destruction. Clearly we attacked Iraq not because it had WMD but because it
did not.
President Bush’s third stated reason for attacking Iraq, “to free the Iraqi
people,” is another example of the “international good guy” school of U.S.
foreign policy. Without doubt, under Hussein the people of Iraq—especially its
Shi’ite majority and Kurdish minority—suffered. As a result, substantial
segments of Iraqi society initially, and correctly, briefly viewed our troops as
liberators. As a cause of our intervention, however, Hussein’s oppression
never figured prominently. If a people’s suffering prompted American
intervention, we would have sent troops first to Darfur, in southern Sudan,
where the Arab-dominated government was killing or allowing its civilian
allies to kill hundreds of thousands of black Africans; or to Zimbabwe, whose
dictator, Robert Mugabe, grew more repressive with each passing year. The
“international good guy” interpretation did provide rhetorical cover for the
invasion, however, and did convince some Democrats to vote for the
resolution awarding the president war powers.
If the government’s stated reasons for attacking Iraq won’t scan, what does
explain this military adventure? Surely a huge unstated cause is this: President
Bush and his associates hoped to gain from it, politically and economically.
Everyone knew that Hussein’s armed forces, which the United States had
easily defeated in the Persian Gulf War in 1991, were now far weaker. Before
the Gulf War, Iraq had 4,280 tanks; it ended that war with 580.^30 Iraq’s armed
forces were further crippled by the “no fly zone” imposed by the United States
and its allies since 1991, which meant U.S. planes would control Iraqi
airspace from the beginning of any hostilities. So politicians knew it would be
dangerous politically to oppose a war that we would win in a few weeks.
Indeed, in November 2004, electoral fallout from the seemingly successful war
and the capture of Saddam Hussein helped President Bush win reelection and
his party control of Congress. Economics played an even more obvious role.
Many of the Bush family’s friends have long been involved in the construction
of the oil industry and armed forces projects. In April 2003, the Bush
administration put the international community on notice that U.S. companies
and government agencies, not those of other nations, would rebuild Iraq. To no
one’s surprise, Vice President Cheney’s former firm, Halliburton, has gotten
more government money for this rebuilding than any other company—and has
been charged with more fraud and malfeasance. Meanwhile, Cheney continues