Iraq War 2003 Essay

The U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003 was found to be the largest, longest and most costly in terms of the use of armed force by the U.S. since the Vietnam War that happened back in 1955 until 1975. The invasion began on the 20th March 2003 where the U.S. was joined by the United Kingdom and several coalition allies by launching bombing campaign toward Iraq. The war had started due to the armed conflict in Iraq in which prior to the war, Iraq was then claimed for alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). This had eventually posed a threat to the allies’ countries in terms of security and as U.S. decided on invading Iraq and deposed the Ba'athist government of Saddam Hussein. During the war, the Iraqi forces had been quickly overwhelmed

decision on invading Iraq. According to Lieberfeld (2005), the decision by government to go to war is the product of all states involuntary participation in eternal quest for power and security. Mersheimer (2001) in his study indicate that the structure as well as the anarchic nature of the international system had forced the state to behave in a manner to ensure its survival. On the other hand, Hinnebusch (2006) stated that the Iraq war might happened as a reflection of the very particular interest embedded in the coalition of certain oil interest on Iraq. A study conducted by Benjamin Barber (2003) define Iraq War as an anomaly which refers to a function of combination of administration with exceptional will to power and the opportunity to exploit U.S. fear of foreign threat after the 9/11 incident. Finally, a study done by Jervis (1978) found that defensive actions taken by any state can actually be perceived by others as an act of threatening its survival. Despite various views of the determinants of Iraq War from previous researches, the aim of this discussion paper will be looking on the root cause of war between Iraq and U.S. basically from the Realism