Was Iraq War Handled Effectively - Essay Example

Was Iraq War Handled Effectively? Introduction According to Dobbins, Iraq War, popularly also known as the Second Persian Gulf War (2003-2011), was a conflict in Iraq, which consisted of two phases (Dobbins 78). The first phase was between March and April of 2003. The first phase began in March 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by United States and Great Britain’s troops and ended with rapid defeat of Iraqi paramilitary and military forces. The second phase with the opposition of U.S. led occupation of Iraq by the insurgency (Dobbins 79). Due to the decline of violence in 2007, U.S government started to withdraw its troops gradually. It completed the withdrawal in December 2011. Even though, the U.S, United Kingdom, and a number of coalition allies were able to defeat the Iraqi government within a very short time; their efforts fell to achieve the goal that was intended. The failure was brought about by the mismanagement the occupation. Prelude to War In 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. The invasion ended with the defeat of Iraq by U.S led coalition in the Persian Gulf War (1990-1991) (Ahmed and Michael 36). Nonetheless, Iraqi branch of Baath Party led by Saddam Hussein managed to maintain power by suppressing harshly an uprising of Shiite Arabs and Kurds. The allies stem out Kurds’ mass departure by developing safe haven in northern Iraq (Ahmed and Michael 36). In addition, United Nations (UN) imposed economic sanctions against Iraq in order to restrain possible future Iraqi hostility. The penalty was meant to reduce Iraq’s creation of biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. UN uncovered several prohibited technology and weapons in its inspection of Iraq in mid-1990s. The government interfered with later UN’s investigations (Ahmed and Michael 36). Following the interferences, the U.S President, Bill Clinton, ordered bombing of several Iraqi military installations in 1998. Following the bombing, Iraq refused entry of inspectors to the country. In the following years, economic sanctions were eased as neighboring countries began to reopen trade with Iraq. In 2002, U.S new President George W. Bush argued that the U.S was vulnerable because of the September 11 attacks of 2001 and the Iraq’s supposedly continued to manufacture and possess weapons and technology of mass destruction (Venezia 4). According Venezia Bush thought that Iraq supported terror groups including al-Qaeda, which instigated the September 11 attacks (Venezia 5). Venter supports Venezia’s idea by pointing out that Bush’s fundamental plan was thus to disarm Iraq (Venezia 29). On November 8, 2002, UN passed the UN Security Council Resolution 1441. The resolution demanded that the Iraqi government allow inspectors in the country. Iraq seemed to have complied with the demand (Collins 14). However, according to Collins, Prime Minister Tony Blair and President Bush claimed in early 2003 that Iraq was preventing UN inspections (Collins 15). Other world leaders like German Chancellor Gerhard Schroder and French President Jacques Chirac declared that Iraq was increasing cooperation. These two leaders sought to extend inspections in order to give Iraq more time to comply (Collins 16). However, On March 17, 2003 Bush declared an end to diplomacy. Mehrish pointed out that the President avoided seeking any further UN resolution and instead gave Saddam Hussein an ultimatum to leave Iraq within 48 hours (Mehrish 7). Russian, French, and Germany leaders objected to this buildup towards war, but President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair did not stop (Mehrish 7). Invasion An air attack on March 19, 2003 on the Presidential Palace preceded the invasion. On the next day, the coalition forces initiated an invasion into Basra Province. Special Forces launched an attack from the Persian Gulf to secure Basra and its nearby petroleum fields. For Andrew the main invasion done through the Southern part of Iraq on March 23 led to Battle Nasiriyah (Andrew16). Massive air attacks throughout the country disoriented the Iraqi forces thus preventing effective resistance. Ahmed and Gunter discussed about 173rd Airborne Brigade that was airdropped on March 26. According to them, the Brigade joined Kurdish rebels to fight Iraqi army and secure northern part of Iraq (Andrew 17). The invading forces occupied Baghdad on April 9. Small number of violence occurred against small groups of Iraqi military. On April 10, Kirkuk was captured and occupied while Tikrit, where Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi president, and his leadership went into hiding was attacked and occupied on April 10 (Venter 15). On May 1, an end of a critical combat operation was announced. The announcement ended the invasion period and marked the beginning military occupation period (Venter 15). Military Occupation Military occupation was created in April 2003. Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) ran the occupation. CPA was created as a transitional government. Popescu and Dallas said that UN Security Council Resolution 1483 gave CPA executive, judicial, and legislative authority over Iraq (Popescu and Dallas 38). Before the establishment of CPA, U.S government had created Office for Reconstruction and Humanitarian Assistance (ORHA) two months before an invasion. U.S Army Lieutenant General Jay Garner supported three deputies, and a British Major-General Tim Cross headed ORHA. The U.S government dismissed swiftly and replaced by L. Paul Bremer because of his refusal to de-Ba’athification of Iraqi society. CPA drastically changed Iraqi’s economic. For instance, it privatized and opened it up to foreign investors (Popescu and Dallas 38). Iraq Interim Government Council later replaced CPA. In June 2004, Iraq Interim Government, an established caretaker government, took over the leadership. After the parliamentary elections of January 2005, Iraqi Transitional Government took over an administration in May. Al-Maliki I government took over the administration one year later (Popescu and Dallas Owens 38). Iraqi Insurgency According to Chehab, insurgency in Iraq started after the invasion of 2003 and lasted throughout the Iraqi War (Chehab 9). The first phase of it began soon after the invasion before the novel Iraqi government was created. The insurgency targeted mainly the Coalition armies from 2004 to 2007. There was a full-scale eruption of civil war in February of 2006 (Chehab 9). Iraqi military forces and police of Iraqi government were targeted. Renewed insurgency swept Iraq after the withdrawal of U.S soldiers in December 2011 (Chehab 10). Violence increased in 2013 causing fears of another civil war. There are several militant groups in Iraq. Some of the main one are the Ba’athists group that supported former administration of Saddam Hussein, Iraqi nationalists that advocated Iraqi self-determination, and Iraqi Salafi Islamists, the remnants of Kurdish Ansar al-Islam. Others are the Shi’a militias, Jihadists, socialist revolutionaries, and some Non-violent resistance groups (Chehab 9). Conclusion Apart from the use of advantage weapons and equipments of war, the U.S troops, and its allies executed an efficiently planned and executed attack. The troops were placed at different places that were seen to make the Iraqi government and its forces vulnerable. The overhead strikes disorganized the Iraqi military and paramilitary making them less efficient in their defense and thus vulnerable to defeat. With great organization and execution of the war, the U.S. and its allies were able to defeat the Saddam Hussein’s government within a very short time. The first phase of the war, which led to the defeat of the Iraqi government, took only two months (Venter 23). However, despite the efficiency in the planning and execution of the attack, U.S and its allies mismanaged the war. First, the war was not necessary. Even though the Iraqi government was reluctant to allow the UN inspectors to an open inspection in the country, it had shown that it was ready to cooperate. However, because of the intention of President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair to oust Saddam Hussein from power, the two were quick to start without even getting the authorization from the United Nations (Collins 19). The hurried move later led to the failure of the war on the side of U.S and its allies. The U.S and the allies failed to consider certain factors about Iraq. They seem to have move in with the only aim of ousting Hussein, without taking into account the larger picture of the outcome. In the beginning, the U.S failed to recognize regional differences between the Iraqi people. It failed to consider the result of the war on the Shiites, Sunnis, and the Kurds. In one of its early measures, the U.S government created ORHA to administer Iraq after the Hussein’s administration had been driven out of power. The administration had no Iraqi representative. The U.S government thus failed to take into account the needs of the Iraqis. When it did, it created CPA, which even though was better than ORHA did not represent all the people of Iraq. The organization consisted of persons who had been exiled or mistreated by the Hussein’s government. They did not represent people from different parts of Iraq. Furthermore, CPA failed to create a positive image of itself in Iraq. Instead, it executed plans that were at the time not acceptable to most people of Iraq. The group should have thus waited until it was in full control of Iraq before executing plans that seemed foreign. Because of the mistakes, which U.S government made, people saw the governments that were created as foreign instruments. Many militant groups were thus set up to fight them as they were seen as American-led. In future, the U.S ought to consider every significant detail about a country and should try not to portray the intervention as an external invasion. Works Cited Andrew, Rod. The Battle of An-Nasiriyah. Washington, DC: History Division, U.S. Marine Corps, 2009. Print. Ahmed, Mohammed M. A, and Michael M. Gunter. The Kurdish Question and the 2003 Iraqi War. Costa Mesa, Calif: Mazda, 2005. Print. Chehab, Zaki. Inside the Resistance: The Iraqi Insurgency and the Future of the Middle East. New York: Nation Books, 2005. Print. Collins, Thomas M. Tony Blair. Minneapolis: Lerner Publications Co, 2005. Print. Dobbins, James. Occupying Iraq: A History of the Coalition Provisional Authority. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corp, 2009. Print. Mehrish, B N. The Iraq War and Legal Issues: The Trial of Saddam Hussein. Delhi: Academic Excellence, 2007. Print. Popescu, Ionut C, and Dallas Owens. American Grand Strategy After War. Carlisle, PA: Strategic Studies Institute, U.S. Army War College, 2009. Print. Venter, Al J. The Iraqi War Debrief: Why Saddam Hussein Was Toppled. South Africa: Earthbound Publications, 2004. Print. Venezia, Mike. George W. Bush: Forty-third President, 2001 Present. New York: Childrens Press/Scholastic, 2008. Print. . Read More