2.2
Iraq’s containment of Weapons of Mass destruction was one of the reasons proposed by the Bush administration for invading Iraq. Concern of the US government over Iraqi weapons of Mass destruction goes back to 1991, when President George H.W. Bush raised attention to Iraq’s intensions of producing nuclear weapons, which is also known as weapons of mass destruction(WMD). This issue was revisited and documented by the U.S. government as one of its primary reasons for invading Iraq after Sept 11 2001. In 2001, the Bush administration considered Iraq connections with WMD’s and proposed documents stating that it was one of its reasons for invading Iraq. Iraq was accused of producing WMD’s because of its active WMD programs and construction of biological and chemical weapons during the gulf war. Saddam Hussein unresponsiveness to the United Nation’s resolution on weapons of mass destruction led to US assumption of Iraq’s plans to pass along its arms to al Qaeda. (10)
To support the assertion that Iraq has weapons of mass destruction, the vice president of the US, Dick Cheney, in 2001 said “I’m absolutely convinced that the threat we face now, the idea of a terrorist in the middle of one of our cities with nuclear a weapon, is very real and that we have to use extraordinary measures to deal with it.” Cheney clearly states to the US public that it was in danger of an attack by terrorist who possessed weapons of mass destructions. (15)
2.3
US oil interest of Iraq is considered as a favorite justification by skeptics who criticize its invasion of Iraq. According to an article by K. Hooshiyar and S. Kamrimi, control of Iraqi oil resources was the primary goal of the Bush administration. This could be accomplished by demoting Saddam Hussein as the leader of Iraq and thus gaining control of Iraq’s oil resources. This was because Saddam made Iraq oil resources out of reach for US oil companies while he was in power. Due to 9/11, the Bush administration was able to “sharpen” its sword and commence its plans of removing Saddam from his dictatorship and gain control of Iraq’s oil. US strive for oil was because oil played an important role in US’s or any other countries’ economic growth. With oil, US will gain economic, political and military supremacy of the world, a goal which it has been trying to achieve since World War II. (9, 12)
Compared to the other reasons, much has been said about US invasion of Iraq was due its oil interest but the government did not admit it at the time. However, Alan Greenspan the chairman of the Federal Reserve of the US writes in (The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World) in September 17, 2007 “I am saddened that it is politically inconvenient to acknowledge that everyone knows: the Iraq war is largely about oil.” This clearly shows a different position at the time of the invasion.
2.4
Another reason for US invading Iraq was to end the dictatorship of Saddam Hussein thus liberating the Iraqi people from his tyranny. Saddam was a despot who exploited Iraq for more than thirty years, causing devastating regional wars. Throughout his reign over Iraq, blood purges with the ranks of the Baath Party was not settled and imprisoned political members to diffuse any threat against his regime. One of his brutal acts he committed during his life was the killing of 5,000 and wounding of 10,000 of his own citizens in 1988 that were suspected of being disloyal, by the means of gas poisoning.
His other unforgettable war crime was the massacre of the Kurds who inhabited the Northeast region of Iraq. Saddam viewed the Kurds as a treat to Iraq’s existence. His highest priority was to eradicate the Kurdish people by killing 50,000 to 100,000 of them with chemical weapons.
Upon all the above atrocities committed by Saddam, his hatred for Shiite Muslims led him to commit more atrocities. The Baath party in which Saddam was the leader was mainly composed of Sunni Muslims who were one third of the Iraqi population. The other Two thirds were Shiite Muslims, who followed the way of Shiism which happened to be the official religion of Iran. Due to his hatred for Iran, his goal was to remove all Iranian influence from Iraq by eliminating Shiism; which he conducted from 1980 to 1988.
Contrary to the other reasons, President Bush on 20th March 2003 claimed US war against Iraq was to “disarm Iraq and to free its people.” Even though this claim was right, experts on this issue believe it is not the real motive behind the invasion as other ways could have been as other ways could have been taken to handle this particular situation.
2.5
In my opinion, oil was the main reason for US invading Iraq. Based on my research, US became very interested in Middle East after World War II as oil was the element for their world domination. During this time Britain and France were extracting oil from the Middle East but US quickly dominated the petroleum resource in the region due to the lack of effect the World War II had had on them. In 1994, US had occupied over 40% of the oil reserves in Middle East and provided approximately 90% of Europe’s oil. In order to maintain its new source of power and control over the Middle East, US made a pact with Iraq the Middle East leading producer of oil in 1955. Throughout the years to come, US did whatever it could to maintain its allegiance with Iraq because it wanted control of oil in that region. But US's allegiance with Iraq was eventually altered when its ally decided to invade Kuwait and as a result of US lost control of oil in Iraq. Then when the 9/11tragdy occurred US sought another chance opportunity gain control over Iraq’s oil by using irrelevant reasons to invade Iraq.
3.0
The main reason for the US invasion Iraq in 2003, according to a wide range of sources was that US wanted to gain control over Iraq’s oil resources. The reasons proposed to the public by the Bush administration were diversions that helped them achieve the hidden agenda, which was to gaining power over Iraqi oil. Almost all the reasons President Bush and his government presented to the public were unjustified. The claim that Iraq had connections with al Qaeda proved false because there was no confirmation of a collaborative relationship between Iraq and al Qaeda. Even though, some meetings were held between Iraqi intelligence and al Qaeda, there was no constant relationship between the two. The only way such relationship between Osama and Saddam was formed might have been the mutual characteristics they both shared. The other claim which was that Iraq possessed WMD was also not justified. During the war, many months were dedicated to WMD investigations, but no stockpiles of biological, chemical or nuclear weapons were found. This led to no proof of an active WMD programs. The only reason which was justified was the liberation of the Iraqis from Saddam’s tyranny. The people of Iraq were living in misery when Saddam was in power and some Iraqi parties asked the US to help overthrow Saddam. After all the unjustified reasons for US going to invading Iraq, the invasion can be considered as a war with a hidden and the hidden agenda being US wanting to regain what it had lost during the gulf war, which in turns was oil in Iraq.
There is increasing belief that this war was totally unnecessary. The terrorism issue together with the case of weapons of mass destruction being used for no apparent reason could have been dealt wisely with.
There are still many unanswered questions about the US invasion of Iraq. It will be interesting if future research could be conducted to find out why US made itself easily vulnerable to a terrorist attack, despite all of its high tech technology.