Here we are with the fourth and final episode of my series about Iraq. If you haven't already read my previous three post, just take a quick look here:
How everything started in Iraq - Part. 1
Iran - Iraq war. How everything started in Iraq - Part. 2
The Gulf War - How everything started in Iraq - Part. 3
So far, I've presented you the beginning of Iraq as a British colony and as an independent state later and I focused on its history. Then, I went on with Iraq during the two Wars and what happened when the Second World War ended. Afterwards, I went even further and I showed you how Saddam raised to power and what happened during the Iran-Iraq war and the first Gulf War.
Today, I will focus on post-1991 Iraq and I will cover some very interesting topics.
Iraq had been deeply scarred by its past two conflicts. Unrest run amok and economic sanctions forced the people into either crime or starvation. Saddam was able to suppress two coups in both 1992 and 1993 and would make sure that those that descent would pay in blood. The UN continued to harass Saddam attempting to apply pressure for him to comply with the terms of the resolution that would see him destroy his stockpiles and nuclear, biological and chemical weapons.
Saddam would constantly refuse and fly in the face of the Security Council again and again. He would though allow himself just enough of a margin of freedom in his responses so that he could renegotiate a threatened with force.
On September 11, 2001, the World Trade Center attack shocked the world. Saddam, though seeing a psychological blow death to his enemies, publicly applauded the attacks. The new President, good old George W. Bush Jr., whilst not linking Saddam to the attacks directly, did feel that he was a threat in this new age of global terror. He would famously place Iraq alongside Iran and North Korea when speaking of a new Axis of Evil and so the world was set for the Iraq War from 2003.
In November 2002, the UN passed resolution 1441, which would charge Iraq of violating Security Council resolutions and warned that they would face serious consequences as a result of its continued violations of its obligations. Bush Jr. knew that Saddam would have to be forced out of power and Bush wouldn't take the same caution his father had offered. Bush crafted a new coalition which featured the US, the UK, Australia and Poland to undertake the so subtly named Operation Iraqi Freedom.
Mission was set to strip Saddam of his power and his alleged weapons of mass destruction. Bush would offer Saddam a chance for himself and his family to leave Iraq and avoid invasion, but Saddam was never stepped down from war in the past, so why would he start now?
Saddam proclaimed to his people it is without doubt that the faithful will be victorious against aggression and then made sure he would be the hell out of harm's way when the aggressors came and defeated the faithful.
19 minutes after the deadline had passed, the coalition said enact their campaign of shock and awe, which it certainly would shock all the angry people back home. The coalition troops that have been stationed in Kuwait also began their push into Iraq. Constantly cautious of chemical attacks and guerilla warfare tactics, it took three weeks until the coalition forces were able to defeat the Iraqi army and secure Baghdad and all surrounding major cities. Back at home, president Bush made the announcement to the many critics and protesters of this unabashed invasion that all major combat operations had ceased on May 1st, 2003: "Mission accomplished!".
War is complicated. With the defeat of the conventional military forces of Iraq, dozens if not hundreds of insurgencies suddenly sprung up to happily fill the vacuum of power. The US attempted to soldier on placing in power the long-pressed Shiites who then went on to suppress the Sunnis right back.
Saddam was discovered in his hometown of Tikrit on the 13th of December 2003. He faced trial under the new government over the next few years and was found guilty on accusation crimes against humanity. His fate just like that of a medieval criminal was to be hanged. Saddam Hussein died on the 30th of December 2006.
But after that, Iraq had crumbed under the boot of the Western powers and what was left in its place was nothing. The US attempted to safeguard what they hoped would become a gem of democracy in the heart of the Middle East over the next eight years, until everybody was fed up and the US took its ball and went home in 2011.
Iraq has been locked in the cycle of vicious dictators and vicious anarchy since its abrupt birth in 1918. The many coups only serving to change the names and beliefs of their malevolent leaders. Saddam, for all the hate he so rightly gets, don't get me wrong, was the devil we had grown to know and with his deposal we had only been offered a chance to het to know a new one - the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria or simply said ISIS.
All of these being said, I would like to thank you for reading my posts about Iraq. I have in mind to start a new mini-series about ISIS and how this terrorist organization managed to become so big in the Middle East, build on the Iraqi chaos that followed after Saddam's fall and the US disinterest in rebuilding the country.
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But is the situation stady now?