Early 2000s diplomatic crisis
The
Iraq disarmament crisis
was claimed as one of primary issues that led to the
multinational
invasion
of
Iraq
on 20 March 2003.
Since the 1980s, Iraq was widely assumed to have been producing and extensively running the programs of
biological
,
chemical
and
nuclear weapons
. Iraq made extensive use of chemical weapons during the
Iran?Iraq War
in the 1980s, including
against its own Kurdish population
. France and the Soviet Union assisted Iraq in the development of its nuclear program, but its primary facility was destroyed by
Israel
in 1981 in a
surprise air strike
.
After the
Gulf War
in 1990, the
United Nations Special Commission
located and destroyed large quantities of Iraqi chemical weapons and related equipment and materials with varying degrees of Iraqi cooperation and obstruction, but the Iraqi cooperation later diminished in 1998.
[1]
The disarmament issue remained tense throughout the
1990s
with U.S. at the UN, repeatedly demanding Iraq to allow inspections teams to its facilities. These crises reached their climax in 2002-2003, when
U.S. President
George W. Bush
demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production of
weapons of mass destruction
, and reasoned with
Iraqi President
Saddam Hussein
to comply with
UN Resolutions
requiring
UN weapons inspectors
unfettered access to areas those inspectors thought might have weapons production facilities.
Since the
Gulf War
in 1991,
Iraq had been restricted
by the
United Nations
(UN) from developing or possessing such weapons. It was also required to permit inspections to confirm Iraqi compliance. Bush repeatedly backed demands for unfettered inspection and disarmament with threats of invasion. On 20 March 2003, a
multinational alliance
containing the armed forces of the
United States
and
United Kingdom
launched an
invasion of Iraq
. After the
withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq
in 2011, a number of
failed Iraqi peace initiatives
were revealed.
Background
[
edit
]
In the decade following the 1991 Gulf War, the United Nations passed 16
Security Council resolutions
calling for the complete elimination of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction.
Member states
communicated their frustration over the years that Iraq was impeding the work of the UN Special Commission and failing to take seriously its disarmament obligations. Iraqi security forces had on several occasions physically prevented weapons inspectors from doing their job and in at least one case, took documents from them.
On 29 September 1998, the
United States Congress
passed the
Iraq Liberation Act
supporting the efforts of
Iraqi opposition groups
to remove Saddam Hussein from office. The Act was signed by President Clinton on 31 October 1998. On the same day, Iraq announced it would no longer cooperate with United Nations weapons inspectors.
The UN, under
Kofi Annan
, brokered a deal wherein Iraq would allow weapons inspectors back into the country. Iraq ceased cooperating with inspectors only days later. The inspectors left the country in December. Inspectors returned the following year as part of The
United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission
(UNMOVIC).
Paul Wolfowitz
, the military analyst for the
United States Department of Defense
under
Ronald Reagan
, had formulated a new
foreign policy
with regard to Iraq and other "potential aggressor states", dismissing "containment" in favor of "
preemption
", with the goal of striking first to eliminate threats.
This policy was short-lived, however, and Clinton, along with
George H. W. Bush
,
Colin Powell
, and other former Bush administration officials, dismissed calls for preemption in favor of continued containment. This was the policy of George W. Bush as well for his first several months in office. The
September 11, 2001 attacks
brought to life Wolfowitz's and other "hawks'" advocacy for
preemptive action
; Iraq was widely agreed to be a likely subject of this new policy. Powell continued to support the philosophy behind containment.
Following the Gulf War, the
Iraqi Army
was reduced to 23 divisions with a total of about 375,000 troops. The
Iraqi Air Force
was reduced to less than 300 aircraft. The
Iraqi Navy
was almost completely destroyed, and its few remaining operational vessels were in a poor state of repair, the crews were estimated to be in a poor state of readiness, and its capabilities were reduced to that of limited mining and raiding missions.
[2]
Any rebuilding that was done went into the
Republican Guard
, and the formation of the
Special Republican Guard
.
2002?2003
[
edit
]
During late 2002 and into 2003, the
United States government
continued to call for "
regime change
" in
Iraq
and threatened to use military force to overthrow the Iraqi government unless Iraq rid itself of all
weapons of mass destruction
(WMD) it supposedly possessed and convinced the UN that it had done so.
US diplomatic pressure to bring Iraq to compliance quickly created a diplomatic crisis in the UN, where some members were in agreement with the U.S. position, while others dissented, notably the permanent Security Council members
France
,
Russia
and the
People's Republic of China
, and fellow
NATO
members
Germany
and
Belgium
.
The
Bush administration
began a military buildup in the region, and after pushing hard gained passage of
UN Security Council Resolution 1441
. Led by
Hans Blix
, Head of the
United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission
(UNMOVIC) and
Mohamed ElBaradei
Director General
of the
International Atomic Energy Agency
(IAEA), the Resolution brought weapons inspectors back to Iraq in November 2002.
Inspectors began visiting sites where WMD production was suspected, but found no evidence of such activities, except for 18 undeclared empty 122 mm chemical rockets that were destroyed under UNMOVIC supervision.
P. 30
Inspectors also found that the Al-Samoud-2 and Al-fatah missiles violated the UN range restrictions, the former also being partially destroyed under UNMOVIC supervision.
On March 7, 2003 Hans Blix reported accelerated cooperation throughout the month of February but it was still not "immediate" and "unconditional" as called for by UN Security Council Resolution 1441.
[3]
He informed the UN security council that "it will not take years, nor weeks, but months" to verify whether Iraq had complied with its disarmament obligations.
[4]
[5]
U.S. President
George W. Bush
and
British Prime Minister
Tony Blair
met in the
Azores
islands for an "emergency summit" over the weekend of March 15?16, 2003, after which Bush declared that, despite Blix's report, "diplomacy had failed" to compel Iraq to comply with UN Resolution inspection requirements, and stated his intention to use military force to attack Iraq in what was, according to the Bush administration, compliance with the threat of "serious consequences" in UN 1441.
UNSC disagreement
[
edit
]
Several close allies of the U.S. (e.g.
Germany
,
Belgium
and
France
) opposed a
military intervention
because they asserted it would increase rather than decrease the risk of
terrorist
attacks. Although the
British government
and some governments of other members of the
EU
and
NATO
supported the US position, opinion polls show that in general their populations were against an attack, especially an attack without clear UN Security Council support.
[6]
Millions of people in the major cities of
Europe
, and hundreds of thousands in major cities of
North America
, participated in
peace marches
on 15 February 2003.
[7]
Statements by President Bush
[
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]
On 7 October 2002 President Bush stated:
Eleven years ago, as a condition for ending the Persian Gulf War, the Iraqi regime was required to destroy its weapons of mass destruction, to cease all development of such weapons, and to stop all support for terrorist groups. The Iraqi regime has violated all of those obligations. It possesses and produces chemical and biological weapons. It is seeking nuclear weapons. It has given shelter and support to terrorism, and practices terror against its own people. The entire world has witnessed Iraq's eleven-year history of defiance, deception and bad faith.
[8]
On 17 March 2003 Bush stated in an address to the nation:
Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal some of the most lethal weapons ever devised. This regime has already used weapons of mass destruction against Iraq's neighbors and against Iraq's people.
[9]
Two days later on March 19, 2003, as the invasion of Iraq began, Bush stated in an address to the nation:
"My fellow citizens, at this hour, American and coalition forces are in the early stages of military operations to disarm Iraq, to free its people and to defend the world from grave danger.
[10]
Statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin
[
edit
]
On October 11, 2002,
Russian President
Vladimir Putin
met with then British Prime Minister
Tony Blair
. At a news conference, he said:
- Russia
does not have in its possession any trustworthy data that supports the existence of nuclear weapons or any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq and we have not received any such information from our partners as yet.
[11]
Statements by French President Jacques Chirac
[
edit
]
In a February 2003 joint declaration by Russia, Germany and France,
Jacques Chirac
remarked:
- As far as France is concerned, we are ready to envisage everything that can be done under UNSCR 1441. ... But I repeat that every possibility offered by the present resolution must be explored, that there are a lot of them and they still leave us with a lot of leeway when it comes to ways of achieving the objective of eliminating any weapons of mass destruction which may exist in Iraq. I'd like nevertheless to note that, as things stand at the moment, I have, to my knowledge, no indisputable proof in this sphere.
[12]
Legality
[
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]
Authority under International Law
[
edit
]
The position of whether the invasion was legal under
international law
is unclear. Article 2 of the
United Nations Charter
forbids UN members from employing "the threat or use of force" against other states in a manner inconsistent with the purposes of the United Nations. Two exceptions exist to the rule: self-defense (Article 51) or an authorization by the Security Council to protect international peace and security (Chapter VII).
The government of the United States said publicly, and the British pledged privately, that they were willing to invade Iraq with or without Security Council authorization.
[13]
There have been two military actions carried out with the approval of the Security Council. These two instances were the
Korean War
and the
1991 Gulf War
.
The United States does not recognize the jurisdiction of any international court over its citizens or military, holding that the
United States Supreme Court
is its final authority. One example of this policy is that the United States did not ratify the
International Criminal Court
(ICC) treaty, and on 6 May 2002 it informed the UN that it has no intention to do so.
As of 24 February 2005 neither Iraq nor the United States have ratified the ICC treaty, and therefore neither the US attack on Iraq nor subsequent actions in Iraq fall under the jurisdiction of the ICC. The actions of signatories such as the United Kingdom and
Spain
could however fall under the ICC jurisdiction.
On March 17, 2003,
Peter Goldsmith
,
Attorney General for England and Wales
, set out his government's legal justification for an invasion of Iraq. He said that the 1990
Security Council Resolution 678
authorised force against Iraq, which was suspended but not terminated by the 1991
Resolution 687
, which imposed continuing obligations on Iraq to eliminate its weapons of mass destruction. A material breach of resolution 687 would revive the authority to use force under resolution 678. In Resolution 1441 the Security Council determined that Iraq was in material breach of resolution 687 because it had not fully carried out its obligations to disarm, and in early 2003 sent teams of weapons inspectors to verify the
facts on the ground
.
Most member governments of the United Nations Security Council made clear that in their view, after resolution 1441 there was still no authorization for the use of force and that the invasion was illegal under international law.
[14]
However, the US and its allies argued that no resolution authorizing the invasion would be necessary as they acted in self-defense under Article 51 of the UN Charter and by
customary international law
. The exercise of that right could not be banned by ceasefire. Since Iraq was not actively disarming themselves of its alleged WMDs and hid them from UN inspectors, the US and its allies claimed they had the right to assume that Iraq was holding WMDs. If the UN failed to force compliance, the US and the UK - as parties of the 1991 conflict - would invade Iraq without the UN, as they had already done in their intervention in the
Kosovo War
.
Yoram Dinstein
equates this to
police officers
cornering a convicted violent felon and saying "put your hands on your head", but instead he pulls something small and black (whether a gun or not) out of his pocket. Officers would have been justified in shooting him because he could have possessed something that is dangerous.
[15]
Authority under US Constitution
[
edit
]
The
Constitution
grants the power to declare war exclusively to the
United States Congress
, but declares the President to be
Commander-in-Chief
of the
US military
. Because of this division of power, there has long been controversy regarding the authority of the President outside of a declared war. Nonetheless, of the many instances the United States has exercised force outside its borders, only five have been as part of a
declared war
.
In 1973, amid increasing domestic controversy about the
Vietnam War
, Congress passed the
War Powers Resolution
to limit the ability of the president to undertake prolonged military action without Congressional authority. No president since has recognized the constitutionality of this act, and most legal scholars believe it would not survive a challenge in court.
To avoid initiating a crisis under the War Powers Resolution, the Bush administration sought explicit approval from the Congress to exercise force in Iraq. On October 9, 2002, the Congress passed the
Iraq Resolution
which explicitly authorized the President to use the Armed Forces of the United States as he determines to be necessary and appropriate. This raises the issue of whether or not Congress has the authority to delegate legislative power to the executive branch. However, in a recent
United States Supreme Court
case,
Hamdan v. Rumsfeld
,
the Supreme Court ruled that the
military commissions
that the President had established, (and defended by arguing that he was given the power to create military courts by this resolution), were unconstitutional because they were unauthorized by Congress.
The Constitution also provides that international treaties ratified by the United States are among the highest law of the land (
US Constitution
, Article VI). The UN Charter is a treaty ratified by the US, which forbids member states, including the US, from attacking fellow member states, including Iraq, except in two carefully circumscribed situations (see
UN Charter
).
Aftermath
[
edit
]
After the invasion of Iraq, the
Iraq Survey Group
, headed by
David Kay
was formed to find the alleged weapons of mass destruction. Apart from a small quantity of degraded pre-1991 shells, nothing was found.
[16]
See also
[
edit
]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
Cleminson, Ronald.
What Happened to Saddam's Weapons of Mass Destruction?
Archived
2011-08-12 at the
Wayback Machine
Arms Control Association. September 2003
- ^
John Pike.
"Iraqi Navy"
. Globalsecurity.org.
Archived
from the original on 2013-04-01
. Retrieved
2013-06-04
.
- ^
Blix welcomes accelerated cooperation by Iraq
Archived
2007-12-14 at the
Wayback Machine
Scoop
March 7, 2003
- ^
Blix: Inspectors 'need months'
Archived
2006-03-09 at the
Wayback Machine
BBC News
March 7, 2003
- ^
Transcript of Blix's U.N. presentation
Archived
2016-11-09 at the
Wayback Machine
CNN
March 7, 2003
- ^
"Polls find Europeans oppose Iraq war"
. 2003-02-11
. Retrieved
2020-06-09
.
- ^
"Millions join global anti-war protests"
. 2003-02-17
. Retrieved
2020-06-09
.
- ^
"President Bush Outlines Iraqi Threat"
. Georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov.
Archived
from the original on 2013-03-07
. Retrieved
2013-06-04
.
- ^
"President Says Saddam Hussein Must Leave Iraq Within 48 Hours"
. Georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov.
Archived
from the original on 2013-05-06
. Retrieved
2013-06-04
.
- ^
"President Bush Addresses the Nation"
. Georgewbush-whitehouse.archives.gov.
Archived
from the original on 2013-05-29
. Retrieved
2013-06-04
.
- ^
Russian rebuff for Blair over Iraq
The Guardian October 11, 2002
- ^
JOINT DECLARATION BY RUSSIA, GERMANY AND FRANCE ON IRAQ
Archived
2011-05-12 at the
Wayback Machine
France Diplomatie February 10, 2003
- ^
Blair-Bush deal before Iraq war revealed in secret memo
Archived
2007-11-27 at the
Wayback Machine
The Guardian
February 3, 2006
- ^
"International Law - War in Iraq - United Nations - Iraq"
. Worldpress.org.
Archived
from the original on 2013-07-30
. Retrieved
2013-06-04
.
- ^
Yoram Dinstein (December 12, 2011).
War, Aggression and Self-Defence
.
Cambridge University Press
. pp. 298?299.
- ^
Hanley, Charles J. (2005-09-06).
"Piecing together the story of the weapons that weren't"
.
USA Today
.
Archived
from the original on 2012-09-25
. Retrieved
2013-06-04
.
External links
[
edit
]
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Background
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Rationale
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Issues
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Dossiers
and memos
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Countries
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Insurgent
groups
| Sunni
groups
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Shia
groups
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Ba'ath
loyalists
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Operations
| 2003
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2004
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2005
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2006
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2007
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2008
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2009?2011
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Battles
| 2003
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2004
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2005
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2006
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2007
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2008
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2009?2011
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Related events
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War crimes
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Occupation forces
| Killings and
massacres
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Chemical
weapons
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Torture
and abuse
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§
Other killings
and bombings
| 2003
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2004
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2005
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2006
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2007
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2008
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2009
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2010
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2011
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Other war crimes
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Prosecution
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§
All attacks listed in this group were either committed by insurgents, or have unknown perpetrators
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Impact
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General
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Political
controversies
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Reactions
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Protests
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Aftermath in Iraq
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