What Caused The Iraq War

So taking into account the actions taken and how the war was conducted, we can better understand why America even initiated war with Iraq in the first place. To do so, a variety of theories and lenses must be used, in order to gain various perspectives on the question.
Realism is the best theory of international relations that can be applied to this war. This perspective credits war to three things, opportunism, balance of power and security. (Creamer, 2012) In the case of opportunism, much can be said about America’s goals for invading Iraq. Iraq was known for their bountiful oil yet “Iraq's domestic oil industry was fully nationalized and closed to Western oil companies.” (Juhasz, 2013) For years, the Western world, including America, tried
Starting off with the first image, there is the individual, or in this case, President George W. Bush. There are many things Bush did that fall into this image. One being he wanted to finish his father’s business. His father started the Gulf War, a war fought in Iraq and a dissatisfactory one at that. Some believe that Bush went to war to either complete what his dad started or even one up him. “Bush’s need to surpass [his] father…against Saddam Hussein was one of the motives behind US invasion of Iraq.” (Azriel, n.d.) It is even said that he held resentment towards Saddam Hussein for nearly killing his father, this anger fueling his drive to go to war with Iraq. If that was the case, it seemed the campaign was heavily personalized. It can explain why the stated reason of going to war (assumption of WMD possession) was unfounded and why Bush vigorously advocated for this war, making statements like “The Iraqi regime has plotted to develop anthrax and nerve gas and nuclear weapons for over a decade... This is a regime that has something to hide from the civilized world” (Bush,
The striving motivation of this image would be the campaign for democracy. America loves its democracy and tries it’s best to democratize other states. It can be said that from this level, the Iraq war was ignited in order to bring democracy into Iraq. The general consensus for this level is that everyone is happier under democracy. There’s few wars, a lot of education, personal liberties, free from constant terror and so forth. America has a big interest in spreading those liberties to other states. In this level, the state’s characteristic is what prompted the Iraq war.
The third image is the international level. Using this level, the cause of the war can be blamed on America’s need to remain the dominant world-power. America was perfectly content being the in the unipolar hegemony that they lived in. When Iraq challenged their position, war was inevitable.
The cause of the Iraq war is something difficult to put your finger on. Depending on how one views something, what theory or lenses they use, one might get completely different answers. It’s safe to say that the Iraq war did happen for a plethora of reasons, such as for oil or personal vengeance and each are valid in their own sense and