Reasons for an Iraq War

[spoon]

Reasons for an Iraq war:

There are four categories that will be satisfied by a war with Iraq, led by the United States. These are broad and include many diverse aspects within each, but for each there is a main factor. This is academic, not an attempt to take sides or point out problems. The categories are:


Global Politics
A war with Iraq will realize the heights of Realist thought. It will reaffirm America's global dominance and continued status as the sole super power. More specifically, it will send a message to rogue or neutral states and terrorist networks worldwide that America will deal with all problems as it sees fit. This will act as a deterring motivation and suppress opposition to America's goals.

Global Control
This is realized through Iraq's oil. An American presence in Iraq will make it certain that OPEC will not gain any ground in the region. With non-OPEC companies involved in such a large supply share it will promote greater competition; or could enable greater control via American dictates. As every industry in the world relies on oil, this will make effective America's grasp on the global economy's foundation.

Regional Control
In the Middle East water is a scarce resource. Iraq has the largest supply of water in the region. American supervision of its usage can lead to increased American involvement in regional policies. One of the major plans for post-Saddam Iraq is a major engineering project diverting Iraqi water to other parts of the region.

Domestic Politics
This is a constant for every war. War, when immediately successful, boosts a nation's morale and usually gives support for the incumbent party. This leads to greater domestic productivity and therefore greater support for those that provided it (the politicians in office).


Comments?

[Ana]

>>This leads to greater domestic productivity

How do you say it will lead to greater domestic productivity, given scarce resources and surplus labor markets in an overburdened economy? Pls. explain how localized war euphoria contributes to increase in GDP.

The rest I agree with pretty much.. but Realist thought? U mean Romantic Partilcularist.

[PakistaniAbroad]

I think it is just to serve as a warning to OPEC members not to have any fancy ideas like Saddam.

Saddam's real crime?? switching over to the Euro standard for his oil transactions back in 2000.

[Braveheart]

Originally posted by PakistaniAbroad:
I think it is just to serve as a warning to OPEC members not to have any fancy ideas like Saddam.

Saddam's real crime?? switching over to the Euro standard for his oil transactions back in 2000.

Are you sure thats Saddams only crime? in fact it isn`t even a crime but torture,gassing civilians,terrorising his own people,thats a different matter.

[PakistaniAbroad]

Originally posted by Braveheart:
Are you sure thats Saddams only crime? in fact it isn`t even a crime but torture,gassing civilians,terrorising his own people,thats a different matter.

Braveheart, Saddam is not alone in committing those 'other' crimes. however threatening the almighty dollar is the worst imaginable crime. He'll pay dearly for that.

[spoon]

Ana:
True, that is one of the weaker points. It could though, supposing that the political results lead to more bills conducive to trade being passed. And maybe in a few more indirect ways. But you are right. Given the current circumstances it most likely won't have a significant effect in that area.

PA:
For one thing, his switch didn't truly affect the currency rates in any obvious way. Secondly, the strong euro is currently hurting Germany and France more than any others. (Though I believe that currency fluctuations are a convenient excuse for poor performance, it is having an effect.) The US is in some ways benefitting from it. So, I don't believe that is such a strong factor for war either. It can annoy some in the business, but not that much.

[Ohioguy]

Please name for me one other dictator currently in power who has committed genocide of more than 100,000 of his own people. Those were Muslim people I believe.

[PakistaniAbroad]

Originally posted by Ohioguy:
Please name for me one other dictator currently in power who has committed genocide of more than 100,000 of his own people. Those were Muslim people I believe.

where did u get that figure Ohioguy??

[Ohioguy]

PA,



Indict Saddam

By Kenneth Roth

The Bush administration's frustration with a decade of increasingly porous sanctions against Iraq has led to active consideration of military action. Yet one alternative has yet to be seriously tried -- indicting Saddam Hussein for his many atrocities, particularly the 1988 genocide against Iraqi Kurds.


As deposed Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic discovered, indictment for grave abuses can delegitimize a dictator and undermine his grasp on power. Even if Saddam escapes arrest, his indictment for heinous crimes would demonstrate that Iraq's desire for normal international relations is a pipe dream so long as Saddam is at the helm. That would weaken Saddam's support among the many governments that have been lining up for years to do commercial deals with him in anticipation of an end to sanctions. It would also encourage Iraqi officials to overthrow him.

Cowardice

Unfortunately, governmental cowardice and opportunism have stymied past attempts to indict Saddam, as Human Rights Watch learned during its intensive efforts to bring him to justice in the 1990s. At the top of any indictment should be Saddam's 1988 genocidal Anfal campaign against Iraqi Kurds, described by Jeffrey Goldberg in this week's New Yorker. Named after a Koranic verse justifying pillage of the property of infidels, the Anfal campaign unfolded as the 1980-88 Iran-Iraq war was winding down. Iraqi Kurds had taken advantage of Saddam's preoccupation with Iran to seize control of parts of mountainous northern Iraq. But as soon as Iraqi troops could be withdrawn from the Iranian front, Saddam shifted them to the north.

Several thousand Kurdish villages were destroyed, forcing residents to live in appalling camps. In at least 40 cases, Iraqi forces under Saddam's cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, used chemical weapons to kill and chase Kurds from their villages. Then, during the Anfal campaign from February to September 1988, Iraqi troops swept through the highlands of Iraqi Kurdistan rounding up everyone who remained in government-declared "prohibited zones." Some 100,000 Kurds, mostly men and boys, were trucked to remote sites and executed. Only seven are known to have escaped.

The full scope of the Anfal horror became known only after Saddam's defeat in the Gulf War. The Iraqi military's withdrawal from the region in October 1991 after the imposition of a no-fly zone made it feasible for the first time in years for outsiders to reach the area.

Human Rights Watch investigators took advantage of this opening to enter northern Iraq and document Saddam's crimes. Some 350 witnesses and survivors were interviewed. Mass graves were exhumed. And Kurdish rebels were convinced to hand over some 18 tons of documents that they had seized during the brief post-war uprising from Iraqi police stations. These documents were airlifted to Washington, where Human Rights Watch researchers poured through this treasure trove of information about the inner workings of a ruthless regime.

With this extraordinarily detailed evidence of genocide, Human Rights Watch launched a campaign to bring Saddam to justice. At the time the U.N. Security Council was creating special tribunals for Rwanda and the former Yugoslavia, but there was no consensus for similar action on Iraq. France and Russia, each with extensive business interests in Iraq, threatened to wield their veto. China, worried about analogies to its treatment of Tibetans, was disinclined to support an International Criminal Tribunal for Iraq. With no International Criminal Court then in the works, and the Pinochet option of exercising universal jurisdiction in national courts not yet widely recognized, the prospect of criminal prosecution was remote.

http://www.hrw.org/editorials/2002/iraq_032202.htm

[Nadia_H]

The best time to have indicted Saddam would have been immediately subsequent to Halabja.

[Ohioguy]

Nadia,

Please see the link started by PA on this issue. Very revealing.