Does anyone know why the US first entered Iraq?

Question

I remember they said that there was suspicion of nuclear weapons, but that was not true. I know that there was a dictator to over throw, but isnt that true for so many other countries as well? What was so special about Iraq that the US went there? does it have something to do with Bush senior? Im asking cuz I dont know. Im not trying to stir up trouble. Thanks!

Silent Death: I'll take that as -You dont know.

Geek49203: THankyou for your answer!

cg23sailor: That is a point that I did not know! The media is very decieving. Thankyou so much.

Answer 1

The US first entered Iraq to help Saddam when he was a puppet for America. Remember those lovey-dovey pictures of Saddam and Rumsfeld from the 1980s, when the US was providing him with weapons of mass destruction?

******************************************

geek49203 –

The Iran-Iraq war ended in 1988. A war during which America provide weapons to the Iraqis and intelligence information to the Iranians.

Saddam was not defeated in Saudi Arabia. He never entered Saudi Arabia, although he did lob some Scuds at military basses there. He never intended to enter Saudi Arabia. The Saudis would have squashed him like a bug.

Clinton did think that Saddam had WMDs, up to the time that he ordered the bombing and destruction of all Saddam’s possible manufacturing facilities.

At the time Bush invaded, neither Saudi Arabia nor Kuwait maintained a military presence on their borders with Iraq. When a NBC reporter asked Saudi Prince Bandar, just two weeks prior to the invasion, why he did not regularly patrol the border his nation shares with Iraq, Bandar literally laughed as he answered. “Why would we do that, he [Hussein] cannot do anything to anybody”.

Now, however, the Saudis are building a 5 billion dollar, state of the art, virtual fence along the shared bordered – a good indication of how those in the region judge the results of invading Iraq.

The consensus among Middle East experts was that removing Hussein would result in a civil war and further destabilize the already volatile region. Bush’s own father (GHW Bush) made the same argument in his 1998 book, ‘A World Transformed’. Colin Powell told Dubya (regarding a possible invasion of Iraq), “if you break it, you own it”.

According to the republican Congress’ recent report on prewar intelligence:

there were NO terrorists in Iraq before Bush invaded,
there was no connection between Iraq and OBL, AQ, or any terrorist organization,
Hussein did not provide training camps to terrorists,
Hussein hated AQ before we did,
Hussein did not hide al-Zargawi - he tried to have him arrested.


Invading Iraq was a stupid idea doomed to failure; an assessment that even core neocons like Perle are starting to acknowledge. The situation is such a total failure and complete disaster, that Bush’s father has had to intervene. James Baker was sent to clean up Junior’s mess. It is only a shame that he did not act sooner and possibly saved the lives of hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives.

This fiasco will also cost future American lives. The only way so intercept terror attacks is through timely accurate intelligence. Just after 9/11, both Syria and Iran provided valuable intelligence data pinning the attacks on Bin-Laden and tracking him to Afghanistan. I doubt we can anticipate comparable cooperation anytime soon. And, it does not take some other country doing anything against us. All it takes is for other countries to be lazy in informing us of events and we are screwed. We may be still be the most powerful military force on earth, but we cannot stand against everyone, and with no friends there will be no one to stand with us.

Moreover, it is police tactics and methods, not military, that are successful against terrorism. When was the last time you heard about the Red Brigade or IRA? You don’t hear about them because they were dealt with using police methods. That is how England stopped the last multiple hijacking plan (it had absolutely nothing to do with new surveillance methods or other BS as the administration and it backers claim). Israel has acknowledged that they recently made a mistake in Lebanon – a mistake they swear to never make again, as they plan on returning to the police methods that have historically been so successful for them.

****************************
cg23sailo... -

By that logic, we should have invaded Israel long ago. No one cares about UN sanctions, as most countries are in violation of something.

*******************************
jamesre51 -

The terrorists were not in Iraq until Bush invaded. And, they are not hiding. And, foreign terrosits represent only a few percent of the opposition forces (according to our own military there - that Bush contradicted while in Jordan).

Answer 2

Oil, plain and simple. They KNEW Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and they wouild never be able to convince the American people as such. So with some 'intel' of WMD's they used that as the reason to invade Iraq. But lo and behold none were found yet the US stayed there for a very, very long time, with over 100,000 civilian deaths since the US invasion.

Also I believe Sudam Hussain wasn't playing ball with the western world, mainly the US, so they decided to take him out just like they did Gudaffi.

Answer 3

WE got into Iraq in 1991 as part of a wider war was started by Saddam.

Iraq had previously invaded Iran, and that war ground to a halt. As part of that war, Saddam used WMD's (gas) to avoid defeat by the Iranians.

While still at war with Iran (although at a lull in the action), Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990 in order to pay for the Iranian war. Saddam then made it clear that he wanted to capture the oil fields in southern Saudi Arabia for the same reasons. Saddam was expelled from Kuwait, and defeated in Saudi Arabia, with a cease-fire in 1991.

Like Korea, the cease fire didn't end the war. In fact, there was shooting every day. The USA never "left" the Iraqi theater after 1991. The Clinton administration asserted that Saddam had WMDs as well as ambitions to invade other oil-rich countries the entire 8 years that it was in power, and Senators such as JFKerry and Carl Levin were firm backers of a military solution.

After 9-11, it became clear that Saddam was emboldened by the terrorists. Saddam openly supported Abu Nidal, the PLO, Hamas, Hezbollah, and to a small extent, Al Quaida. Saddam was foiled in a plot to assassinate Bush '41. Saddam made frequent threats to use WMDs, including nukes, germs and chemicals. Every country in the world thought that Saddam had at least some chemical stockpiles, as well as a nuke and germ program.

Saddam could've stopped all this madness by agreeing to WMD inspections, and by complying with the terms of the 1992 Cease Fire. Instead, Saddam threw out inspectors, built up his weapson supply, and killed at least 100,000 of his own people, some by WMD (gas) Worse still, he bribed UN officials so that the sanctions placed against Iran not only were ineffective, but actually let Saddam control every business deal in the country.

It's not like Dubya came to office, and decided to invade some innocent little country. He went with the best evidence he had at the time, some of which is now thought to be wrong. The alternative would be to keep up the blockade (and watch a Darfur-style human tragedy under Saddam), or leave Saddam free to invade other countries again.

Sadly, Dubya's people blew the occupation part of the operation, appearing to have no clue what to do once Saddam was gone.

Answer 4

After the first Gulf War (AKA Desert Storm) there were sanctions put in place by the UNITED NATIONS (not just the USA) agaisnt Saddam Hussein's Iraq.

During the intervening decade Saddam has repeatedly violated those sanctions and have even fired on and attacked US planes and other UN and NATO planes that were inforcing those sanctions and the NO-Fly zone put in place to help keep Saddam from murdering his own people (Iraqi Kurds).
Iraq (Saddam) refused to coo-operate with the UN Weapons inspectors and other sanctions. he repeatedly violated the sanctions time and time again.
All the UN would do about these violations is to keep repeating to Saddam that he must comply or else. Saddam ignored them and kept violating. the UN kept repeating that tired mantra of "Or else" but would never get off their pacifistic arses and DO the "or else"

The UN had become a joke. a laughing stock of diplomacy. a toothless tiger. Saddam knew it. so did every other dictator around the world. So did Osama and Al-Qaida. They were counting on the US not able to do anything without UN approval and they knew the UN would never give that approval.

In short. the US invasion of Iraq had nothing to do with 9/11 and the war on terror. That was Afghanistan.

The Iraq war is the result of the US inforcing UN resolutions that the UN would not inforce themselves.

It has nothing to do with OIL. the US military burns more oil being in the Persian gulf than we get from the persian gulf.

It has nothing to do with Jr. taking up where Sr. left off.

It has nothing to do with 9/11

It has to do with Saddam's repeated Violations of UN sanctions.
period

Answer 5

Here's the President's speech after Congress gave approval to use force. This is the "why" of the matter, despite all the delusional cries of "oil", etc.
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/10/20021007-8.html

Answer 6

We went to look for WMDs. I guess most people forgot that. I suppose it could have to do with Bush Sr. Iraq has a lot of oil.

Answer 7

Oil

Answer 8

Here it is: Iraq had over 17 Billion dollars in American money that we gave them. Just a month before we invaded because of "WMDs and Terrorists" Saddam announced that he was going to convert all of his dollars to Eurodollars. In essence, by the time he was done, our dollar would be valued at 40% less than what it is today.

Answer 9

terrorism, iraq is the hiding place of most terrorists

Answer 10

We went because we could and not other country on earth or group of countries had the stones to tell us to back up and go home. Russia, wussified, China, Do never test or wal mart will cancel their orders for December. the rest of the world are already used as our party girls.