Question I am a strong conservative republican, and I was/am a huge supporter of George W. Bush. I am a little unclear on some of the events leading up to the War in Iraq because of my lack of interest in politics at the time of the incident. I understand that Bush had the go ahead from congress, but did he have the support from the UN? What were Saddam's comments or reaction to Bush's demands to disarm and disclose regarding WMDs. If Saddam was not allowing inspectors into Iraq as required by the UN, and was violating the no fly zone, why was everyone against evading Iraq. I guess after hearing all of the negative information from the mainstream media I have at times began to doubt whether Bush had the authority or the right to invade Iraq. I know Bush had some poor intelligence and he was just going off of what he was receiving, but many websites paint the picture that Bush made up facts about Iraq's WMD program so he could fulfill his agenda to oust Saddam. It is just difficult to find unbiased facts on the events leading up to the war that answer my questions. Any help would be greatly appreciated in my time of unbelief. Thanks in advance.
AWH
Answer I have to go into my memory banks for this one. Firstly, after 911, the Congress passed the Patriot Act (actually a number of laws plus the "Act" itself), which basically said that we don't have to wait to be attacked, If we or our allies are in danger of imminent attack, we can attack first.
The Congress voted twice to give Bush the authority to invade Iraq. After the invasion and things started to go downhill, they said they were "misled" by the CIA information.
The UN passed 14 resolutions telling Saddam to let the inspectors in to see things, he kept playing games, and eventually kicked them all out. The last UN resolution, which was submitted by the U.S., said that if Iraq didn't comply with the other 13-14 resolutions (can't keep count, there were so many), then "action may be taken." Everyone knew what this meant - the U.S would take the action.
Based on the fact that Saddam, invaded Kuwait, used WMDs in his war with Iran and also on his own people, and the CIA had information (which turned out to be false) that Saddam was attempting to kick start a nuclear weapons program - the U.S. invaded.
Not everyone was against invading, in fact Russia, China, France, and the U.K. could have vetoed the final UN resolution, but they didn't. They chose to interpret "take action" differently - until it suited their purposes to say that they never meant invasion.
Personally, I never understood why Bush didn't ask Congress for a declaration of war, but instead went with the "first strike" policy. I knew as soon as he did that, the Left would complain that there was no act of war declared, as demanded by the Constitution, and demand he be impeached - ignoring the approval and funding of the war by Congress. Let me know if you need anything else. Thanks.
