Iraq invasion 2003 Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Iraq invasion 2003 - Essay Example American invasion of Iraq has been assessed and reassessed by intellectuals both inside and outside America. Though different people put forward different factors as the reasons behind the invasion, all agree on the fact that America failed to achieve any of its objectives in Iraq. Also, it becomes evident from the circumstances that America was in the dire need of strengthening its geopolitical dominance in the Middle East, and considering the situation of the time, Iraq was the most vulnerable victim. There were three main factors which can prove that the American invasion of Iraq was inevitability. They are the US global grand strategy, the US strategic position in the Middle East, and the ruling coalition in the Bush administration. The motivating factors – the war was inevitable In order to understand the American desire to use coercion as a weapon to ensure American dominance in the world, one has to read The Project for a New American Century. The Project’s State ment of Principles declares that America has a pivotal role in maintaining peace and security in Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. Also, it is pointed out that it is important to act before crises emerge, and to face threats before they grow stronger (New American Century, 2000: 4-5). Very similar are the claims in the 2002 National Security Strategy which clearly state that threats to the US would be met using both traditional containment and preventive wars (The White House, 2002: 15). One has to remember the fact that the US global hegemony was, to a great extent, dependent on its protectorate over the oil reserves in the Middle East. Ironically, the biggest threat to American domination also came from the same place; and the best example is the 9/11 attack. Thus, it was clear that America had to reshape the Middle East. In fact, American hegemony over the Middle East oil was getting questioned. In the opinion of Hinnebusch (2007: 213), US and other capitalist countries would im minently face an oil shock as the oil producing Middle Eastern nations were gaining more and more power. First of all, despite the American efforts to impose sanctions on Iraq and Iran, they managed to survive as such sanctions only benefited other nations. To illustrate, Iraq started selling oil concessions to nations like Russia, China and France. Similarly, according to Cramer and Thrall (n.d.: 18), the whole Western Europe wanted to get oil from Iran instead of isolating it; and when America tried to keep its companies away from the so called nations, its rivals were benefiting from the sanctions. Traditionally, Saudi Arabia was playing an important role in providing US with oil help. It moderated oil prices for America throughout the years. However, America was fully concerned about its high degree of dependence on Saudi Arabia for oil needs. Also, the recent years witnessed a decline in the oil pumping capacity of Saudi Arabia making it unable to moderate oil prices anymore (C ommittee on Foreign Affairs House of Representatives 2007: 8). Evidently, al Qaeda and other terrorists were highly dissatisfied with use of American forces to protect Saudi Arabia, and was a motivating factor for Bin Laden to turn against America. As Reno (2012: para. 12-13) points out, it was revealed that Saudi citizens were involved in the 9/11 attack and funding; and this was sufficient for the Zionist lobby in the Bush administration to create an anti-Saudi public opinion in America. Murphy (2011: para. 12) states that, at the same time, Saudi Arabia started looking for alternatives as it felt abandoned by the US. Soon, it reconciled with Iran and Iraq. Thus, as America was losing one swing producer, it wanted to find another one; and Iraq became the primary target (ibid). First of all, it meant that America would again get access to privileged oil, at the same time ensuring its hegemony over its economic rivals like Europe, Asia and the emerging global rival China. Thus, Iraq became a one word solution. The matter can be seen in the military