The Pros And Cons Of The 2003 US Invasion Of Iraq

The 2003 US invasion of Iraq was a disaster. What should have been a quick and dominant victory over terrorism turned into one of America’s biggest mistakes. A mistake that was fueled by lies cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, destroyed a country, and created more instability in the Middle East. After years of fighting, the negatives outweighed the positives, and therefore, the American invasion of Iraq was not justified due to the amount of deaths, lies, and instability caused before, during, and after the war.

To start, the absurd amount of deaths caused by the US invasion of Iraq is just one of many reasons why the 2003 invasion was unjustified. To explain, in wars, many people die. It is just a fact, and while many people

However, in most wars, especially those in the 21st century, most reported casualties are from soliders and millitants, not civilians. However, in the 2003 US invasion, a whopping estimation of 300 000 Iraqi civilians were murdered, and some even estimate it to be closer to 1 000 000 (Nawaz & Sagalyn). To put it into perspective, an average of 100 Iraqi civillians were killed everyday during the invasion (Global Policy Forum, 2021). Not soldiers, innocent civilians who were just taking part of their day to day lives. The amount of civilian deaths during this invasion begs the question if the invasion was even worth it. To elaborate, one of the main purposes of America’s invasion of Iraq was to end terror, and protect American civilian lives from terrorism. However, is it ethical to kill other civilians in order to protect your own? In addition, would 300 000 American civillians have died if America

To explain, one of the main reasons for America’s invasion of Iraq was to get rid of weapons of mass destruction (Jeremy Bowen, 2023). The US and UK made various allegations against Iraq, including that it had "mobile labs'' for producing biological, nuclear, and chemical weapons (Council on Foreign Relations, 2017). After all, in the 90’s, Iraq threatened to strike Israel with chemical weapons (Toi Staff, 2014). The US and UK also claimed that Iraqi missiles could be readied within 45 minutes to hit UK targets in the eastern Mediterranean. However, once the invasion took place, the US found close to nothing (Council on Foreign Relations, 2017). Even after toppling Saddam Hussein, the US army found close to no evidence of Iraq possessing weapons of mass destruction (Nawaz & Sagalyn, 2023). In fact, a main US weapons inspector said, “we were almost wrong,” in 2004 talking about the weapons of mass destruction (Council on Foreign Relations, 2017). The fact that America did not find any weapons of mass destruction in Iraq automatically makes this invasion unjustified. This is because since none of these weapons were found, this means that the whole basis for this invasion was built off of lies. Millions of innocent people lost their lives or their loved ones due to a lie. Thousands of proud American soldiers who fought for their country lost their lives due to a lie, and