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Then in the north of Iraq, a Kurdish rebellion broke out. Unlike the Shiites, who rose up more or less spontaneously, the Kurds had an organized political leadership. Kurdish exiles returned from abroad, hoping for a coup that would topple Saddam Hussein and replace him with new leadership that would grant Kurds some autonomy. Hussein’s forces soon attacked the Kurds. Kurdish cities emptied out. A million refugees headed to the mountains in search of safety in Turkey or Iran. When Turkey refused to admit the refugees, hundreds of thousands were stranded in the mountains without food, water, or medical supplies. Hundreds began dying each week. Although the United States was reluctant to support an independent Kurdistan, UN Security Council Resolution 688 established a “safe haven” for Kurds in the northern part of Iraq. At this point, President Bush ordered US forces to provide relief and protection. Together with other coalition forces, they provided humanitarian supplies and established a demilitarized zone to protect the Kurds. It included much though not all of the traditional Kurdish areas. US and British airpower protected the area in an action known as Operation Provide Comfort. In 1970 the Baath government had set up an autonomous region for the Kurds, but its governing council was under the control of the Baghdad regime. This time, the safe haven gave the Kurds some real independence. Iraqi forces pulled out of the region in October 1991. Liberty came at a price, though, because Baghdad then imposed an embargo on the Kurds. This was a double blow for the Kurds, since they also came under sanctions aimed at Iraq as a whole. By 1996 the situation improved as the autonomous Kurds were receiving a share of Iraq’s oil wealth, and that gave them a measure of prosperity.
Events Surrounding the 2003 US Invasion of Iraq The coalition won Kuwait’s freedom back with far fewer casualties, among its own forces at least, than expected. Hussein’s forces largely just crumpled under the coalition’s assault. But for all its condemnation of Hussein, the administration in Washington stopped short of actually overthrowing him. The president wanted to stay within the limits of the UN mandate, for one thing. And continued war would surely cost more American lives. The administration didn’t think the public would accept this. Besides, Washington hesitated to see Iraq break up altogether. Supporting Kurdish rebels, in particular, could make that happen. After all, the United States had just gone to war—its biggest deployment since Vietnam—in part over the principle that the lines on the map should stay where they are. Many people, however, saw Saddam Hussein’s remaining in power as an item of unfinished business on the American foreign policy agenda.
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The Cease-Fire Violations and No-Fly Zones United Nations Security Council Resolution 687 set out the terms of the cease-fire after the war. Iraq had to destroy its nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons. It also had to get rid of its ballistic missiles with a range greater than 150 km (93 miles). The resolution required Iraq to honor its foreign debts and pay damages to Kuwait. But almost from the start, the United States and its allies doubted whether the Iraqis would keep their word. Iraq’s nuclear activities were a particular concern. Just a few months after the war’s end, the US ambassador to the United Nations told Congress how Baghdad was falling short: The regime had a secret uranium enrichment program. It was blocking UN weapons inspectors. Many of its missiles were unaccounted for. The list went on. Another development at this time was the establishment of no-fly zones in both southern and northern Iraq. The United States, Britain, and France drew lines north and south of which Iraqi military aircraft were simply not allowed to fly. Coalition aircraft enforced these boundaries. The coalition also set up a “no drive” zone in southern Iraq to keep Hussein from massing forces to invade Kuwait again. In addition to its attacks on Kurds and Shiites, the Baghdad regime went after the “marsh Arabs” living in southern Iraq by draining the wetlands in which they lived. It was not only a human rights offense, in that it deprived this people of their homeland and way of life, but it was an environmental policy disaster as well.
Saddam Hussein’s Quest for Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD)
ffastFACT astFACT
Even more troublesome than Hussein’s treatment of the Kurds, Shiites, and “marsh Arabs” was his potential to harm the wider world. What most worried the United SStates and its allies about Saddam Hussein was his possible continuing development of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). WMDs are chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons that can kill large numbers of people in one use. If there were a case to make for invading Iraq again to oust Hussein, it was over WMD. Hussein’s regime had used poison gas on numerous occasions in the past. He had long been suspected of developing nuclear weapons. In 1981 Israeli F-15s and F-16s bombed a nuclear plant under construction at Osirak outside Baghdad. The Israeli government said the plant was meant to make nuclear weapons to destroy Israel. Iraq denied this.
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Hussein also had a strong interest in biological weapons. Richard Butler, the Australian who chaired the United Nations commission set up to find and dismantle Iraq’s WMD after the 1991 war, said Hussein was “addicted” to WMD. He cared most about biological weapons, particularly anthrax, Butler said in a 2001 interview. “I had in my own hand pieces of a destroyed missile warhead that we swabbed and it had anthrax residue in it. It was a serious program.” But what wasn’t clear was the state of those programs. Were they still active? Spy agencies in the United States, Britain, and elsewhere produced intelligence that appeared to indicate they were. UN weapons inspectors found no “smoking gun,” or inescapable evidence of WMD programs. But they didn’t exactly rule them out either. As President George W. Bush’s National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said, “There will always be some uncertainty about how quickly [Hussein] can acquire nuclear weapons. But we don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud.”
LESSON 3
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The Coalition Forces’ Invasion of Iraq In 1998 the US Congress passed the Iraq Liberation Act. The law said, “It should be the policy of the United States to support efforts to remove the regime headed by Saddam Hussein from power in Iraq.” In October 2002 Congress passed the Iraq War Resolution. This authorized the president to commit US forces to protect the United States from the threat posed by Iraq. It also called on him to enforce the relevant UN Security Council resolutions regarding Iraq. The next month, the council found Iraq to be “in material breach” of those resolutions. The UN gave Iraq until 8 December 2002 to comply. It also demanded that Iraq give a full accounting of its weapons programs and cooperate with UN weapons inspectors. On 17 March 2003 President George W. Bush gave Saddam Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq or face “military conflict commenced at a time of our choosing.” On 19 March the US armed forces began their assault. They were backed up by Britain, plus contingents from Australia, Spain, Poland, and Denmark.
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Baghdad fell in April. Saddam Hussein went into hiding and would not be captured until December 2003. But despite searching everywhere, coalition forces found no WMD in Iraq. The intelligence reports were from dubious sources, doctored, or just plain wrong. The failure to find these weapons set off an intense political debate in the United States and Europe. However, on 2 May 2003, President Bush announced in a nationally televised address that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.”
US Attempts to Stabilize Iraq Since the 2003 Invasion It turned out to be not quite that easy. The military victory came swiftly. The toppling of the Baghdad regime ended a dozen years of Iraqi defiance of the United Nations. But it was soon clear that winning the war would prove much easier than winning the peace. The Coalition Provisional Authority provided a transitional government for Iraq until 28 June 2004. At that point it disbanded in favor of the Iraqi Interim Government. That government ruled until elections took place 30 January 2005.
The Activities of Insurgents and al-Qaeda After the War When President Bush spoke on 2 May 2003, he stood before a banner reading “Mission Accomplished.” He would later call this one of his mistakes in office. Major combat was over. But the insurgency was just beginning. In May 2003 the United Nations lifted sanctions against Iraq and backed the US-led administration there. The United States abolished the Baath Party and its institutions. By July the commander of US forces acknowledged that his troops faced low-level guerrilla warfare. LESSON 3
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