September 11

September 11, 2001 and Terrorism On September 11th, the world changed forever. In the aftermath, a defiant George W. Bush stated that no distinction between terrorists and those who harbour terrorists would be made. The success of the liberation of Afghanistan and the threat of more attacks on American soil has prompted the US to consider invading Iraq , in an effort to

oust terrorists and capture Saddam Hussein. As the though of such a war becomes more realistic and probable, I shall endeavour to prove that a war on Iraq is needed. During this essay, I plan to show why the USA should invade Iraq and how it should do this. Lastly, I shall

apply the Powell Doctrine to this scenario, to show that it does indeed fulfil the requirements of America ’s standard military policy.

The last time the USA openly led action on Iraq was during the Gulf War in response to Iraq ’s invasion of Kuwait . After the success of Operation Desert Storm, harsh sanctions were imposed on Iraq and UN weapons inspectors were sent to neutralise Iraq ’s large biological, chemical and nuclear threat. However, after several years of weapons inspections, Iraq threw out the UN teams and started to rearm itself with weapons of mass destruction (WMDs), despite Western pressure. But with the recent attacks on the USA , fears of Islamic dissident and extremist movements have increased. The likes of Osama bin Laden and the al’ Qaeda network, Hamas and Islamic Jihad have vowed to continue there action against the ‘infidels’ and should these groups get there hands on WMDs, then the results would be beyond comprehension. A well placed nuclear device would easily render the North Eastern coast of the US uninhabitable for up to two hundred years. Similarly, biological weapons such as Anthrax, Ebola and Smallpox are highly infectious and as New York and Washington , or indeed any other major American city, are huge transport centres, then these diseases would spread across the Northern Hemisphere extremely quickly. Just after Operation Desert Storm, UN weapons inspectors found over 200,000 litres of VX and Sarin, two deadly bio-chemical nerve agents. 200,000 litres is enough to extinguish all human life on Earth. A recent Pentagon Report stated that Iraq had: ‘five active and 7 damaged

nuclear facilities; 2 active and 3 damaged chemical facilities and 2 active and 2 damaged biological facilities.’

But what connection does Saddam Hussein have with global terrorism? The answer to this question lies with his hatred of America . This hatred stems from before the Gulf War when America openly funded the Israeli military. To the hard-line Islamic dictators like Hussein, the US ’s aid to Israel was emphasising America ’s Jewish links. The problems in the Middle East themselves origin in the friction between Jews and Muslims. So Iraq started to fund terrorist organisations along with Saudi Arabia , Iran and Libya . Then when Iraq invaded Kuwait , the US saw this as a chance to end the Iraqi threat to international security. But the Coalition failed to remove Saddam Hussein from power due to the fact that the alternatives were not much

better than Saddam. This resulted in tensions between the two countries increase to the point where, on September 11th, Iraq made no gesture of regret at the actions of that day.

So Iraq ’s WMDs could easily end up in the hands of terrorists bent on attacking the West or Iraq could even use them during a Middle Eastern War. Smuggled in by ship, or injected into volunteers willing to die for Allah are just two