Iraq War

Origins of the War

The origins of the Iraq War are complex and remain somewhat murky. U.S. military involvement with Iraq dates to the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Backed by a United Nations-authorized coalition, the United States defeated Iraqi military forces and liberated Kuwait after six weeks of aerial bombardment and a 100-hour ground campaign known as Operation Desert Storm in February 1991. Controversially, Saddam Hussein was left in power, and international forces did not come to the aid of Kurdish and Shia rebels who rose up against the regime at the urging of American leaders. However, his government was subjected to intrusive UN weapons inspections to ensure the dismantling of Iraq's nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons programs; the imposition of coalition-enforced no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq to prevent the Iraqi military from threatening its own Kurdish and Shia Arab populations; and a crippling regime of economic sanctions that strangled Iraqi trade.

The harsh peace terms were clearly meant to undermine Saddam Hussein's government, but the Iraqi dictator maintained a strong grip on power and continually challenged the international resolve to contain him. Iraq periodically ejected UN weapons inspectors and subverted the sanctions through black market oil sales. The United States responded with aerial bombardment campaigns in 1993, 1996, and 1998, as well as regular targeting of Iraqi air defense systems within the area of the no-fly zones. However, it was unable to compel the return of weapons inspectors after 1998, and the international sanctions regime appeared to be gradually unraveling.

The international community's weakening resolve to keep the pressure on Saddam's government led to substantial frustration in the United States. Prominent national security leaders, mainly Republicans but also many Democrats, argued for more forceful policies and actions against the Saddam Hussein regime. In 1998, the U.S. Congress [Page 296]passed the Iraq Liberation Act, which stated an official U.S. policy preference for regime change in Iraq. The election of George W. Bush as president of the United States brought into power a number of policymakers who had served in government during the 1991 war and believed that it had been a mistake to leave Saddam in power.

After the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Iraq returned to the center of the foreign policy debate. Despite a lack of Iraqi links to the al Qaeda terrorist group that carried out the attacks, senior Bush administration officials began to consider military action to remove Saddam Hussein as part of the military response. Although the United States first took action against Afghanistan, where the al Qaeda leadership had sought sanctuary with the support of the Taliban regime, the administration began to shift its focus elsewhere. In his 2002 State of the Union address, President Bush referred to Iraq as part of an “axis of evil,” along with Iran and North Korea, aggressive rogue states that sponsored international terrorism and pursued the development of weapons of mass destruction. A steady drumbeat for military action against Iraq developed over the course of 2002. In a commencement speech at West Point, the president announced that the United States could not afford to wait for threats to develop, but would act preventively. The administration's National Security Strategy, released in September, repeated the declaration that the United States would use force against potential threats. Statements such as these were widely interpreted as justifications for targeting Iraq.

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