An Introduction to the War in Iraq |
The Iraq War was a conflict fought between 2003 and 2011 between the United States and its allies, notably the countries involved in NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization), and Iraqi opponents, which was first comprised of the government of Iraq, and later, terrorist organizations like al-Qaeda.
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Saddam Hussein, who was a U.S. ally in the 1980s, disliked the power Iran had, leading him to order the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait to try to limit their power. This pushed the United States into occupying Iraq during the First Gulf War. Due to the U.S. presence, the Iraqi military became weak, and so did its economy, and careful watch from the United Nations of their chemical and biological weapons led the country to become largely hostile toward the United States. However, the war in Iraq would not begin for about another decade.
In 2002, Congress approved of US force in Iraq on the grounds of removing the Middle Eastern country's weapons, which were seen as a threat to global security. Many protesters against Iraqi weapons included countries such as England, Australia, Denmark, and Poland. The conflict began in 2003 after the U.S.-defined deadline for the removal of Saddam Hussein from the Middle Eastern nation passed without action. The U.S. and its allies were able to capture a large number of major Iraqi cities in just a few weeks, with the war beginning in March 2003 and the end of combat operations being declared in May 2003. With Hussein detained and the Iraqi military defeated, it would appear that the U.S. had swiftly been victorious in their campaign in Iraq. However, the United States still found threats in Iraq following the toppling of Hussein's regime. |
The second phase of the Iraq War began when al-Qaeda started moving into Iraq and different insurgencies sprang up around the war-torn country. Due to al-Qaeda's position as the terrorist organization responsible for the 9/11 World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks in the U.S. in 2001, the United States began recruiting even more soldiers in a “surge” move. This prompted the remaining 8 year-long conflict in a destroyed Iraq between these guerrilla terrorist organizations and the U.S. military in occupation of the country. The amount of conflict and violence began to fall in 2007.
After the conflict officially began in 2003, the fighting continued until a mutual agreement between the U.S. and the Iraqi government called SOFA (Status of Forces Agreement) was reached. The agreement addressed the stationing of U.S. troops in Iraq, and asked them to withdrawal entirely from Iraq by 2011. The removal of American troops began afterward, in a process that would span multiple years and attempt to bring some aid to the Iraqi people in the process. To analyze the true effects of the Iraq War on both the Iraqi people and those serving in the U.S. military, we developed 4 questions that would provide more insight into the conflict: What was it like to be a non-combat member of the military during the Iraq War? How did controversy over the war affect the veteran experience? How did the war affect the personal lives of veterans? Was the war successful in bettering the lives of Iraqi citizens? |
New Perspectives
The Iraq War is often portrayed in very different ways, ranging from viewpoints that see it as an important war in establishing security for the United States, to those that see the war as an unnecessary power grab made by the U.S. on shaky moral grounds. After beginning in 2003, the argument over the ethics and morals of the Iraq War would continue on into 2011 and the future, leaving a total of 4,400 U.S. casualties and tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians killed before the US officially ended its combat mission in Iraq.
There was a shift between the Gulf War (which preceded the Iraq War), where the UN led in bringing different countries together in order to free Kuwait, and the Iraq War, which was initiated by Americans without the technical right from the UN. Within the United States, the justification for the war was that America had a greater moral superiority, and its leadership role around the world made it necessary for the country to involve itself. George W. Bush, who was elected in 2000, actively supported nations such as Germany, Japan, France, and Great Britain for their efforts regarding the War on Terrorism. Other countries had began thinking of the run-up invasion in Iraq as a power grab move for the U.S., and that America was quick to start war.
The first issue that many had with the war was its shaky foundations. The United State’s decision to go to war in Iraq was largely predicated on two conditions: firstly, that Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, had weapons of mass destruction that posed an immediate threat to the U.S. and the rest of the world, and secondly, that the terrorist group al-Qaeda, responsible for the 9/11 attacks, held major spheres of influence in Iraq. However, both of these justifications for war were later proven to be false. A two-year long CIA investigation led by Charles Duelfer found no evidence at all of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and al-Qaeda was based in Afghanistan at the time, and only moved into Iraq following the instability brought to the country from American intervention.
Perhaps another of the reasons that the Iraq War was, and remains, so polarizing among both civilians and soldiers alike is its complicated legacy. It was clear from the outbreak of the war that the U.S. invasion of Iraq served to further a political and social agenda as well as a military one. Few dispute the military success of U.S. troops during the Iraq War; after all, they achieved their primary military goal of deposing dictator Saddam Hussein in less than a year. For many, it was difficult to declare the war effort a decisive victory when the U.S. had set out to bring stability to the nation of Iraq and instead left behind destruction; a power vacuum that attracted terrorist organizations, and a shortage of infrastructure to aid in regrowth. More than $100 billion has been spent to rebuild Iraq since the war began, but the long term effects of lack of clean drinking water, housing, and healthcare still remain. And incidents between occupying U.S. forces and Iraqi civilians has done nothing to make the war seem more morally justifiable. In 2007, 17 unarmed Iraqis were killed in a shooting conflict against five combat contractors from the United States not affiliated with the U.S. military. Some even argue that the war raged on in part because it was profitable for companies based in the United States that were able to gain from the war. There were, however, some beneficial changes in the lives of Iraqi people that were a direct result of U.S. occupation. For example, Iraqi women, who had gained the right to vote in 1980 but whose powers of political participation were effaced under Saddam Hussein's reign, were once again able to vote and run for office after the U.S.-led disposing of Hussein was successful.
For those serving in the U.S. military, even in non-combative positions, Operation Iraqi Freedom was a harrowing experience, even without the much more immediate threat of injury or death. For those serving as medics for the United States, some of the experiences faced would have been traumatizing, given the horrific things that occurred to both U.S. soldiers or civilians. For these non-combat medics, it did not matter which side a civilian was on, whether they may be in the Iraqi military or that of the United States. It was a civil duty as part of the medical service to provide care for anyone in need. The medical civil military operations were responsible for carrying out the the United States plans for Iraq. In 2010, close to the ending of the war, the 21st Combat Support Hospital was deployed to help the Iraqi government with security and to help aid their government with medical support. These experiences in Iraq faced by U.S. veterans often led to a large number of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder cases, with around 95% of U.S. Army members seeing dead bodies, 93% being shot at, and 86% knowing someone who was either seriously injured or killed during the war. This led to issues in veterans' personal lives back at home following their experiences in the war. For some veterans, the U.S. military was a way to improve their own lives, strengthening their morals and ideals as an individual, but for others, such detrimental effects of the war were enough to cause significant difficulty following the war.
To further complicate the matter, veterans had to deal with both the controversial nature of the war as well as a lack of support from home. At the beginning of the war in March 2003, around 72% of American civilians supported President Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq, according to a Pew Research report. However, public support for the war steadily declined as it wore on, dropping under 50% in February 2005 and hitting only 38% approval in February 2007. In addition to this, opinions of how well the war was going and over soldier deployment followed a very similar disapproving trend. This marked a repeat in the history of American citizens disagreeing with the government’s choice in handling an international crisis, with the first being the Vietnam War. Despite this, public outcry against the war wasn’t necessarily a major issue. Some soldiers welcomed such opposition to the war and viewed it as a reminder of the freedoms the military served to protect. A 2011 Pew Research Poll reveals that only 44% of post-9/11 veterans believed that the Iraq War was worth fighting. While the majority of soldiers dealt with this issue by reminding themselves of their obligations to the U.S. military, a significant number of soldiers found it too difficult to serve in a war they did not support. According to NBC News, the number of deserters in the U.S. armed forces grew 80% between the start of the war and 2007.
This, undoubtedly, is one of the major struggles of the Iraq War veteran–trying to piece together such a complicated foreign affair in order to decide if the country they served was in the right, if the orders they followed were for the best, and if the side for which they fought even won in the end.
There was a shift between the Gulf War (which preceded the Iraq War), where the UN led in bringing different countries together in order to free Kuwait, and the Iraq War, which was initiated by Americans without the technical right from the UN. Within the United States, the justification for the war was that America had a greater moral superiority, and its leadership role around the world made it necessary for the country to involve itself. George W. Bush, who was elected in 2000, actively supported nations such as Germany, Japan, France, and Great Britain for their efforts regarding the War on Terrorism. Other countries had began thinking of the run-up invasion in Iraq as a power grab move for the U.S., and that America was quick to start war.
The first issue that many had with the war was its shaky foundations. The United State’s decision to go to war in Iraq was largely predicated on two conditions: firstly, that Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi dictator, had weapons of mass destruction that posed an immediate threat to the U.S. and the rest of the world, and secondly, that the terrorist group al-Qaeda, responsible for the 9/11 attacks, held major spheres of influence in Iraq. However, both of these justifications for war were later proven to be false. A two-year long CIA investigation led by Charles Duelfer found no evidence at all of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, and al-Qaeda was based in Afghanistan at the time, and only moved into Iraq following the instability brought to the country from American intervention.
Perhaps another of the reasons that the Iraq War was, and remains, so polarizing among both civilians and soldiers alike is its complicated legacy. It was clear from the outbreak of the war that the U.S. invasion of Iraq served to further a political and social agenda as well as a military one. Few dispute the military success of U.S. troops during the Iraq War; after all, they achieved their primary military goal of deposing dictator Saddam Hussein in less than a year. For many, it was difficult to declare the war effort a decisive victory when the U.S. had set out to bring stability to the nation of Iraq and instead left behind destruction; a power vacuum that attracted terrorist organizations, and a shortage of infrastructure to aid in regrowth. More than $100 billion has been spent to rebuild Iraq since the war began, but the long term effects of lack of clean drinking water, housing, and healthcare still remain. And incidents between occupying U.S. forces and Iraqi civilians has done nothing to make the war seem more morally justifiable. In 2007, 17 unarmed Iraqis were killed in a shooting conflict against five combat contractors from the United States not affiliated with the U.S. military. Some even argue that the war raged on in part because it was profitable for companies based in the United States that were able to gain from the war. There were, however, some beneficial changes in the lives of Iraqi people that were a direct result of U.S. occupation. For example, Iraqi women, who had gained the right to vote in 1980 but whose powers of political participation were effaced under Saddam Hussein's reign, were once again able to vote and run for office after the U.S.-led disposing of Hussein was successful.
For those serving in the U.S. military, even in non-combative positions, Operation Iraqi Freedom was a harrowing experience, even without the much more immediate threat of injury or death. For those serving as medics for the United States, some of the experiences faced would have been traumatizing, given the horrific things that occurred to both U.S. soldiers or civilians. For these non-combat medics, it did not matter which side a civilian was on, whether they may be in the Iraqi military or that of the United States. It was a civil duty as part of the medical service to provide care for anyone in need. The medical civil military operations were responsible for carrying out the the United States plans for Iraq. In 2010, close to the ending of the war, the 21st Combat Support Hospital was deployed to help the Iraqi government with security and to help aid their government with medical support. These experiences in Iraq faced by U.S. veterans often led to a large number of Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder cases, with around 95% of U.S. Army members seeing dead bodies, 93% being shot at, and 86% knowing someone who was either seriously injured or killed during the war. This led to issues in veterans' personal lives back at home following their experiences in the war. For some veterans, the U.S. military was a way to improve their own lives, strengthening their morals and ideals as an individual, but for others, such detrimental effects of the war were enough to cause significant difficulty following the war.
To further complicate the matter, veterans had to deal with both the controversial nature of the war as well as a lack of support from home. At the beginning of the war in March 2003, around 72% of American civilians supported President Bush’s decision to go to war in Iraq, according to a Pew Research report. However, public support for the war steadily declined as it wore on, dropping under 50% in February 2005 and hitting only 38% approval in February 2007. In addition to this, opinions of how well the war was going and over soldier deployment followed a very similar disapproving trend. This marked a repeat in the history of American citizens disagreeing with the government’s choice in handling an international crisis, with the first being the Vietnam War. Despite this, public outcry against the war wasn’t necessarily a major issue. Some soldiers welcomed such opposition to the war and viewed it as a reminder of the freedoms the military served to protect. A 2011 Pew Research Poll reveals that only 44% of post-9/11 veterans believed that the Iraq War was worth fighting. While the majority of soldiers dealt with this issue by reminding themselves of their obligations to the U.S. military, a significant number of soldiers found it too difficult to serve in a war they did not support. According to NBC News, the number of deserters in the U.S. armed forces grew 80% between the start of the war and 2007.
This, undoubtedly, is one of the major struggles of the Iraq War veteran–trying to piece together such a complicated foreign affair in order to decide if the country they served was in the right, if the orders they followed were for the best, and if the side for which they fought even won in the end.
A Look at Artifacts
Here, we analyze the war through the lens of the items that emerged out of it. The collection of photographic artifacts that we analyzed to gain this perspective of the war belong to Mr. John Rees, who was kind enough to let us photograph items that represent his personal experience in the Iraq war. Other documents provided are representative of both U.S. military and civilian experiences during the war.
Primary Documents
Document 1: George W. Bush's Declaration of War on Iraq
Documents Set 2: Military Reports on IED Blasts [1] [2] [3]
Document 3: UN Report on Weapons in Iraq
Document 1: George W. Bush's Declaration of War on Iraq
- This declaration of war provides the reasoning that the U.S. government gave for pursuing war in Iraq. The speech details how the United States had tried before to end the issue of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq peacefully during the First Gulf War, and cites the fact that they still have such weapons as grounds for war with little to no negotiation at all. This moral reasoning is slightly shaky, as the speech indicates that the U.S. had already tried to act peacefully a decade before, so now there was no need for doing so. While the U.S. did get approval from the UN before declaring this war, it seems as though there was a jump to conflict without any attempts at true diplomacy.
- This speech also established the reasons for the U.S. invading Iraq besides the threat of weapons of mass destruction, which was to aid the Iraqi people. George W. Bush states that American intervention will put an end to the reign of Saddam Hussein, which was successful, but also that the people’s lives will be improved, which was not true by the end of the war. In addition to this example of false promises made in this declaration of war, there is also hints of underlying American interests in fighting the war, such as when Bush cites the burning of oil wells and cautions the Iraqi people from performing such an action. This implies that one of the motives behind the war was economic gain, which is not an ethical reason for beginning a conflict that would lead to the loss of hundreds of thousands of lives.
Documents Set 2: Military Reports on IED Blasts [1] [2] [3]
- These reports from the United States military show one of the ever-present threats to both U.S. military forces fighting in Iraq and Iraqi civilians as a result of the war. These IED explosives were responsible for the injuries and deaths of U.S. soldiers and civilians in Iraq, and are indicative of the danger that was constantly present while fighting in Iraq.
- These bombs were an example of the horrors brought upon Iraq as a result of U.S. intervention in the country. Had the U.S. not involved itself, a large number of such IED bombs would not have existed, leading to less civilian lives lost. In one of these reports, an IED was recorded as killing 4 civilians and injuring 36, showing that civilians were always at a significant risk due to these explosives. These are another example of a consequence of American intervention, and also demonstrate one of the constant fears of U.S. military forces serving in Iraq.
Document 3: UN Report on Weapons in Iraq
- This report by the UN indicates that Iraq had refused to abide by any of the restrictions or sanctions placed by UNMOVIC, the commission created to monitor the weapons in Iraq. Iraq was also uncooperative in allowing the inspections from the UN to be performed. The commission was able to find some evidence of biological and chemical weapons, as well as missiles, and was led to believe that there were more of such weapons that Iraq was not presenting to UNMOVIC. This report on weaponry would have alarmed the U.S. and likely prompted quick action out of fear of attack by one of these weapons of mass destruction, leading to the start of the Iraq War.
- However, despite the frightening nature of the report as a whole, the contents of this document should not have been the grounds of the United States’ justification for the war in Iraq. As seen in George W. Bush’s declaration of war, the U.S. cites these weapons as the primary reason for invading Iraq, yet, as indicated by this document, Iraq may have been more willing to cooperate with UNMOVIC in the future due to their increasing leniency, which would have led to the removal of such weapons from Iraq.
The Iraq War: A Closer Look
For an in-depth analysis of the main points of the Iraq War, listen to our podcast, The Iraq War: A Closer Look, featuring the stories of a veteran from the conflict: Mr. John Rees.
The War as a Whole
The final question in analyzing the Iraq War, or Operation Iraqi Freedom, is that of its true success. It can be seen that the United States failed on many fronts, from its original mission to bring peace and stability to the Iraqi population, to shaky moral foundations for continuing operations in the country following its military victory in 2003. On the other hand, the regime of Saddam Hussein was removed from power, and some, albeit few, rights were returned to the Iraqi people.
As a whole, the war holds a muddied legacy in history, pockmarked by injustice for the Iraqi people, the worsening of stability in the Middle East, and the horrors of war faced by both U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians. Not only was the war initiated on improper and ethically unjust grounds, but the effects of such a poor decision will only be propagated into the future as Iraq struggles with insurgencies and a lack of infrastructure that came as the result of unnecessary U.S. intervention.
As a whole, the war holds a muddied legacy in history, pockmarked by injustice for the Iraqi people, the worsening of stability in the Middle East, and the horrors of war faced by both U.S. soldiers and Iraqi civilians. Not only was the war initiated on improper and ethically unjust grounds, but the effects of such a poor decision will only be propagated into the future as Iraq struggles with insurgencies and a lack of infrastructure that came as the result of unnecessary U.S. intervention.
Unless otherwise noted, photos courtesy of Mr. John Rees.