The Iraq War

The Iraq war is among the most hated and polemical wars ever fought in American history. Those who criticize it declare it unnecessary and based on errant claims of WMD"s. While Iraq and Hussein were indeed involved with these deadly weapons, the primary reason why the Iraq war is both noble and just are the horrible crimes committed by Hussein. Examples must be used, as words cannot describe the atrocities suffered every day in Iraq. Christopher Hitchens puts it best. "You can tell when someone does not know what they are talking about when it comes to Hussein. If they say, "well, Hussein is a bad guy", then they don"t know. " Brief Background of the Iraq War Saddam Hussein, after taking power through a brutally ingenious coup, invaded Kuwait in 1990, holding the state for a full sixth months before being forcefully expelled by an international coalition. He would have been removed from power, but the first George Bush bowed to the Saudi oil barons and allowed him to remain as dictator of Iraq. Ten years later 2996 people were killed in a vicious attack on the World Trade Center, raising fears and passions in America. As a result, the Bush Administration began an investigation into the countries these terrorists came from, resulting in the claim that Iraq held WMD"s. These alleged weapons turned out not to exist (sort of), but both Bush and Clinton administration official agreed the evidence was conclusive, and the invasion of Iraq began. (1) The Shameful History of the American Anti-War Movement While I do not find the anti-war movement in America unreasonable, it is important to recognize when a war is justified, if not necessary. We as a country should be very grateful that the anti-war movement"s advice should not be heeded. To show this point, here is a list of what would be the case in the world without the wars this group fought tirelessly against. 1. Kuwait would be under the dictatorial and fascistic leadership of Saddam Hussein. (His next target was Saudi Arabia, by the way, with much of the world"s oil) 2. The Taliban would control Afghanistan, and harbor al-Qaeda 3. Korea would be united in a fascistic communist society, with Kim-Jung Un as its leader. 4. Saddam Hussein would have WMD"s, and very possibly nuclear weapons (I"ll go into this later) 5. I don"t want to know what Hitler would have accomplished 6. Bosnia would have been ethnically cleansed 7. Kosovo would be in the dictatorial hands of Yugoslavia 8. Osama Bin Laden would be alive and operating All of these things and more would have come to pass had the council of the anti-war movement been listened to, and they should be held responsible for what they did accomplish, such as causing the deaths of 800,000 people in Rwanda. I reiterate, calling for peace is one thing, but a complete disregard for reason in the face of principle is a grievous error, one that millions of people have paid for with their lives. (But never those who make this error). (2) Now on to the Iraq War itself: The Fallacy of the Non-Existence of WMDs One of the main falsehoods believed today is that Iraq and Haddam Hussein had nothing to do with weapons of mass destruction. However you look at it, this pretense is simply false. Not only was Hussein attempting to develop chemical and biological weapons, but he was, with a level of success, attempting to purchase nuclear weapons and technology from North Korea. WND News says of Hussein"s bid to open trade lines with North Korea, "Had he not been stopped, those channels might have been used to obtain nuclear weapons from North Korea". (3) Besides this potential disaster, in the early 1990"s Iraq was caught designing missiles armed with small pox, as detailed in the book Demon in the Freezer. (4) Of course, he also used chemical weapons on his own people, but I will get in to that later. Indeed, saying WMDs and Iraq cannot be worded together in a sentence is false, and the incredible threat on the US and its allies could in themselves justify a war, although that is but a small part of my case. The Day Haddam Hussein Took Power If you were around in 1979, you could have watched live on C-Span the terrible minute that Hussein took power. In front of the ruling council in Iraq, President Ahmed Hassan Bakr came up to speak. Immediately you could tell he was a broken man, of body and spirit. He walked up to the stage and confessed to a long series of crimes, such as trying to overthrow the ruling party and attempted assassinations. He begged to receive the death penalty. First, however, he said, he wished to read off names of his co-conspirators, and he started listed members of the council, who were promptly escorted out by police. As you might have guessed, they did not survive the hour. After about a dozen of these, panic begins to set in, and members jump up in complaint, and met the same grisly fate as their comrades. Then others started jumping up and shouting praise to Hussein and his party. Haddam Hussein walks up to the stage, to enormous cheers, and declares himself ruler of Iraq. (5) THE DEATH PENALTY IN IRAQ Very liberally used, putting someone to death was a punishment for anything involving the dishonoring of the Government or of Islam. Since I do not have many characters left, I will list off crimes punishable by death under Hussein. 1. Owning a satellite dish 2. Distributing a leaflet or media of any kind 3. Not wearing a hijab 4. Getting raped (Women only) 5. Form any kind of assembly 6. Critizing any member of the ruling party 7. Degrading party symbols or documents, such as spilling coffee on one 8. Being Kurdish 9. Being a Shi"ite Muslim 10. Executing a virgin women (although you could rape her, then it would be ok). These are simply the ones I know off the top of my head, and there are many more. I challenge anyone to make a list of humans rights abuses, and see if they can come up with one not committed by Hussein. SURRENDER OF SOVEREINGTY Before I conclude, I would like to address the untruth spread around that the invasion of Iraq was illegal by international law. Indeed, it was perfectly legal, to some extent even encouraged by international law. This is because Iraq had surrendered its right to be a state by violating not just one, but all four of the actions that can remove the sovereignty of a nation. They are: (6) 1. Harboring known terrorists- Al-Qaeda, Hezbollah, some planners of 9/11) 2. Violating the Genocide Convention- Attempted ethnic cleansing of the Kurds 3. Invading sovereign nations- Kuwait, with Saudi Arabia next on the list 4. Violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty- Attempting to buy weapons off of North Korea The invasion was not illegal, by international nor legal nor moral regulation. I have much more to say on the topic, but I will begin with this. Good luck to my opponent, and I look forward to their next entry. (1). http://usforeignpolicy.about.com... (2). http://www.infoplease.com... (3). http://www.wnd.com... (4). http://richardpreston.net... (5). http://news.bbc.co.uk... (6). http://www.thestudentroom.co.uk...