Iraq War (2003–)

The Iraq War was the first major demonstration of the socalled Bush Doctrine, named for Pres. George W. Bush. Initially laid out in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, attacks on New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, that doctrine implicitly repudiated the Weinberger–Powell Doctrine, which had taken a very cautious view of the use of American military force. The Bush Doctrine was most fully elaborated in the president's June 2002 commencement speech at West Point. In that speech, President Bush indicated that the United States would engage in preemptive war should it or its allies be threatened by terrorists or rogue regimes with weapons of mass destruction; that it would do so unilaterally if need be; and that it would seek to promote liberty and democracy throughout the world. The Bush administration emphasized each of these points in explaining its rationale for going to war with Iraq in March 2003.

But the conflict must also be seen against the backdrop of a problematic, arguably failed policy of containing Iraq after the Gulf War of 1991. American policy makers initially thought that Saddam Hussein's Baathist dictatorship would fall after its humiliating defeat. Indeed, rebellions did break out throughout Iraq, but Hussein's regime remained intact and slaughtered tens of thousands of Iraqis, quashing the revolution. The United States still confronted a hostile and fractious regime that sought at every turn to avoid complying with the armistice terms—especially those dealing with inspections aimed to ferret out Iraq's programs to develop weapons of mass destruction.

Over the next decade Hussein played a cat-and-mouse game with U.N. weapons inspectors and the United States. American policy makers replied by launching retaliatory attacks against Iraq's military and police structure. American pilots enforced no-fly zones over northern and southern Iraq, while the United Nations continued a regime of sanctions initially imposed when Iraq invaded Kuwait in July 1990. None of these measures prevented Hussein from ordering his Republican Guard to deploy into southern Iraq in preparation for a second invasion of Kuwait in 1994. A quick American response deterred the Iraqis, but only at the last moment. By 2000, sanctions clearly were having a terrible effect on the Iraqi people while exerting little influence over Saddam Hussein. Nevertheless, neither the international community nor Americans appeared willing to engage in a major military campaign to overthrow the dictator.