The Legality of the US Invasion of Iraq Essay

The United States invaded Iraq easily. They fought alongside the UK, Poland and Australia, and the use of airstrikes as well as coalition forces quickly took down the Iraq military and overthrew their government. The capital of Iraq, Baghdad, was occupied less than a month later, and Hussein went into hiding. It took three weeks to occupy the rest of Iraq, and on May 1st, they declared the end to military combat and moved onto military occupation. They continued to search for Saddam Hussein, eventually finding him and his own country tried and executed him for crimes he committed in the 1980’s. The US continued to occupy Iraq up until 2011, when they fully withdrew from Iraq and left it with a new coalition government and a more competent leader. The true motives for the United States’ invasion of Iraq are still up for debate. The Bush regime had insisted that it was a preemptive invasion (Ghista). A preemptive invasion is a method of defense in the event of an imminent and pressing threat, whereas preventive invasions are attacks based on belief of military conflict that is inevitable but not immediate, designed to cripple the opposition before they have a chance to attack (Ghista). Although President Bush insisted that the Saddam Hussein was in possessions of weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and an attack on America should be expected in the near future, there was never