Usa Iraq War

Topics: Iraq War, United States, 2003 invasion of Iraq Pages: 7 (2565 words) Published: March 3, 2013
Following the military achievement of the US in Afghanistan, the US focused its attention on Iraq in order to topple Saddam Hussein. The Iraq War was a conflict that took place with the invasion of Iraq by the US on 20 March 2003. The American government offered two significant reasons for waging war against Iraq in 2003 (Klare, The Coming War with Iraq, page 3). First of all, the US claimed that Iraq have weapons of mass destruction that could be captured and used by terrorists organizations and would pose a menace to the United States. Secondly, the US argued that the Iraqi regime was a vicious and cruel regime that oppressed its own citizens, and only war could guarantee a new democratic state that could spread democracy out to other Middle Eastern countries. Eventually, the US declared war against Iraq on 20 March, 2003 and that has led to hundreds of causalities. In fact, the main reason why the US invaded Iraq was to secure its political and economical dominance in the region. In that context, whether the US-led war in Iraq can be justifiable or not can be explained by the Just War Theory of jus ad bellum. Just war theory consists of Six Criteria, which are Just Cause, Right Intention, Proper Authority and Public Declaration, Last Resort, Probability of Success, and Proportionality (Orend, War, page 6). Just War Theory argues that if a war is justifiable, it should fulfill all of these six criteria of the jus ad bellum. However, the US-led war in Iraq cannot be justifiable since it contradicts with the Six Criteria for a just war. Initially, the US recent war in Iraq was not based on a just cause as the US main purpose was to protect its economic and political interests in the region. Secondly, the US’s war in Iraq did not have an objective that can be justifiable with ethical principles, since it was triggered by the US retribution for 9/11 events. Moreover, the decision process of the US-led war in Iraq is not based on a Proper Authority and Public Declaration as it did not reflect the will of people and parliament. Furthermore, declaring war in Iraq was not a Last Resort for the US, since it could apply soft power politics through economic and political sanctions. Additionally, the US-led war in Iraq did not have a Probability of the Success, as it led to causalities of many people. Eventually, the US-led war in Iraq did not have acceptable reasons, and it was not based on the principle of the proportional benefits that bring benefits to the majority of the people. Thus, in this paper I will argue that the US did not have acceptable reasons to declare war in the US recent war in Iraq in accordance with the Six Criteria for a jus ad bellum, which is a right to declare war. First reason why the US’s recent war in Iraq is not based on the just ad bellum is generated by the lack of just cause. In fact, states can declare war to each other only for the acceptable reason (Orend, War, page 6). The just reason generally takes place in the case of the self-defense and guard for the protection of the innocent civilians form the probable atrocious and dreadful regimes and groups. It means that just war can only takes place where a country encounters with the infringement of its citizens basic rights and freedom, which means that it should not be done for the sake of any other purposes or goods. If we apply that criteria of Just War Theory to the US’ recent war in Iraq, it can be said that the US’ recent war in Iraq cannot be justified in terms of the just war theory, since the pretext for the US’ invasion of Iraq was based on the US’ aim to fend off any menace to its economic and political hegemony of the world. In this framework, Gowan, (Cooperation and Conflict, page 219) argues that although the real reasons why the US declared war against Iraq were that to disseminate the principle of the democracy in the Middle East, to assist the Iraqi people to topple an tyrannical regime, and to remove Saddam Hussein as he...
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