Example research essay topic: War With Iraq Weapons Of Mass Destruction - 1,623 words

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Reason for War in Iraq Without a doubt, almost all of the attempts to contain and deter the current Iraqi regime have eventually failed. The only policy that has a proven success against Saddam Hussein has been the use of military force. As the worlds only superpower, the United States of America has the capability to remove Saddam Hussein from power. But is a war with Iraq the only option? Iraq became an independent kingdom in 1933, have the destruction of the Ottoman Empire in World War I.

Proclaimed a republic in 1958, the country has in actuality been ruled by various tyrants and military strongmen since. Iraq is 432, 072 square miles, approximately twice the size of Idaho (Butler, 49). With a population of about 24 million people and a GDP of $ 59 billion (debt of $ 140 billion), Iraq is a relatively small country. The current president is Saddam Hussein, who originally rose to power in 1979 through a coup in which the Baath Party (Arab Socialist Renaissance Party) overthrew the government of General Abdul Arif (Hiro, 25). During his twenty-year term, Saddam has engaged in many atrocities and human right violations. He has oppressed and massacred Iraq's native Kurdish population in the north and native Shia population in the south, which represent 20 percent and 60 percent of the population respectively (Pollack, 61).

During Iraq's eight-year war with Iran, Saddam used chemical and biological weapons against his enemy, including a massive chemical weapons attack against the city of Halajaba that killed several thousand civilians (Ritter, 52). In 1981 fourteen Israeli warplanes entered Iraq airspace undetected and blew-up Iraq's Iraq nuclear reactor, the key to Saddam's nuclear weapons program, setting his nuclear program back a few years (Pollack, 17). In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and was quickly counter-attacked by a U. S. led coalition. Though the coalition forces attempted to locate and destroy Saddam's weapons of mass destruction facilities, Israels attack ten years earlier had scared Saddam into hiding redundant facilities all over Iraq.

In an attempt to keep Saddam under control, the United Nations passed several resolutions that created sanctions and inhibited Iraq's actions. Though the United States had previously supported Iraq against Iran and as part of the Soviet containment policy, the first Bush administration eventually came to realize that Saddam was too much of a threat to their vision of peace and interests in the Middle East. The administration, and every administration thereafter, was divided into two camps comprising of the hawks and doves. The doves preferred a policy of determent or containment, as the believed that Saddam was a rational leader and that there were more important problems in the world.

The hawks, on the other hand, believed that the least they could do was to institute a regime change, while the extremists felt the need to a war. The doves were the predominate group in Bush's and Clintons administrations, as well as George W. Bush's administration before September 11. At first, the policy of containment worked quite well.

Iraq was only able to export oil (Iraq's main export) in exchange for food and humanitarian supplies, according to UN Resolution 687. In addition, all transactions would take place with UN-controlled accounts, ensuring that Iraq's revenues were spent on humanitarian supplies (Pollack, 82). Saddam Hussein, by exaggerating the effects of the sanctions on his people and taking advantage of a schism in the Security Council, was eventually able to remove limitations on the amount of oil Iraq could export. Iraq was also able to win concessions on an extensive list of dual-use goods, goods that have possibly military use as well as civilian use. A recent example of Iraq's abuse of items on this list would be Saddam's attempts to purchase massive doses of atropine and injection units from Turkey, which could realistically only be used in to protect his troops from chemical weapons. Much of the humanitarian aid that was purchased, ostensibly for the Iraqi people, was smuggled out of Iraq for sale on the black market.

There was so much smuggled medicine from Iraq available in Jordan that by the late 1990 s, Jordanian pharmacists asked customers whether they wanted name-brand or Iraqi versions, rather than generic (Pollack, 86). Also, Iraq has been able to generate large amounts of money that are not accounted for in the UN Resolutions. To generate funds for his military and WMD (weapons of mass destruction) programs, Saddam charges a surcharge of fifty cents on every barrel of oil sold through the UN program, with the surcharges paid into an Iraqi-controlled account (Cockburn, 64). With proven oil reserves of 112. 5 billion barrels, Saudi Arabia is the only country with more oil reserves than Iraq. These surcharges on Iraq's cut-rate barrels add greatly to Iraq's total smuggling profit.

Besides illegal charging, Iraq smuggles oil via trucks to Turkey and Jordan, and through the Kirkuk-Basis pipeline to Syria. Also, Iraq regularly tops-off tankers used for legitimate transport, by adding as much as 500, 000 barrels to each tanker after UN inspectors have left. Smuggling approximately 500, 000 bbl / d , Iraq generates at least 3 million dollars per year (Cockburn, 71). Iraq has been able to exploit differences in the UN Security Council, most notably those between the permanent five members, quite effectively. Worth about 17 billion dollars in trade, Iraq has made it quite clear that countries must play ball in exchange for lucrative Oil for Food contracts and other contracts (Pollack, 83). Quite quickly, France and Russia (two permanent members of the Security Council) have become advocates for the removal of sanctions against Iraq.

Signed in March 1997, cash-strapped Russia and Iraq signed an agreement worth 3. 5 billion dollars to rehabilitate Iraq's oil fields (Hiro, 21). Both France and Russia have also either voted against or abstained from voting on potential UN resolutions that would increase or tighten the sanctions on Iraq. With the possibility of containment eroding due to blatant disregard for UN sanctions by even members of the P 5, the only passive option would be deterrence. Deterrence assumes that the country that is to be deterred has rational leadership, which Iraq does not.

Saddam Hussein has proven time and time again that his quest for WMDs is worth much more than the health and life of his people, as well as the stability of his country. While he uses various schemes to leech money from the UNs humanitarian aid, his people grow more hungry and destitute. Once he acquires a sufficient amount of chemical, biological, and nuclear weaponry, there is no telling what he will do. Saddam has often and loudly said that his goal is to create a new Arab union of some kind, headed by a powerful Iraq, that will be a new superpower (Cockburn, 33).

During the Gulf War, Saddam had missiles fired at Israel with the hope of forcing the other Arab states to support him in what he wanted to become an American/Israeli alliance. Also, Saddam ordered Scuds armed with biological and chemical warheads, to be fired if the U. S. -led coalition invaded Iraq. To make matters worse, Saddam's nuclear preparations are so far advanced that a September 2002 report from the International Institute for Strategic Studies concluded that Saddam Hussein could build a nuclear bomb within months if her were able to obtain fissile material (Ritter, 61). Iraq has a large natural deposit of uranium, but currently posses no methods for enriching enough uranium to complete his nuclear weapons.

But, in the last 14 months, Iraq has sought to purchase thousands of specially designed aluminum tubes which officials believe were intended as components of centrifuges to enrich uranium (Cockburn, 37). The only realistic option left would be to use military force to remove Saddam from power. Iraq has been given a final chance, with a recent UN resolution that requires the re-admittance of the UNMOVIC weapons inspectors and gives them more powers created to combat previous Iraqi attempts at obstructing the inspections (Hiro, 19). Also, the resolution does not require a formal approval for the use of force by the UN Security Council should Iraq not fully comply, and the Bush administration is more than willing to take advantage of that fact.

Any war with Iraq would not be easy, as it would require an enormous amount of money and manpower. Kenneth Pollack, a fifteen-year veteran analyst on Iraq for the CIA and NSC, estimates that success would require a force of close to 300, 000 troops and a full commitment to post-war reconstruction (Cockburn, 63). Though the costs are daunting, Iraqi defiance of the recent UN resolution must be met with force. Previous policies of containment have proven to be useless, with smuggling and even complete disregard for UN sanctions exhibited by countries as large and powerful as Russia and China. A policy of deterrence is completely unrealistic, as Saddam Hussein is an irrational individual with unrealistic goals. Bibliography: Butler, Richard. 327. 1745 Greatest Threat: Iraq, Weapons of Mass Destruction, and the Crisis of Global Security, 2000.

pp. 47 - 56 Cockburn, Andrew and Patrick Cockburn. 956. 70443 Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hussein, 1999. pp. 31 - 37, 63, 71 Coughlin, Con. B/Hussein Saddam: King of Terror, 2002. p. 89 Hiro, Dilip. 956. 7 Iraq: In the Eye of the Storm, 2002. pp. 29 - 64 Hiro, Dilip. 956. 70443 Neighbors, Not Friends: Iraq and Iran After the Gulf Wars, 2001. pp. 19 - 21 Pollack, Kenneth M. 956. 7044 Threatening Storm: The Case for Invading Iraq, 2002.

pp. 17, 61 - 93 Ritter, Scott. 956. 70443 Endgame: Solving the Iraq Problem Once and For All, 1999. pp. 53 - 62

Research essay sample on War With Iraq Weapons Of Mass Destruction