Case Study Number 7 PA301
Case Study 7 – The Decision to Go to War in Iraq
There were various people who were involved in the decision making process to go to war in Iraq. The
beginnings of these decisions started around the time of the Gulf War. Former President George H. W. Bush along with his administration of The Deputy Secretary of Defense, Paul Wolfowitz, Vice President Cheney, The Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, Chairman of The Defense Policy Board, Richard Perle, Undersecretary of Defense for Policies, Douglas Feith, Chief of Staff to the Vice President, Lewis Libby, Deputy to National Security Advisor, Stephen Hadley, Undersecretary of The State for Arms Control and International Security Affairs, John Bolton, Majority Leader of Senate, Tom Daschle and House Minority Leader, Richard Gephardt, all whom were known as neoconservatives, began to
show fear and worrying of the facts that Saddam posed threats to the United States and that he had a lot of potential to develop and used various weapons of mass destruction with intent to cause a lot of harm and much more damage. President Bush was not for it at first, but after persistence from his cabinet
his ideas changed. With all intentions of going to war with Iraq, the attacks of 9/11 were enough “fuel to the fire” to put their actions in to play. The ideas and planning to defeat Saddam started in the early 1990’s and evolved to what took place in March of 2003. In my opinion a lot of this could have been prevented if there was not so much false information and incorrect reporting.
There were quite a few key personnel that were excluded from the major decision making about going to war in Iraq due to the fact that they simply did not agree with it. Such people such as Secretary of State, Colin Powell and General Norman Schwartzkopf were trying to find another way to resolve the issue without invading Iraq, especially considering they thought of Afghanistan as being a bigger threat to the U.S. Others that were not involved that maybe should have been were Chief of Staff, Andrew Card and CIA Director, George Tenet. Since everyone that should have been involved was not, it soon came to be that United States military was going to war. In my opinion Iraq was not even an immediate threat to our national security and the connection of Saddam with Al Qaeda and those involved with the attacks was never proven or anything of the sort connected. The information that the general public was given, in my
opinion, was not all correct and those who had their hands in the planning and ideas of the war with Iraq had their own priorities with sending our troops over there to fight in a war that was unnecessary and a bit un-called for. We have lost way too many good men and women for no reason that has yet to benefit the United States.
As with anyone within the government and in politics, those who were against the war did not do a whole lot to influence their opinions due to the facts that they were too worried about being re-elected into their positions and were afraid of the judgment they would have received. Also having to deal with the fact that the President and most of his cabinet was for the war did not make things any easier for these other people who opposed the war. Intelligence personnel were also unsuccessful because of the pressure they were receiving from the government to meet their certain requirements. The administration even created something new called the Office of Special Plans because of their continuous dissatisfaction with the information they were receiving from their intelligence people. The government is always going to keep things away from the general public and use the excuses that what is needed to be known will be known and all the other information will be kept away and I think that there is much more to all of this dealing with war in Iraq than what we will ever know. As an Iraqi War Veteran, I hope and pray every day that we do not loose anymore of our great Soldiers, Marines, Airman or anyone else for that matter to this awful war.
Please put into your words!
