Iraq

• Invasion of Iraq


  2003
• Saddam Hussein


  First a friend of the USA, then became an enemy
• The United States went to war with Saddam Hussein to force his invading armies out of Kuwait


  1991
• Truce after Gulf War

  Saddam Hussein remained in power
• UN


  Established conditions for America to allow Saddam Hussein to retain his position as Iraq's president
• During the 1990s, relations remained tense between Iraq and the West due to suspicions that Saddam Hussein was trying to stock up on weapons of mass destruction (WMDs)
• UN requirements for Saddam Hussein

  1. Disarm

  2. Stop programs to develop WMDs
• UNSCOM


  UN special commission of inspectors to search for WMDs
• Iraq expelled the UN inspectors in November 1997
• Without an occupying army in Iraq, the UN was unable to make Saddam Hussein obey their resolutions
• Actions of President Clinton


  1. Fired 450 missiles into Iraq (Operation Desert Fox)

  2. Persuaded Congress to pass the Iraqi Liberation Act to help Iraqis overthrow Saddam Hussein

  3. Warned governments about the threat Saddam Hussein presented
• A few days after 9/11, President Bush set up the Office of Special Plans (OSP) to prove the connection between Saddam and Al-Qaeda and that Iraq had WMDs
• The UN inspection team in Iraq found no evidence of WMDs
• On 29 January 2002, President Bush called Iraq part of an "axis of evil"
• President Bush stated the USA would not permit the world's most dangerous regimes to threaten us with the world's most destructive weapons
• In September 2002, President Bush told the UN that if they failed to enforce the resolutions against Iraq, the US would enforce them on its own
• Saddam Hussein agreed to allow UN inspectors to return to Iraq in response to the US troop buildup
• The British Prime Minister Tony Blair refused to accept the inspection results that there were no WMDs
• In September 2002, the British Joint Intelligence Committee reported that Saddam Hussein had WMDs ready within 45 minutes
• In October, US Senators were told that Iraq could attack the USA with chemical or biological weapons
• Response of the United Nations

  1. UN Security Council voted unanimously on 7 November 2002 to present Iraq with an ultimatum and a 30-day deadline

  2. UN suggested allowing Saddam Hussein more time

  3. Other world leaders tried to extend inspections and give Iraq more time
• International relations were slightly strained as not all wanted to take direct action
• The war begins


  1. On 17 March 2003, President Bush gave Saddam Hussein 48 hours to leave Iraq

  2. The US went to war against Iraq without UN approval
• In early 2003, President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair declared that Iraq was continuing to hinder UN inspections and that it still had WMDs
• There were other reasons, in addition to Saddam Hussein's failure to abide by UN resolutions, that explained why the USA felt threatened by him
• The conflict in Iraq consisted of two phases

  1. The first phase was a brief war lasting from March to April 2003

  2. The invasion broke the Iraqi military 200 miles south of Baghdad at the Battle of Nasiriyah

  3. Coalition forces were able to topple Saddam Hussein's regime and capture Iraq's major cities in just three weeks

  4. Despite the defeat of conventional military forces in Iraq, an insurgency or rebellion continued with an intense guerrilla war in the nation in the years since military victory was announced
• Capturing Saddam Hussein


  • He was captured in December 2003 after an intense manhunt, U.S. soldiers found Saddam Hussein hiding in a six-to-eight-foot deep hole, nine miles outside his hometown of Tikrit
  • He did not resist and was uninjured during the arrest
  • Saddam Hussein was arrested and began trial for crimes against his people, including mass killings
  • He was sentenced to death by hanging and was executed on 30 December, 2006
• The Iraqi government collapsed and the US army eventually captured most of its members
• The coalition countries set about building a new democratic Iraqi State


  • The new Coalition created government was largely made up of Shia Muslims and alienated the majority Sunni Muslim population-so sectarian violence flared between the two groups
  • The US insisted that much of the work of the new government (from security to rebuilding contracts) was given to US firms. This created economic and social hardship in Iraq
  • Iraqi loyalists and jihadist terrorists mounted guerrilla and suicide attacks on the coalition forces. Before long the westerners in the country were confined to a small, heavily defended area in the centre of Baghdad called the 'Green Zone'
  • US troops were accused of abusing and bullying Iraqi prisoners in their care
• Impact on International Relations

  • The decision to invade Iraq caused considerable tensions within the NATO alliance
  • The war did great damage to transatlantic relations; partly because it made many people around the world, including Europeans, question American judgment
  • Unlike the common consent reached to get involved in the First Gulf War, there was no broad agreement or coalition of countries willing to act to remove Saddam Hussein from power
  • Although some European leaders voiced their conditional support for the war, public opinion in Europe and the Middle East was overwhelmingly against the war
  • Many in the Middle East saw it as anti-Arab and most Arab leaders spoke out against the occupation of a fellow Arab country by foreign troops
• Reaction to the war was mixed in the United States and the United Kingdom
• Anti-war protests occurred in American and British cities in the lead-up to the invasion and during the war
• As violence continued and casualties mounted, more people, including some who had initially supported the war, began to question and criticise Bush and Blair
• Bush and Blair's pre-war claims that they went to war in Iraq based on intelligence reports that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, have been questioned ever since
• The failure to find any weapons of mass destruction brought Bush and Blair into the spotlight and placed a strain on international relations
• It is widely argued that one of the U.S. primary reasons for the Iraq War was to take control of the second largest oil reserves in the world
• Iraq was plunged into a'civil war which allowed militant groups including Al-Qaeda to thrive; eventually they merged into Islamic State (IS), which seized control of parts of Iraq
• IS continues to pose a challenge and a threat to international relations
• Consequences of the Iraqi War

  • Saddam Hussein was overthrown and the first free democratic elections in 50 years were held in Iraq
  • There were perhaps, 50,000 military deaths during the war [both coalition and Iraqi forces
  • A group called Iraq Body Count estimated civilian deaths from the war at 112,000 but some estimates are as high as one million
  • The war provoked terrorism in Iraq itself: there were 1,003 suicide bombings in the period 2003-2010
  • Several countries, including France, Germany, Canada and Russia refused to support the invasion
  • Hundreds of thousands of people protested before and during the war because they saw it as illegal
  • Blair and Bush became hated figures throughout the world and some called for their impeachment
• In 2003 the league of Arab States [A League of 22 Middle East States formed in 1945] condemned the attack on Iraq and called for the immediate withdrawal of US and UK forces