Reasons For America's Invasion Of Iraq Dbq
President Bush’s justification towards the invasion on Iraq in 2004 explicated that the main reason to invade Iraq was security measures. Bush was terrified for the citizens of his country and the rest of the world, as he thought Iraq was in control of nuclear weapons that could harm everyone. However, this was not a true reflection of America’s ambitions in Iraq. This essay will prove that America’s intentions into Iraq was largely the fact that Iraq was a major oil source for the world and if America could dominate this source they could have more authority than any other country. Bush’s administration also misstated information regarding Iraq’s possessions of any Weapons of Mass Destruction, and their links with Al Qaeda for this purpose.
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President Bush delivered a speech in which he stated America’s motives behind invading Iraq, this included the fear of terrorism (as they claimed Iraq was in possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction and had links with Al Qaeda) and fear of security for the world. However, many of the sources show that Iraq had no possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction and nor did they have any relationship with Al Qaeda. Rather Iraq’s leader Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda’s leader Osama Bin Laden were from opposite political ideologies and were enemies of each other, they had no relationship that could be a threat to America. America’s forced connection of Iraq and Al Qaeda is proven wrong again, as America had made plans to attack Iraq subsequent to the 9/11attacks – without having any evidence that the attacks were linked to Iraq. Bush’s statement is also proven wrong because of the publication of the IT document which shows that America only wanted oil from Iraq, and plans to Iraq had been made 5 months before the 9/11 attacks – therefore having no link to terrorism or Al Qaeda.
Bush’s true intentions for invading Iraq included, wanting superiority over other countries – and he realized this could only be gained if America was in control of the oil available in Iraq, Bush wanted domination and control over the world’s major oil source, and Bush was afraid Saddam Hussein would trade oil in Euros that would threaten the US economy America was also confident after their successful invasion of Afghanistan and hoped they would obtain similar results in Iraq. President Bush’s justification oppose the evidence presented, America did not invade Iraq for the fear of terrorism rather they invaded Iraq for the benefit of America as a superpower and its economy.
Analysis
President Bush claimed that the United States of America’s biggest motive behind invading Iraq was the fear that Iraq would supply terrorists with “chemicals, biological, or one day, nuclear weapons”(Source I) that could kill everyone in America and possibly the rest of the world.
However, Source D states a report made in 2006 found that Bush’s government had “misstated, overstated, and manipulated intelligence with regards to linkages between Iraq and Al Qaeda; the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iraq” proving Iraq did not have possession of as many Weapons of Mass Destruction as stated by Bush. President Bush’s justification has been proven wrong, as his prime motive behind invading Iraq was not the fact that Iraq was in possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction – in fact, Iraq had no weapons that could harm America or possibly be seen as a threat to America. Source E is a political cartoon that shows America using large binoculars to look into Iraq, and before the invasion locating Weapons of Mass Destruction. However, after the invasion and demolishment of Iraq the same America has to use smaller binoculars to look at a destroyed Iraq and find no Weapons of Mass destruction. Source E suggests that the United States’ claim of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq were ultimately false, as after the invasion, they were asked about these weapons by the media and the U.N., and they could not find any evidence of the threatening and harmful weapons. America was not able to show the world the weapons that were a threat to America, as considered by Bush’s Administration. The absence of the supposedly threatening weapons, prove that President Bush had not delivered the whole truth to the media, and had manipulated and misstated information to invade Iraq with the support of
Americans.
President Bush and his administration claimed that Iraq had links with Al Qaeda, subsequent to the 9/11 attacks. Bush’s fear of terrorism forced him to act against Iraq, and prevent a murderous outrage in the world. In August 2006 a report prepared at the direction of Rep. John Conyers Jr.(Source D) showed that “members of the Bush Administration misstated, overstated, and manipulated intelligence with regards to linkages between Iraq and Al Qaeda; the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iraq”. This proves that Bush’s Administration did not deliver the whole truth to the media about the invasion of Iraq. Source A, also suggest that America’s first reason for invading Iraq did not include the fear of terrorism brought onto them by Iraq. Barely five minutes after the attacks of 9/11 on the Pentagon, Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered his aides “to come up plans for striking Iraq – even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks”(Source A). Bush’s Administration had no evidence or knowledge about these 9/11 attacks, and nor did they have any evidence of a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda – even without the evidence America was making plans to invade Iraq suggesting they had prior motives on invading Iraq with no link to terrorism. The attacks of 9/11 gave Bush’s administration a publicly accepted reason to invade Iraq; the attacks persuaded citizens of America to support Bush, as they believed Muslims were responsible for the atrocious attacks in their country and with propaganda and indoctrination from Bush’s Administration they were programmed to believe Iraq was responsible for the attacks.
The U.S. had compiled a military study investigating the relationship between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda; this study showed there was no connection between the two(Source D). The two major motives behind the invasion of Iraq were said to be Iraq’s links with Al Qaeda and Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction, the Pentagon’s report proves these motives were incorrect, making Bush’s justification of the invasion false. The report also challenges the statement of then-Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, who stated in “September 2002 the CIA provided ‘bulletproof’ evidence demonstrating ‘that there are, in fact, Al Qaeda in Iraq”(Source C), proving that Iraq and Al Qaeda had no connections and therefore President Bush’s justification is incorrect. There was terrorism in Iraq, but this terrorism was intended mainly to keep Saddam Hussein and his political party in power (Source C). The terrorism in Iraq was not intended to be a threat to the U.S., therefore Bush and his Administration should not have had any concerns about the terrorism in Iraq.
A document released 5 months before the attacks of 9/11 questioned the real motives behind the invasion of Iraq; the report’s release date proves that the U.S.’s intentions for invading Iraq had no link with terrorist attacks, as no terrorist attacks had occurred in April. The report suggests U.S. had other intentions to invade Iraq and simply used the 9/11 attacks as a masquerade for these selfish motives. The report states that, “Saddam Hussein has also demonstrated a willingness to threaten to use the oil weapon and to use his own export programme to manipulate oil markets” (Source B), this would harm the U.S. economy and would mean that Iraq could be a bigger superpower as compared to the U.S. Bush and his Administration did not want Iraq to become a superpower, and saw their possession of oil as a threat to the U.S. economy, thus attacking and invading Iraq to dominate the oil source and remain being the largest superpower. The report also stated that the U.S. will never be “energy independent” (Source B) and that it is too reliant on foreign oil sources, the only way to prevent this situation from declining is to “put the oil at the heart of the administration” (Source B). This suggests that the U.S. invaded Iraq for the purpose of oil, their economy was extremely reliant on other sources of oil and the only way to stop this would be to have their own oil source – invade Iraq. This report contradicts the justification given by Bush, saying the U.S. invaded Iraq because of the fear or terrorism.
The U.S. had multiple motives behind invading Iraq; a reason that goes unnoticed is their triumph in the war in Afghanistan immediately after 9/11 and the humiliating defeat of Iraq on 1991. The U.S. had won the war in Afghanistan in two months as compared to the Soviets who failed in a decade. The U.S.’s “rapid victory contrasted sharply with the Soviet failure in Afghanistan” (Source F) gave them the confidence to repeat history; Americans had the confidence that they could invade Iraq and conquer the land successfully. The U.S.’s determination for political strength over the Middle Eastern countries persuaded them to attack Iraq. This contradicts Bush’s justification, as this information suggests The U.S. invaded Iraq because of their constant want to be the biggest superpower and stay in control of the Middle Eastern countries, as compared to his justification that stated U.S. invaded Iraq for the fear of their links with Al Qaeda.
Bush’s Administration only declared one motive (Source H) behind invading Iraq, which was Iraq’s link with Al Qaeda and Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. There were many undeclared motives behind the invasion, this included world domination and the petro dollar economy(Source G). These motives were not stated, as Bush’s Administration did not want the world to know their selfish reasons rather they wanted to show Bush as being protection for the world. Saddam Hussein wanted to trade oil in Euros instead of U.S. Dollar(Source G); this would be a large threat to the U.S. economy as oil affected the value of the U.S. currency. If Saddam had carried through this move, the U.S. would be enabled from receiving goods from all over the world fundamentally freely as the U.S. Dollar is “underwritten by oil”. Bush and his Administration wanted to prevent a decline in the U.S. economy, the only plan they could think of was to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam so that he cannot implement this move. This motive was undeclared by the administration ,as if they had declared this was their motive the invasion of Iraq would be a war of aggression and not a motive of self-defence – and the U.N. would have then stopped this invasion from occurring.
Another undeclared motive of the Iraq invasion is the U.S.’s want of world domination through dominating a major oil source of the world and “Americanizing the Middle East” (Source G) – Iraq. The U.S. was the world superpower after World War II, to remain the world superpower the U.S. realized they would have to be in power of oil, as oil ruled the world’s economy. Thus, Bush decided to invade Iraq, they had confidence they could triumph Saddam again because of the 1991 attack and Afghanistan war, so that he could dominate an oil source and make America the biggest superpower. Bush also saw that by “Americanizing” the Middle East “America is able to remain the great superpower in the world” (Source G), and his hunger for being the biggest superpower persuaded him to invade Iraq and take control of the Middle East. This proves that the U.S.’s intentions were not to defend themselves against Iraq, but to aggressively take charge of Iraq for self-benefit.
Conclusion:
President Bush and his Administration claimed their attacks against Iraq for self-defence, as they felt threatened because of Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction and Iraq’s relationship with Al Qaeda. However, it has been proven that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda had no connections, as they came from opposite political ideologies. The terrorism in Iraq was aimed at Iraqians and was implemented to make sure Saddam Hussein’s political party remained in power. The U.S. had multiple undeclared motives for invading Iraq, which included their hunger for power – that can only be reached by dominating a major oil source of the world, and the petro-dollar economy – in which Saddam Hussein wanted to shift the currency with which oil is traded. These motives show that the 2004 U.S. led invasion of Iraq was not for self-defence, rather it was a war of aggression, and they contradict Bush’s justification for the invasion as well which proves that his justification was false.
President Bush delivered a speech in which he stated America’s motives behind invading Iraq, this included the fear of terrorism (as they claimed Iraq was in possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction and had links with Al Qaeda) and fear of security for the world. However, many of the sources show that Iraq had no possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction and nor did they have any relationship with Al Qaeda. Rather Iraq’s leader Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda’s leader Osama Bin Laden were from opposite political ideologies and were enemies of each other, they had no relationship that could be a threat to America. America’s forced connection of Iraq and Al Qaeda is proven wrong again, as America had made plans to attack Iraq subsequent to the 9/11attacks – without having any evidence that the attacks were linked to Iraq. Bush’s statement is also proven wrong because of the publication of the IT document which shows that America only wanted oil from Iraq, and plans to Iraq had been made 5 months before the 9/11 attacks – therefore having no link to terrorism or Al Qaeda.
Bush’s true intentions for invading Iraq included, wanting superiority over other countries – and he realized this could only be gained if America was in control of the oil available in Iraq, Bush wanted domination and control over the world’s major oil source, and Bush was afraid Saddam Hussein would trade oil in Euros that would threaten the US economy America was also confident after their successful invasion of Afghanistan and hoped they would obtain similar results in Iraq. President Bush’s justification oppose the evidence presented, America did not invade Iraq for the fear of terrorism rather they invaded Iraq for the benefit of America as a superpower and its economy.
Analysis
President Bush claimed that the United States of America’s biggest motive behind invading Iraq was the fear that Iraq would supply terrorists with “chemicals, biological, or one day, nuclear weapons”(Source I) that could kill everyone in America and possibly the rest of the world.
However, Source D states a report made in 2006 found that Bush’s government had “misstated, overstated, and manipulated intelligence with regards to linkages between Iraq and Al Qaeda; the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iraq” proving Iraq did not have possession of as many Weapons of Mass Destruction as stated by Bush. President Bush’s justification has been proven wrong, as his prime motive behind invading Iraq was not the fact that Iraq was in possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction – in fact, Iraq had no weapons that could harm America or possibly be seen as a threat to America. Source E is a political cartoon that shows America using large binoculars to look into Iraq, and before the invasion locating Weapons of Mass Destruction. However, after the invasion and demolishment of Iraq the same America has to use smaller binoculars to look at a destroyed Iraq and find no Weapons of Mass destruction. Source E suggests that the United States’ claim of Weapons of Mass Destruction in Iraq were ultimately false, as after the invasion, they were asked about these weapons by the media and the U.N., and they could not find any evidence of the threatening and harmful weapons. America was not able to show the world the weapons that were a threat to America, as considered by Bush’s Administration. The absence of the supposedly threatening weapons, prove that President Bush had not delivered the whole truth to the media, and had manipulated and misstated information to invade Iraq with the support of
Americans.
President Bush and his administration claimed that Iraq had links with Al Qaeda, subsequent to the 9/11 attacks. Bush’s fear of terrorism forced him to act against Iraq, and prevent a murderous outrage in the world. In August 2006 a report prepared at the direction of Rep. John Conyers Jr.(Source D) showed that “members of the Bush Administration misstated, overstated, and manipulated intelligence with regards to linkages between Iraq and Al Qaeda; the acquisition of nuclear weapons by Iraq”. This proves that Bush’s Administration did not deliver the whole truth to the media about the invasion of Iraq. Source A, also suggest that America’s first reason for invading Iraq did not include the fear of terrorism brought onto them by Iraq. Barely five minutes after the attacks of 9/11 on the Pentagon, Defence Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld ordered his aides “to come up plans for striking Iraq – even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks”(Source A). Bush’s Administration had no evidence or knowledge about these 9/11 attacks, and nor did they have any evidence of a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda – even without the evidence America was making plans to invade Iraq suggesting they had prior motives on invading Iraq with no link to terrorism. The attacks of 9/11 gave Bush’s administration a publicly accepted reason to invade Iraq; the attacks persuaded citizens of America to support Bush, as they believed Muslims were responsible for the atrocious attacks in their country and with propaganda and indoctrination from Bush’s Administration they were programmed to believe Iraq was responsible for the attacks.
The U.S. had compiled a military study investigating the relationship between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda; this study showed there was no connection between the two(Source D). The two major motives behind the invasion of Iraq were said to be Iraq’s links with Al Qaeda and Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction, the Pentagon’s report proves these motives were incorrect, making Bush’s justification of the invasion false. The report also challenges the statement of then-Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld, who stated in “September 2002 the CIA provided ‘bulletproof’ evidence demonstrating ‘that there are, in fact, Al Qaeda in Iraq”(Source C), proving that Iraq and Al Qaeda had no connections and therefore President Bush’s justification is incorrect. There was terrorism in Iraq, but this terrorism was intended mainly to keep Saddam Hussein and his political party in power (Source C). The terrorism in Iraq was not intended to be a threat to the U.S., therefore Bush and his Administration should not have had any concerns about the terrorism in Iraq.
A document released 5 months before the attacks of 9/11 questioned the real motives behind the invasion of Iraq; the report’s release date proves that the U.S.’s intentions for invading Iraq had no link with terrorist attacks, as no terrorist attacks had occurred in April. The report suggests U.S. had other intentions to invade Iraq and simply used the 9/11 attacks as a masquerade for these selfish motives. The report states that, “Saddam Hussein has also demonstrated a willingness to threaten to use the oil weapon and to use his own export programme to manipulate oil markets” (Source B), this would harm the U.S. economy and would mean that Iraq could be a bigger superpower as compared to the U.S. Bush and his Administration did not want Iraq to become a superpower, and saw their possession of oil as a threat to the U.S. economy, thus attacking and invading Iraq to dominate the oil source and remain being the largest superpower. The report also stated that the U.S. will never be “energy independent” (Source B) and that it is too reliant on foreign oil sources, the only way to prevent this situation from declining is to “put the oil at the heart of the administration” (Source B). This suggests that the U.S. invaded Iraq for the purpose of oil, their economy was extremely reliant on other sources of oil and the only way to stop this would be to have their own oil source – invade Iraq. This report contradicts the justification given by Bush, saying the U.S. invaded Iraq because of the fear or terrorism.
The U.S. had multiple motives behind invading Iraq; a reason that goes unnoticed is their triumph in the war in Afghanistan immediately after 9/11 and the humiliating defeat of Iraq on 1991. The U.S. had won the war in Afghanistan in two months as compared to the Soviets who failed in a decade. The U.S.’s “rapid victory contrasted sharply with the Soviet failure in Afghanistan” (Source F) gave them the confidence to repeat history; Americans had the confidence that they could invade Iraq and conquer the land successfully. The U.S.’s determination for political strength over the Middle Eastern countries persuaded them to attack Iraq. This contradicts Bush’s justification, as this information suggests The U.S. invaded Iraq because of their constant want to be the biggest superpower and stay in control of the Middle Eastern countries, as compared to his justification that stated U.S. invaded Iraq for the fear of their links with Al Qaeda.
Bush’s Administration only declared one motive (Source H) behind invading Iraq, which was Iraq’s link with Al Qaeda and Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction. There were many undeclared motives behind the invasion, this included world domination and the petro dollar economy(Source G). These motives were not stated, as Bush’s Administration did not want the world to know their selfish reasons rather they wanted to show Bush as being protection for the world. Saddam Hussein wanted to trade oil in Euros instead of U.S. Dollar(Source G); this would be a large threat to the U.S. economy as oil affected the value of the U.S. currency. If Saddam had carried through this move, the U.S. would be enabled from receiving goods from all over the world fundamentally freely as the U.S. Dollar is “underwritten by oil”. Bush and his Administration wanted to prevent a decline in the U.S. economy, the only plan they could think of was to invade Iraq and overthrow Saddam so that he cannot implement this move. This motive was undeclared by the administration ,as if they had declared this was their motive the invasion of Iraq would be a war of aggression and not a motive of self-defence – and the U.N. would have then stopped this invasion from occurring.
Another undeclared motive of the Iraq invasion is the U.S.’s want of world domination through dominating a major oil source of the world and “Americanizing the Middle East” (Source G) – Iraq. The U.S. was the world superpower after World War II, to remain the world superpower the U.S. realized they would have to be in power of oil, as oil ruled the world’s economy. Thus, Bush decided to invade Iraq, they had confidence they could triumph Saddam again because of the 1991 attack and Afghanistan war, so that he could dominate an oil source and make America the biggest superpower. Bush also saw that by “Americanizing” the Middle East “America is able to remain the great superpower in the world” (Source G), and his hunger for being the biggest superpower persuaded him to invade Iraq and take control of the Middle East. This proves that the U.S.’s intentions were not to defend themselves against Iraq, but to aggressively take charge of Iraq for self-benefit.
Conclusion:
President Bush and his Administration claimed their attacks against Iraq for self-defence, as they felt threatened because of Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction and Iraq’s relationship with Al Qaeda. However, it has been proven that Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda had no connections, as they came from opposite political ideologies. The terrorism in Iraq was aimed at Iraqians and was implemented to make sure Saddam Hussein’s political party remained in power. The U.S. had multiple undeclared motives for invading Iraq, which included their hunger for power – that can only be reached by dominating a major oil source of the world, and the petro-dollar economy – in which Saddam Hussein wanted to shift the currency with which oil is traded. These motives show that the 2004 U.S. led invasion of Iraq was not for self-defence, rather it was a war of aggression, and they contradict Bush’s justification for the invasion as well which proves that his justification was false.