Iraqi_Invasion

Kevin Majestic Middle Eastern Studies Mr. Clizbe January 29, 2010 March 20th, 2003, President Bush informed the people of the United States that our military had invaded Iraq. In the speech he delivered that day the President presented numerous and obvious reasons for the first preemptive strike in the history of our nation. Saddam Hussein is an “evil” dictator with terrorist connections, his country holds weapons of mass destruction; and is in possession of a nuclear weapons program. Not only does Iraq serve as a threat to the freedom of the United States and its citizens but also the surrounding countries and their citizens. These reasons presented by the President could not be verified as truth and contained numerous flaws. Despite the faults President Bush’s plan, he proceeded anyway. Consequently the scorn and anger of nearly all the nations in the world are now felt by our country. The United States military should not have invaded Iraq in the spring of 2003. It is impossible to link the regime of Saddam Hussein to any terrorist organization. Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden are not connected to Saddam Hussein and Iraq. George W. Bush addressed congress in a letter which stated his reasons for the American invasion of Iraq, one point of his correspondence was to “take the necessary actions against international terrorists and terrorist organizations including those nations, organizations, or persons who planned, authorized, committed, or aided the terrorist attacks that occurred on September 11, 2001.” It is not feasible to find any association between Saddam Hussein and the attack on our country that took place in the fall of 2001. Since the American people feel very strongly about this event, and are willing to do whatever it takes to eliminate the men that caused this pain on our country, minor support for the war was found in citing this as a reason for invasion. According the United Nations and their policies surrounding invasion, this attack on Iraq was illegal. This world body has charters in place to maintain a world of non aggression; these charters were broken by The United States. No nation shall “commit a war of aggression” or make “threats of aggression on any nation” without explicit approval of the UN. Since the United States is a member of this world organization that is the United Nations, compliance to these charters is required. If indeed through meetings of the Security Council deemed intervention as a necessity, The UN, not the United States, would be permitted to enter Iraq and proceed with whatever force necessary. There was no direct threat posed to our country by Saddam Hussein. It is also difficult to say that without this imminent threat, Iraq posed a threat to our freedom as American citizens. For any strike of our soil to take place, there are only two options plausible for Iraq to directly attack the United States; air or water. Iraq is nearly completely landlocked, and in no way is there navy anywhere near the strength of that of the United States. Secondly the Iraqi Air Force is equally as weak, lacking the long distance planes and trained pilots to successfully attack The United States. The majority of the planes in this under funded military entity are “trainer jets”. These jets lack the range, and fuel capacity to reach the mainland. If theses meek planes did reach the United States, our Air Force could simply remove the threats from the sky before they posed any danger to our citizens. Iraqi air space is a no fly zone, and since the first Gulf War, has been continually patrolled by US forces stationed in Saudi Arabia. Any United States personnel located in the Middle East are also secure due to these flight limitations placed on the Iraqis by George Bush Sr. With these points made concerning the legality, and motives of the invasion, there still remains penalties not felt by The United States. George W. Bush weakened the power and prowess of The United Nations. It is without debate that Saddam Hussein harmed his country and his people. He tortured and murdered his people in order to establish a violent regime. With this said the U.S. was still in no place to invade Iraq, rather the UN was. The United Nations had their power undermine and legitimacy questioned on that fateful day in March. The United States, a powerful and influential country knowingly disregarded the stipulations put in place by the UN. Having done this other nations subsequently question the purpose and power of the United Nations. Not only was the reputation of the UN harmed, by the relation of the United States and the UN harmed. Having disrespected this global organization, the United States has disrespected all of its members. This is no way helps to bolster and already negative image felt by this country concerning other nations of the world. Regardless of the legitimacy of this war in accordance to The UN, America can no longer continue to righteously eradicate ruthless totalitarians and dictators that do no directly threaten our country. Saddam Hussein is a brutal man, the position of not invading his country does nothing to detract from this point. With this information in hand The United States automatically invades his country' With this as an foreign affairs policy military spending will encompass the entire budget of The United States. Kim Jong Il of North Korea, Bashar Al-Asad of Syria and Umaru Yar’Adua of Syria all have similarities to Saddam Hussein, is the U.S. going to invade all of these countries' Not only would that be impossible, but simply unrealistic. Our country can not continue in the direction of a “World Police Commissioner”, not having invaded Iraq would have been a good step in the opposite direction.