The War on Terror; The War in Iraq

Paper Summary:

The paper relates that after the events of 9/11, the US was able to further the idea that state sponsorship of terrorist activities was evident and therefore it was necessary to wage war with Iraq. The paper discusses if the aggressive invasion of Iraq was in fact appropriate to improve security in the US, or if it served to increase the threat to the US. The paper comes to the conclusion that there was absolutely no connection between Iraq and the terrorism of 9/11, and in fact, the war in Iraq is now likely to worsen rather than diffuse the situation. The paper asserts that aggressive actions of the US and the perception by the world of those actions and their source will likely create a greater international hatred for the US than what already exists.

From the Paper:

"There is little doubt that the actions of the US in its invasion and subsequent war on Iraq will in retrospect be billed as similar in coarse to the Clinton bombing of the pharmaceutical factory but clearly much greater in scale. The war was engaged in regardless of the fact that the truths with regard to Iraq, Saddam Hussein and his actions as well as many other issues were convoluted and often built on myth rather than factual evidence. Myths range in severity from, Hussein's utilization of WMDs to kill his own people, an exaggeration to say the least and that Hussein had been actively attempting to build WMD, since "he" expelled inspectors from Iraq in 1998, again a falsehood. The development of this myth was pervasive though false, as Reece Kilgoe & Ritter point ou tit was actually President Clinton who expelled the UNSCOM weapons inspectors from Iraq, on the eve of the small scale attack of Iraq in December 1998, Operation Desert Fox, a 72 hour aerial bombardment of Iraq."

Sample of Sources Used:

• Ackerman, Spencer. "War in Iraq 2003-??: The Pentagon Had No Intention of Staying in Iraq Forever. but the White House Won't Answer a Simple Yes-or-No Question about Permanent Bases, and the Situation Keeps Getting Worse. So Pentagon Brass Are Planning-And Building-For the (Very) Long Haul." The American Prospect, November 2006, 17.
• "American Policy and Islam; Attack on Iraq Will Hurt War on Terrorism." The Washington Times, 18 March 2002, A19.
• Cohn, Marjorie. "Understanding, Responding to and Preventing Terrorism." Arab Studies Quarterly (ASQ) (2002): 25.
• Cook, Robin. "The View from Inside; They Looked for Weapons of Mass Destruction, and All They Found Was Lots of Marmalade. but George Bush and His Team Didn't Care: After 11 September 2001, They Saw International Terrorism Not as a Threat, but as an Opportunity to Attack Iraq." New Statesman, 3 May 2004, 34.
• Jones, Lucy. "European Editorialists Question Whether War on Terrorism Should Be Expanded to Iraq." Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, January-February 2002, 26.

More papers on The War on Terror; The War in Iraq:

• Research Paper # 97140 : "War in Iraq War on Terror"
• Argumentative Essay # 128751 : "The Most Complex War: America's War on Terror"
• Term Paper # 89243 : "Media and the War on Terror"

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