Iraq War

Iraq War was an armed conflict that began with the invasion of Iraq in March of 2003 and lasted until 2011. The US counted with some allies in this war such as United Kingdom or Australia. There were different reasons to explain the interest of the invasion and posterior war. Iraq invasion had a lot to do with 9/11 and the 1991 Gulf war. The Bush administration made the argument that in the post 9/11 climate there should be a belated reckoning with Saddam Hussein. He had continued to sponsor terrorism, had over the years invaded or attacked four of his neighbours, and had killed tens of thousands of his own people. Another important reason was the strong belief that Iraq had weapon of mass destruction, according to CIA, and most Middle Eastern governments and European intelligence agencies agreed. This started with the belief that there were missing stockpiles of weapons of mass destruction. The possible possession of these weapons was never clear, but was useful to get some more support as the other reasons would not generate enough public urgency for pre-emption. Another motivation to invade Iraq was the issue of oil. The intention was not to take Iraq oil, but to avoid Saddam of having the control of oil. Iraq’s oil revenues meant that Saddam would always have the resources to foment trouble in the region, would always be difficult to remove through internal opposition, and would always use petrodollar influence. Finally, we could also say that another reason to invade Iraq was the notion of reformulating Iraq, so that instead of being the problem in the region it would become a solution. So the idea was to create a consensual government to ensure not only the end of Saddam’s atrocities, but also pressure on the Gulf monarchies to liberalize and cease their support for terrorism of the sort that had killed so many Americans. So there were many