Crises and conflicts in the middle east Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1750 words

Crises and conflicts in the middle east - Essay Example The survival of Saddam Hussein, who was seen as a challenge for the hegemony of the United States of America in the Persian Gulf, directly counterposed as a threat to American and regional security. To finish the unfinished task of 1991, the United States of America‘s invasion of Iraq began on March 20, 2003. America’s Consolidation of New World Order in Iraq The War on Iraq had nothing to do with America’s professed objectives of human rights protection and removal of a dangerous dictator from power. On the other hand, America’s strategic interests in an emerging new world order and the rise of unilateralism and unipolarity after the collapse of Soviet Union had contributed much to bringing the US into the gulf war. Two American wars against Iraq were very different in nature, both in objectives and outcomes. The objective of 1991 war was to overturn the notorious act of aggression and restore normalcy in the region, wherein the United Nations preserves it s hegemony. The first Gulf War, which was called as Operation Desert Storm, had the sanction of United Nations Organization and a grand global coalition forces fought it. It was seen as a legitimate war fought for Kuwait’s liberation. The Operation Desert Storm restored status quo in the region. In contrast, the second Iraq war was a preventive war. It was fought for preventing Saddam Hussein from acquiring nuclear weapons and other weapons of mass destruction. George W. Bush administration was of the view that if Saddam Hussein gets nuclear weapons, he could not be deterred from aggressive actions in the region. Even though old allies of the United States of America and United Nations Organisation opposed it, the United States of America attacked Iraq in 2003. The first said priority of second Iraq war was to oust Saddam Hussein and take away weapons of mass destruction from Iraq. It was a pre-emptive war not only to Iraq but also to demonstrate to other so-called rouge stat es, who were trying to seek weapons of mass destructions against the will of the United States of America, the consequences of mending with American strategic interests in the new world order. Neoconservatives in the United States of the America also provided intellectual support for the war and engaged in fierce ideological battles to change the American opinion in favour of war. They were professing to build a model democracy in Iraq as the presence of a democratic Iraq in the Middle East would have undermined the influence of the other dictatorships in the Arab world and ensured more security for Israel, the staunch American ally. Peter W. Galbraith has correctly summarized real motives behind the second Iraq war. Galbraith considers the Iraq War â€Å"was intended to transform Iraq from brutal dictatorship into the Arab world's first real democracy. President Bush fully expected a democratic Iraq would be both a role model for other Middle Eastern countries and a subversive for ce against the region's authoritarian rulers. Envisioning a replay of the 1989 Eastern European revolutions, where elections in Poland set in motion a process that swept away the Berlin Wall and the Soviet Union, the Iraq War's neoconservative architects imagined the quick collapse of Syria's Baathist regime, the growing strength of Prodemocracy forces in Iran, and ultimately the replacement of pro-American autocrats in Saudi Arabia and Egypt with pro-American democrats†