attack Iraq before Iraq attacked them, but America had lots of potential benefits if they could win this war. Actually America wasn’t scared of Iraq’s weapons but they wanted to take control of Iraq so they could own the oil production and people in their country could come in and seek profit during the rebuilding period. Bush didn’t want people in America to see that their country’s economy was faltering. He wanted to be re-elected so he made the war to keep back the truth. America attacked Iraq without approval from the U.N. America didn’t have the right to invade Iraq, so people around the world were openly opposed to this war. France, Russia, Germany and China were the main powers opposing the war. However America still had an alliance; Britain sent its soldiers to help America while many countries were opposing this war. The strategy that the American used in this war was, attempting to kill as few people as possible. America concentrated on information warfare because they wanted to know where Saddam was and kill him. America used its air force to decrease the power of Iraq troops. At the same time the American soldiers were trying to get closer to Baghdad to overthrow Saddam. Iraq needed to make this war as long as possible. They tried to call for sympathizers. Iraq wanted countries that were supporting America to withdraw their troops. However this war ended within three weeks. America was successful while Iraq couldn’t do anything that they had planned. America overthrew Saddam and tried to rebuild Iraq cities but they were faced with unexpected events, such as people that loyal to Saddam fighting against American soldiers or bombing American base. The Iraq war affected many countries. In the Middle East, many countries were not happy that America took control of Iraq. In Southeast Asia, countries that had different ideas about this war did not have a good relationship with each other anymore. The Iraq and America war shouldn’t have happened but it occurred because just a man wanted to have power.