Background of the Iraq War

Former President Bush was absolutely right when he said that the process of liberation of Iraq would be long and difficult (Bush, 2003), but he erred in judgment at the end of the conflict and, consequently, fall of Saddam Hussein, the country was united and stable. Many things happened between the announcement of the U.S. led invasion in March 2003, and the order of withdrawal of the American army in December 2011. Among the unfounded belief on information reported on the existence of bombs of mass destruction (Powell, 2011), and desire to have greater control over oil reserves in the Middle East (Palast, 2005), the invasion and subsequent occupation of Iraq were from the beginning, part of a highly controversial operation that, even, had the backing of the UN Security Council, causing a great wear for organizing and putting into question the raison d'être of multilateral organizations. Just as the invasion did not have a proper contingency plan, able to predict concrete actions to be implemented in the post-war (Bremer, 2006), the lack of an action plan quickly led Iraq to anarchy and violence which constituted a basis solid for, among other events, the looting of the national museum (Menendez, 2005) and the resurgence of religious intolerance in an overwhelmingly Muslim country, however, radically separate strands between Sunni and Shiite, and the presence of historical minorities such as Catholics and even Jews. Incidentally, one of the politicians closest to Saddam Hussein, and even reached the rank of vice president, Tariz Aziz, was Catholic. This shows that not only the brutality but also the political co-optation was one of the weapons of the regime (Hinnebusch, 2007, pp.3-17).

What lead to the Iraq War?

The origins of the conflict between the United States and Iraq began their conflict in August 1990, when Saddam Hussein ordered his troops to the country's invasion of Kuwait. Americans disapproved of the Iraqi action, mounted a military coalition with allies and drove the soldiers of Saddam from Kuwait. The war, however, never really ended - since then, dozens of attacks have been launched in the Persian Gulf. In April 1991, Iraqi troops already defeated by the Americans, a UN resolution established a truce in the conflict and ordered the disarmament of Saddam Hussein. Since then, the Iraqi leader resisted external orders; imposed obstacles to foreign inspectors, avoided dismantle its arsenal and challenged Americans. There were eleven UN resolutions, all ignored (Hinnebusch, 2007, pp.3-17).

In the attacks between 1991 and 1998, three major military operations reached Iraq in retaliation for Saddam's posture. In 1993, American aircraft, British and French attacked the country, in 1996, the U.S. led operation Desert Attack, in 1998, and the Americans launched another operation Desert Fox. In addition, several sporadic airstrikes hit targets of Iraqis. Between 1998 and 2001, the UN tried to resume weapons inspections in Iraq, but failed. The issue returned to the agenda only priority of Americans on September 11, 2001, after the biggest terrorist attack in history. The position of ...