5 Minute Guide: Road to war

What happened?

The Iraq-US relationship was one of the defining features in international relations of the past two decades, as it twisted one way, then another.

In 1980, Saddam invaded Iran to defuse a possible threat from the rise of Islamic fundamentalism.

He was backed by the US who ignored Iraq's human rights record and atrocities such as the gassing of 5,000 Kurdish villagers in Halabja in 1988.

The Iran-Iraq war crippled the Iraqi economy and, to increase his oil revenues, Saddam invaded Kuwait, accusing the country of driving the price of oil down. The later conflict severely damaged his relationship with the US.

From the Gulf War in 1991 to the beginning of the second war in 2003 there had been continuous military pressure on Iraq by the US and the UK.

In 1996, UN inspectors were denied access to "sensitive" areas in Iraq. By 1998, weapons inspectors had been intermittently allowed into Iraq but Saddam accused them of being spies.

The inspectors left, claiming they were not getting proper access to military sites.

In November 2000 further requests for inspecting nuclear facilities were rejected. A year later the US and Britain launched the much-condemned air strikes on Iraqi military bases.

Two years later George Bush described Iraq as part of an "axis of evil", illustrating his intent to topple Saddam. By September 2002, it had become clear Washington was planning a full-scale invasion.

The US went on to say it would go it alone and attack Iraq if it failed to let the UN inspectors - led by Dr Hans Blix - into the country. Iraq declared it had no weapons of mass destruction.

Despite limited inspections, Dr Blix said he was concerned Iraq was leaving weapons undeclared, which led Bush to say Saddam Hussein "... is not disarming. To the contrary, he is deceiving." Blix later said the US and the UK had exaggerated the case for war.

The US put pressure on the UN Security Council and succeeded in getting a unanimous vote for Resolution 1441 to allow weapons inspectors in, but failed to gain a second resolution in March 2003.

Despite much anger at the UN - and huge controversy over the legality of a war in Iraq - the US eventually declared that "diplomacy has failed" and that it would proceed with a "coalition of the willing."

In March 2003 the conflict began, with the US getting the full backing of the UK.

Why did it happen?

Bush's stated reasons for war with Iraq was that he - and Tony Blair - believed Saddam was harbouring weapons of mass destruction.

Commentators have said North Korea and Pakistan posed a greater risk on this score, but Iraq was top of Bush's list due to a desire to settle the score after the failure of his father, George Bush Senior, to topple Saddam after the first Gulf War.

Bush also claimed Iraq was supporting terrorism and that "regime change" would mark a significant victory in the War on Terror.

The implication was that there was a link between Saddam and al-Qaida - a link which was later disavowed.

Central to the War on Terror was a desire to spread democracy and set the Iraqi people free from tyranny.

However, Bush's critics pointed to other regimes whose probity was questionable.

They suggested the war was simply a pretext for accessing Iraq's oil fields and thus securing the US's energy future.

What happens next?

As each week passes the prospect of a happy democratic ending seems more remote.

At the start of 2007, the death toll in the country continued to rise; one report claimed more than 600,000 Iraqi civilians have died since combat began, not to mention the 3,000 coalition soldiers killed.

The Iraq Study Group suggested getting the help of Iraq's neighbours, like Syria and Iran, and mooted the possibility of withdrawing US troops by 2008. George Bush seems to have ignored this and requested for another 21,500 troops to be sent.

His plan was for US combat troops to take a more active role, patrolling alongside Iraqi forces inside Baghdad rather than operating from the outskirts.

Operations would also include previously off-limits Shia areas in the city in a bid to stem the sectarian violence.

Key players

Iraqi Shias
The Shia make up about 60 per cent of the population of Iraq, mostly in the south upwards to Baghdad.

The Shia claim they were discriminated against and brutalised during the reign of the Ba'ath party - Saddam Hussein's regime. They also harbour resentment against the US after it failed to back their uprising in 1991, at the time of the Gulf War.

Although the history is deeply complex, on its most basic religious level, the Shia broke from the Sunni at the time of the first caliph, Abu Bakr.

The Shia thought Ali should have been the first caliph; they also revere their Imams more than the Sunnis.

There are more than one million Iraqi Shia refugees in Iran.

Iraqi Sunnis
In Iraq, just over a third of the population is Sunni, although worldwide, they comprise around 90 per cent of Islam.

The Sunni Ottoman Empire, which governed Iraq from the mid-16th century through World War One, maintained Iraq as a Sunni-controlled state.

As a result, Sunni Arabs gained the governing, military, and administrative experience that would enable them to monopolise political power in the 20th century.

Iraqi Sunnis now fear a backlash from Iraqi Shias.

Share this article

Send this article to a friend »

• Del.icio.us
• Digg
• Reddit
• Facebook
• StumbleUpon

What are these?