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TheIraq disarmament crisis was claimed as one of the primary issues that led to themultinationalinvasion ofIraq on 20 March 2003.
Since the 1980s, Iraq was widely assumed to have been producing and extensively running the programs ofbiological,chemical andnuclear weapons. Iraq made extensive use of chemical weapons during theIran–Iraq War in the 1980s, includingagainst its own Kurdish population. France and the Soviet Union assisted Iraq in the development of its nuclear program, but its primary facility was destroyed byIsrael in 1981 in asurprise air strike.
After theGulf War in 1990, theUnited 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 the1990s with U.S. at the UN, repeatedly demanding Iraq to allow inspections teams to its facilities. These crises reached their climax in 2002-2003, whenU.S. presidentGeorge W. Bush demanded a complete end to what he alleged was Iraqi production ofweapons of mass destruction, and reasoned withIraqi PresidentSaddam Hussein to comply withUN Resolutions requiringUN weapons inspectors unfettered access to areas those inspectors thought might have weapons production facilities.
Since theGulf War in 1991,Iraq had been restricted by theUnited 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, amultinational alliance containing the armed forces of theUnited States andUnited Kingdom launched aninvasion of Iraq. After thewithdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq in 2011, a number offailed Iraqi peace initiatives were revealed.
In the decade following the 1991 Gulf War, the United Nations passed 16Security 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, theUnited States Congress passed theIraq Liberation Act supporting the efforts ofIraqi 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, underKofi 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 TheUnited Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC).
Paul Wolfowitz, the military analyst for theUnited States Department of Defense underRonald Reagan, had formulated a newforeign 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 withGeorge 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. TheSeptember 11, 2001 attacks brought to life Wolfowitz's and other "hawks'" advocacy forpreemptive 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, theIraqi Army was reduced to 23 divisions with a total of about 375,000 troops. TheIraqi Air Force was reduced to less than 300 aircraft. TheIraqi 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 theRepublican Guard, and the formation of theSpecial Republican Guard.
During late 2002 and into 2003, theUnited States government continued to call for "regime change" inIraq and threatened to use military force to overthrow the Iraqi government unless Iraq rid itself of allweapons 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 membersFrance,Russia and thePeople's Republic of China, and fellowNATO membersGermany andBelgium.
TheBush administration began a military buildup in the region, and after pushing hard gained passage ofUN Security Council Resolution 1441. Led byHans Blix, Head of theUnited Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC) andMohamed ElBaradeiDirector General of theInternational 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. presidentGeorge W. Bush andBritish prime ministerTony Blair met in theAzores 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.
Several close allies of the U.S. (e.g.Germany,Belgium andFrance) opposed amilitary intervention because they asserted it would increase rather than decrease the risk ofterrorist attacks. Although theBritish government and some governments of other members of theEU andNATO 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 ofEurope, and hundreds of thousands in major cities ofNorth America, participated inpeace marches on 15 February 2003.[7]
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]
On October 11, 2002,Russian presidentVladimir Putin met with then British prime ministerTony Blair. At a news conference, he said:
In a February 2003 joint declaration by Russia, Germany and France,Jacques Chirac remarked:
The position of whether the invasion was legal underinternational law is unclear. Article 2 of theUnited 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 theKorean War and the1991 Gulf War.
The United States does not recognize the jurisdiction of any international court over its citizens or military, holding that theUnited States Supreme Court is its final authority. One example of this policy is that the United States did not ratify theInternational 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 andSpain 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 1990Security Council Resolution 678 authorised force against Iraq, which was suspended but not terminated by the 1991Resolution 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 thefacts 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 bycustomary 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 theKosovo War.Yoram Dinstein equates this topolice 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]
TheConstitution grants the power to declare war exclusively to theUnited States Congress, but declares the President to beCommander-in-Chief of theUS 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 adeclared war.
In 1973, amid increasing domestic controversy about theVietnam War, Congress passed theWar 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 theIraq 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 recentUnited States Supreme Court case,Hamdan v. Rumsfeld, the Supreme Court ruled that themilitary 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 (seeUN Charter).
After the invasion of Iraq, theIraq Survey Group, headed byDavid 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]
