September 11

September 11, 2001 and Terrorism On September 11th, the world changed forever. In the aftermath, a defiant George W. Bush stated that no distinction between terrorists and those who harbour terrorists would be made. The success of the liberation of Afghanistan and the threat of more attacks on American soil has prompted the US to consider invading Iraq , in an effort to

oust terrorists and capture Saddam Hussein. As the though of such a war becomes more realistic and probable, I shall endeavour to prove that a war on Iraq is needed. During this essay, I plan to show why the USA should invade Iraq and how it should do this. Lastly, I shall

apply the Powell Doctrine to this scenario, to show that it does indeed fulfil the requirements of America 's standard military policy.

The last time the USA openly led action on Iraq was during the Gulf War in response to Iraq 's invasion of Kuwait . After the success of Operation Desert Storm, harsh sanctions were imposed on Iraq and UN weapons inspectors were sent to neutralise Iraq 's large biological, chemical and nuclear threat. However, after several years of weapons inspections, Iraq threw out the UN teams and started to rearm itself with weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), despite Western pressure. But with the recent attacks on the USA , fears of Islamic dissident and extremist movements have increased. The likes of Osama bin Laden and the al' Qaeda network, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have vowed to continue there action against the 'infidels' and should these groups get there hands on WMDs, then the results would be beyond comprehension. A well placed nuclear device would easily render the North Eastern coast of the US uninhabitable for up to two hundred years. Similarly, biological weapons such as Anthrax, Ebola and Smallpox are highly infectious and as New York and Washington , or indeed any other major American city, are huge transport centres, then these diseases would spread across the Northern Hemisphere extremely quickly. Just after Operation Desert Storm, UN weapons inspectors found over 200,000 litres of VX and Sarin, two deadly bio-chemical nerve agents. 200,000 litres is enough to extinguish all human life on Earth. A recent Pentagon Report stated that Iraq had: 'five active and 7 damaged

nuclear facilities; 2 active and 3 damaged chemical facilities and 2 active and 2 damaged biological facilities.'

But what connection does Saddam Hussein have with global terrorism? The answer to this question lies with his hatred of America . This hatred stems from before the Gulf War when America openly funded the Israeli military. To the hard-line Islamic dictators like Hussein, the US 's aid to Israel was emphasising America 's Jewish links. The problems in the Middle East themselves origin in the friction between Jews and Muslims. So Iraq started to fund terrorist organisations along with Saudi Arabia , Iran and Libya . Then when Iraq invaded Kuwait , the US saw this as a chance to end the Iraqi threat to international security. But the Coalition failed to remove Saddam Hussein from power due to the fact that the alternatives were not much

better than Saddam. This resulted in tensions between the two countries increase to the point where, on September 11th, Iraq made no gesture of regret at the actions of that day.

So Iraq 's WMDs could easily end up in the hands of terrorists bent on attacking the West or Iraq could even use them during a Middle Eastern War. Smuggled in by ship, or injected into volunteers willing to die for Allah are just two of the many possible ways to spread these

dangerous weapons. This threat must be dealt with.

America 's second reason for the invasion of Iraq involves the lifeblood of the modern world: oil. Iraq and many other Middle Eastern countries made their wealth from drilling and exporting oil. In order for the US to maintain its cheap supplies of oil, it has to have countries willing to support it. If any country with large oil fields could supply America with large amounts of oil, then the US could keep its petrol and diesel prices down. Should America invade Iraq , then the government placed in control of Iraq would naturally be under control of America in the same way Israel is, and so 'friendly' terms with the US would ensue. So America would be provided with what it needs most, cheap oil.

Though America has its reasons for 'the toppling of the Iraqi axis of evil', we must ask why the Middle East needs Saddam Hussein's regime removed. To understand these reasons, we must look at the countries in danger from Iraq .

Iraq 's neighbours, namely Iran , Saudi Arabia , Turkey , Syria , Jordan and Kuwait , have in recent years been in conflict with Iraq . Many of them backed the US during Operation Desert Storm and some of them do not have diplomatic relations with Iraq but there main reasons for the removal of Saddam lie in the overwhelming size of his army (the biggest in the Gulf) and the economic losses created by the lost trading between them and Iraq . Indeed, the cause of the Gulf War was that Iraq invaded Kuwait in order to secure more oil reserves. During the war, the Iraqis openly fired WMDs against Jordan and other neighbouring countries.

Israel , though not a 'next door' neighbour of Iraq , is probably under the most danger of any of the Middle East countries. This is mainly due to religious difference between the two countries and the open support America has given to Israel .

Similarly Iraq itself is under danger from Saddam: as well as taking away the freedom of the Iraqi people, using Gestapo style secret police to silence his opposition and centralising power around himself, he has attempted to commit genocide on the ethnic minorities in his country, namely the Kurds, and has been embroiled in a long confrontation with the Iranians. He used illegal WMDs on them during 1980 to 1990 - an open defiance of several United Nations Articles.

It is for these reasons, that Iraq must be removed.

However, now that we have looked at why we must invade Iraq , we must look at how we could do it. To do this I shall again look at who we would gain support from and how a military campaign in Iraq would be conducted.

In order for the US to legally declare war on Iraq , it must obtain a United Nations mandate for a declaration of war. There are only four other countries that can stand in the way of the USA - the four other permanent members of the UN Security Council: Britain , France , Russia and the People's Republic of China . Let us look