Jadyn Gorsuch HIS1220: U.S. History from Civil War to Present Michael J. Nielson Sr. May 16, 2024 Pueblo Community College/ Dolores High School Final Project Argumentative Essay The Iraq War: Failure or Success? Abstract Although the Iraq War severely undermined American trust and economy, in the end, it was a quiet triumph as a democratic government was established in Iraq. Furthermore, Saddam Hussein's repressive regime was overthrown among a multitude of other occurrences of immense value. Thesis While the Iraq War greatly damaged the credibility and economy of the United States, it was, overall, a quiet success, due to the establishment of a democratic government and the elimination of Saddam Hussein's …show more content…
Background Information of the Iraq War The Iraq war was an American-led coalition force that was engaged in combat with Saddam Hussein's regime, which was part of a broader initiative to combat terrorism, known as the Global War on Terror. Tensions began to arise in 2002, when Iraq was found to be in breach of the terms of the Gulf War Settlement, which required compliance with the United Nations’ weapon inspections and no-fly zones. Consequently, Saddam Hussein's regime prevented weapons inspectors from accessing numerous military bases and repeatedly violated the no-fly zones that had been established to monitor and enforce compliance. Furthermore, the Central Intelligence Agency ( the CIA) informed the United States government that Iraq was actively pursuing the development and acquisition of weapons of mass destruction (WMD), including nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons. However, it later emerged that this report contained an error and that the evidence of weapons of mass destruction was almost entirely false. Despite this, the United States viewed Saddam Hussein's regime as