Preemptive War Prevention

A famous Prevention example is the 2003 invasion of Iraq, though claimed to be a preemptive war by former President George W Bush it is hard to determine which to classify the attack under. The United States of America “could not prove beyond a reasonable doubt that Iraq posed an imminent threat, or that its motives in deposing Saddam Hussein were just”(Andrew 2011). This means that the United States attacked the Iraqi’s without authorization from the United Nations. However this does not include the threat of terrorism. Whether or not this attack is classified as a Prevention or Preemption attack is still being debated. In conclusion Prevention is “the desire to fight sooner rather that later” (Mueller, 2006). Although Prevention war is illegal it has still been used as a War Doctrine in famous attacks such as the 2003 invasion of Iraq. Under international law Prevention is illegal because the attack by one actor is made before imminent threat from another actor arises It is uncertain if Prevention of war will continue to be used, although it has been successful in gaining advantage it is a punishable

This type of War Doctrine attempts to prevent a future attack by attacking ones opponent first. Pre-emption is commonly viewed as equivalent to self-defense. Pre-emption must be permitted by the United Nations; otherwise it goes against international law, it is considered legitimate because it can be classified under self-defense. The intention when using a Pre-emptive strike is to gain and advantage over the opposing actor. Pre-emption has been used, and has both a success and fail rate. The most famous example of Pre-emption is short war in Pearl Harbor in 1941. Japan believed that war between themselves and the United States was inevitable. The rapidly degrading Japanese military “capability led the Japanese leadership to believe it was better to have the war as soon as possible”(Barnes,2007). The Japanese was partially motivated to debilitate the United Sates Naval power in the pacific. This example is considered Pre-emption because the United States had been strengthening their naval militant forces in the Pacific that posed a long-term threat to the Empire of Japan. Another Example is the six-day war between Israel and Egypt after Israel’s attack against Egypt in 1967. The Egyptian president at the time Gamal Abdel Nasser closed shipping to Israel through the Gulf of Aqaba in order to