Term Paper on "Iraq War"

Term Paper 5 pages (1511 words) Sources: 1+

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Iraq war is one of the most controversial events of last few years. While the war had been launched with the so-called intention of removing weapons of mass destruction and disarming Saddam Hussein, it has since then been embroiled in controversy as many feel that the President misled the country in his justifications for war. Iraq is a poor third world country which may be oil-rich but certainly lacks the efficient means to exploit its resources. It was for this reason that President Bush's decision to go on war with Iraq was seen with suspicion and many questioned the validity, veracity and accuracy of the claims made by President Bush to support his case. In this paper, we shall examine the claims and statements made by the President and see how they were used to mislead the public. I chose this topic because Iraq war has already been discussed and debated from various aspects, I wanted to research the statements made by the President to see if there was any truth in them and how far had the President gone in misleading the public.

Saddam Hussein and Al-Qaeda

Soon after the September 11 tragedy, the media started linking it with Saddam Hussein. A Time/CNN poll revealed that 78% of respondents found Saddam responsible for attacks. Taking this as a clue, President Bush and his administration also tried to establish the link between Saddam Hussein and the terrorist attacks of 2001 to gain support for his plan to launch military attack against Iraq. In his address to the nation on October 7, 2002, President Bush said: "We know that Iraq and al Qaeda have had high-level contacts that go back a decade.... We've learned that Iraq has trained al Qaeda members in bomb-making and poisons and deadly gasses." He further added that a "very senior al Qaeda leader" had received treatment in Iraq. In an attempt to win support of his people, he also said: "Some citizens wonder, 'after 11 years of living with this {Saddam Hussein} problem, why do we need to confront it now?' And there's a reason. We have experienced the horror of September the 11th." (1) the then National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice also reiterated what the President had said on September 25, 2002, "There clearly are contacts between al Qaeda and Iraq.... There clearly is testimony that some of the contacts have been important contacts and that there's a relationship there." (2)

However there was never really a strong link between Saddam and al Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden had already been shown his dislike for Iraq's head of state. Bush administration repeatedly told people that its arguments were based on an alleged meeting between 9/11 mastermind Mohamed Atta and an Iraqi official in Prague in April 2001. But no evidence of the meeting existed and FBI investigation also revealed lack of solid evidence for this claim. Congressional report finally admitted that "The CIA has been unable to establish that {Atta} left the United States or entered Europe in April [2001] under his other name or any known alias." (3)

Even though all investigations indicated otherwise, President Bush still continued linking Saddam Hussein to 9/11 attacks. In his victory address on May 1, 2003 President Bush said: "The battle of Iraq is one victory in a war on terror that began on September the 11, 2001.... We've removed an ally of al Qaeda, and cut off a source of terrorist funding.... With those attacks {of 9/11}, the terrorists and their supporters declared war on the United States. And war is what they got." (4) on September 7, 2003, President made the same claim again when he declared:

Nearly two years ago, following deadly attacks on our country, we began a systematic campaign against terrorism.... And we acted in Iraq, where the former regime sponsored terror.... And for America, there will be no going back to the era before September the 11th, 2001, to false comfort in a dangerous world.... We are fighting that enemy in Iraq and Afghanistan today that we do not meet him again on our own streets, in our own cities. (5)

Following in the same vein, Vice President Cheney on September 14, 2003 said: "If we're successful in Iraq... then we will have struck a major blow right at the heart of the base, if you will, the geographic base of the terrorists who had us under assault now for many years, but most especially on 9/11." (6) However a few days later, President Bush admitted: "No, we've had no evidence that Saddam Hussein was involved with September the 11th." (7) but President didn't bother to explain why he and his administration had been repeatedly linking Saddam and 9/11.

From these statements, we conclude that while President did not lie completely, his statements were misleading and served his policy targets. He consistently encouraged such flawed beliefs and perceptions only to bolster support for his plans against Iraq.

Nuclear weapons

As military strategy against Iraq was underway, President Bush and his administration in 2002 repeatedly claimed that Saddam Hussein was building Iraq's nuclear capacity. President Bush also further claimed that Saddam was just a year away from building nuclear weapons and he was thus a potential threat to the security of United States. Vice President Cheney in his speech on August 26, 2002 said: "Many of us are convinced that Saddam will acquire nuclear weapons fairly soon.... There is no doubt he is amassing {WMD} to use against our friends, against our allies, and against us." (8) Another key member of Bush administration, Condoleezza Rice said a month later in September 2002, "There will always be some uncertainty about how quickly {Saddam} can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." (9)

President Bush lied to the public when he told reporters on September 7, 2002 at Camp David, "I would remind you that when the inspectors first went into Iraq and were denied, finally denied access, a report came out of the Atomic -- the IAEA -- that they were six months away from developing a weapon. I don't know what more evidence we need" (10) This was clear fabrication of the truth because President cleverly hid the other important piece of information that was reported by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). The report had said that Iraq could have attained nuclear weapons in 6 to 24 months but this capacity had been eradicated before 1998 by UN inspectors. The report explained that: "Based on all credible information to date, the IAEA has found no indication of Iraq having achieved its program goal of producing nuclear weapons or of Iraq having retained a physical capability for the production of weapon-usable nuclear material or having clandestinely obtained such material." (11) We conclude that while the President was probably confused and thus misled the media, we refuse to accept that he was unfamiliar with this second piece of information mentioned in the report.

The President also used sketchy evidence presented in National Intelligence Estimate on Iraq. In this estimate which was prepared by CIA, it was clearly mentioned that if Baghdad acquired capacity to produce nuclear material, it could attain nuclear weapons in few months time. But the 'if' was ignored by the President when he used this report to win Congress' support for Iraq War. On October 7, 2002 President Bush said:

We agree that the Iraqi dictator must not be permitted to threaten America and the world with horrible poisons and diseases and gasses and atomic weapons.... The evidence indicates that Iraq is reconstituting its nuclear weapons program.... Satellite photographs reveal that Iraq is rebuilding facilities at sites that have been part of his nuclear program in the past... he could have a nuclear… READ MORE

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