Paper Topic:

The War in Iraq

The War in Iraq

The 2003 US invasion of Iraq was a consequence of the previous year 's disarmament crisis with that country and the intelligence reports linking Saddam Hussein to terrorist groups . Several intelligence reports also stated that Iraq was producing and amassing Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD , in gross violation of the 1991 agreement that ended the Gulf War

Between 1991 and 1998 , the United Nations Security Council sent its team to Iraq to find and destroy Iraq 's WMD . The UN team reported finding evidence of continued biological

weapons research . In 1996 , the team supervised the destruction of the Al Hakam biological weapons production site . On November 8 , 2002 , the UN Security Council passed Resolution 1441 giving Iraq a final opportunity to comply with its obligation to disarm

In 2002 , the US government made it clear that removing Saddam Hussein from power was among its top priorities . Reasons cited for this was for purposes of self-defense (primarily to find and destroy WMD , to send humanitarian support to the Iraqis who suffered heavily from the UN sanctions , to aid Iraq in its transition to democratic self-rule and to secure Iraq 's oil fields and other resources

Critics of President George Bush 's decision to invade Iraq argue that no WMD were found after the invasion and that there is no solid evidence pointing to the alleged ties of Saddam Hussein with terrorist groups foremost of which is Osama Bin Laden 's Al Qaeda which the US government blames for the 9 /11 attacks . They also pointed out that there was no plausible indication of the continuation or resumption of Iraq 's nuclear weapons program

Several leaders from other nations have cautioned the US President against taking drastic action against Iraq as they feel that the weapons and research program discovered there did not merit going to war . They conceded , however , that Saddam 's violation of international law and his continued capability to sustain chemical and biological research certainly posed a very real threat to the peace and security not only in the Persian Gulf Region , but in the whole world as well

On the other hand , an interim report made on October 3 , 2003 by the ISG declared that in 1991 , Iraq had stopped its WMD production and all major stockpiles were destroyed but Saddam Hussein had preserved the expertise to restart production once the sanctions were lifted . This was reiterated in the ISG report dated September 30 , 2004 . Therefore , it was evident that Saddam fully intended to resume WMD production anytime in the future

The US government also took into consideration Saddam 's 40 years ' reign marred by a huge number of human rights abuses against his own people that were committed without restraint or regard for international law Furthermore , Saddam 's invasion of Iran after the fall of the Shah clearly showed his greed for more power . Such lust for power was indeed a great threat to other countries in the Middle East and to the...

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