Question

Among a president’s formal and informal powers none is more important than that of commander-in-chief.

(1) Take some time and search the Internet for the reasons given by the Bush administration for the U.S. invasion of Iraq and the war that followed in 2003. Make use of at least four sources in addition to our textbook (List them at the end of your posting.).

(2) Based on what you learned from your research, decide whether or not each of the reasons you have identified for going to war that was cited by the Bush administration to build support for the invasion of Iraq was later proven to be accurate.

Answer 1

The reasons that were provided by the Bush administration for the invasion of Iraq are

• The fight against terrorism. Iraq was presented as a state that was supporting al-Qaida, which was responsible for the attack against the warship USS Cole, against several US embassies in Africa and the attacks of September 11,2001.
• The elimination of weapons of mass destruction that was supposed to be held in Iraq. Since 1990, it was demonstrated that Iraq possessed long range missiles but Iraq Survey Group by the US government, which was responsible to find these weapons in September 2004, declared that there were no weapon since 1991 ar any such thing at present.
• The arrest of Saddam Hussein and end of his regime could introduce democracy and peace of the region.

However all these causes mentioned above, are contested by various analysts,politicians and journalists. Some elements like the link between the neo-conservatives in power in Washington and the Oil companies, the links between the neo-conservatives in power and subcontractors of the army and the Iraq’s decision to not argue against its oil currency in dollars but euros, has caused questions about the real motives.