Background

Iraq is a nation in the Middle East. From 1979 to 2003 the nation had been controlled by Saddam Husain and his family under dictatorial conditions.

What was the background for the Iraq war which started in 2003?

The war started when George Bush was president. After 9/11 2001 America saw Iraq as a dangerous threat which was in possessions of weapons of mass destruction and they knew Iraq supported Al Qaeda, they abused human right etc.In 2003 America invaded Iraq and Saddam Hussain lost his power of the country. Not very many countries supported America in their invasion, but Denmark was among those who did.

In 2006 Iraq had a new government and in 2008 many countries left Iraq. In August 2010 the last American soldiers left Iraq.

When Bush declared war, it’s said very clearly what it’s all about:

"My fellow citizens, at this hour American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger”.

So basically, the background of the war was mainly to find the weapons of mass destruction and disarm Iraq. In addition to this, America expressed that they did it for a noble goal, too. Furthermore many think that America invaded Iraq to find oil.

Interelationship with the War on Terror

Many politicians saw a link between Iraq and terror, especially after 9/11. They don’t trust them anymore and think they consider making others attacks – that was very clear 9/11 2011 – ten years after the attack at World Trade Center.

Was there a US drive for resource control in Iraq?

Some sources claims that it was a resource war. The economy is worldwide based on resources, and if America were able to find some fossil fuel or something else, they could definitely stabilize their own economy. What’s more important is that the rest of the world’s economy depends on the US dollar, so therefore it’s important that the dollar doesn’t make an extremely steep fall.

Was there a “noble” international goal?

Bush paid a lot attention to put the war in a noble view. As he said, when he declared war, America wants to free the civilian citizens and defend the world from grave danger.

A quote from George Bush expresses it very well,

- “That every effort would be made to spare the lives of innocent civilians,- But the campaign will be "broad and concerted" and will use "decisive force."- No outcome but victory will be accepted, - America's freedom will be defended, and freedom will be brought to others”.

Describe how/why the US had formerly been on “good” terms with Saddam

In the 1970’es the economy was growing in Iraq, due to the fact that Iraq found a lot of Oil in the underground. You could imagine that those countries that had some oil resources, those were the ones who had the power. So America and of course many other countries around the world, would like to be good friends with Iraq. But Iraq went to war with their neighbor countries a lot of times after they found the oil. Furthermore the organization UN decided to help them out, inclusive America. Therefore America had had a lot of times shaking hands with Saddam and the Iraq regime.

Before 9/11 America helped Saddam in more than one way; JFK’s CIA helped put Saddam to power by supporting his party with money. Reagan armed him to fight Iran and George Bush senior initiated the first Gulf War against him.

Find out if the war was sanctioned by international law and/or world opinion

Neither NATO, UN or any other international organization supported this war, so America just did it as the superpower they are. The organizations were actually against the war and feared it would threaten the international co-operation. There were not many countries that followed America in their invasion into Iraq, but some few countries supported them anyway, among them is Denmark.