AN UNJUSTIFIED WAR The US Invasion of Iraq Ph

Thus it has been broadly acknowledged that going to war can at times be justified, but that such justification must pass a high standard. To be justified, a war must meet five standards: It must be necessary, it must be in a just cause, it must be proportional to the evils it is intended to prevent, it must have a reasonable chance of success (i.e., not a futile effort that merely causes more death and misery), and it must be entered into only as a last resort, after alternatives such as diplomacy have failed.

In the spring of 2003, the United States went to war against Iraq, then ruled by Saddam Hussein. The United States had not been attacked, so the war was not thrust upon it. The burden of justification thus lies on the US and the Bush Administration. It will be argued here that the war was not in fact justified.

Much of the political and media debate about the Iraq war's justification has revolved around "weapons of mass destruction" (WMD), and the failure to find any such weapons in Iraq after

. . .
n secured. If that compliance were withdrawn, the option for war remained "on the table." However, it did not remain on the table. Instead, the Bush Administration opted for war without awaiting a final report by the inspectors. The UN withdrew the inspectors once again -- not, this time, because of Iraqi non-cooperation, but because the American invasion was imminent ("Bush: Saddam Has 48 Hours," 2003). This sequence of events totally undermines the WMD justification, and would almost certainly have done so even if WMD had been found. It is as though a police officer ordered a suspect to put his hands up and submit to a pat-down for a concealed weapon, the suspect complied -- and the policeman shot the suspect anyway. The non-discovery of WMD is in effect only one more nail in the coffin of the Bush Administration's argument. If WMD had been found in postwar Iraq, the Administration might have been able to argue that the Iraqi authorities had so artfully concealed it that the UN inspectors would never have been able to find it. In that case we would have to examine the specifics to determine whether or not the weapons were in fact so "artfully concealed" that the inspectors, if allowed to continue their work, had no
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Bush Administration, House Aide, War II, Moreover Iraq's, Bush Saddam, Saddam Hussein, Hussein's Iraq, Iraq Administration, Iraq Philosophers, Gulf War, bush administration, war iraq, iraq war, reasonable chance, house aide, ex-white house, ex-white house aide, saddam hussein, un inspectors, 1991 gulf war, aide 2004, bush saddam, bush saddam 48, justified war meet, house aide 2004,
Approximate Word count = 1366
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page)

More Essays on AN UNJUSTIFIED WAR The US Invasion of Iraq Ph