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Was the war on Iraq justified
had had enough of Saddam’s lies. Diplomacy with a tyrant like Saddam was impossible. The Iraqi threat has been known for decades. A clause in the ending of the Gulf War was that Iraq destroy its weapons of mass destruction, but here we were; twelve years later and no proof has surfaced as to whether or not this condition was ever met. Most evidence and inferences appear to be to the contrary. Common questions about an invasion of Iraq were “Why Iraq” and “Why now?” The previous unresolved conflicts in Iraq started to fall under the scope of the broader war against terrorism. Iraq had both the technological capability to unleash a terrible attack and the sadistic prepared to use his weapons of mass destruction again. (Bush) History had shown that civil war was not an option to remove Saddam from power. If Saddam was going to be removed from power it would require coalition intervention. Saddam could crush any would-be internal insurrection quite easily and silence its message with propaganda. However foreign troops posed a much more dangerous threat. If Saddam had any chance of staying in power it was that no evidence of weapons of mass destruction could be found in Iraq. This meant that use of these type of weapons against coalition forces would result in UN support of the military operation.
The goals of this war were simple; to remove Saddam Hussein from power and in the process liberate the Iraqi people. Now that Hussein is out of power the civilians of Iraq and get the food and medical attention that they had been so desperately lacking. During operation Iraqi Freedom the U.S. did find bits and pieces of weapons of mass destruction. This is probably only a small portion of what Iraqi’s managed to cover up, but it does offer some conformation about the threat they posed to the world. (Wilkinson) Saddam’s years of cruel leadership were toppled rather swiftly. But this does not prove that he was merely a paper tiger. Saddam was as powerful and as ruthless as he was during the days of the Gulf War. He used torture and execution to silence any opposition. The coalition’s invasion of Iraq was therefore not only justified, but obligatory.