The Mysterious Why of the Iraq War

A decade after President George W. Bush ordered the unprovoked invasion of Iraq, one of the enduring mysteries has been why. There was the rationale sold to a frightened American people in 2002-2003 -- that Saddam Hussein was plotting to attack them with WMDs -- but no one in power really believed that.

There have been other more plausible explanations: George Bush the Younger wanted to avenge a perceived slight to George Bush the Elder, while also outdoing his father as a "war president"; Vice President Dick Cheney had his eye on Iraq's oil wealth; and the Republican Party saw an opportunity to create its "permanent majority" behind a glorious victory in the Middle East.

That rationale has often been dressed up as "democratizing" the Middle East, but the idea was more a form of "neocolonialism," in which American proconsuls would make sure that a favored leader, like the Iraqi National Congress' Ahmed Chalabi, would control each country and align the nations' positions with the interests of the United States and Israel.

Some analysts have traced this idea back to the neocon Project for the New American Century in the late 1990s, which advocated for "regime change" in Iraq. But the idea's origins go back to the early 1990s and to two seminal events.

The first game-changing moment came in 1990-91 when President George H.W. Bush showed off the unprecedented advancements in U.S. military technology. Almost from the moment that Iraq's Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990, the Iraqi dictator began signaling his willingness to withdraw after having taught the arrogant al-Sabah ruling family in Kuwait a lesson in power politics.

But the Bush-41 administration wasn't willing to negotiate a peaceful resolution to the Kuwait invasion. Instead of letting Hussein arrange an orderly withdrawal, Bush-41 began baiting him with insults and blocking any face-saving way for a retreat.

Peace feelers from Hussein and later from Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev were rebuffed as Bush-41 waited his chance to demonstrate the stunning military realities of his New World Order. Even the U.S. field commander, Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, favored Gorbachev's plan for letting Iraqi forces pull back, but Bush-41 was determined to have a ground war.

So, Gorbachev's plan was bypassed and the ground war commenced with the slaughter of Iraqi troops, many of them draftees who were mowed down and incinerated as they fled back toward Iraq. After 100 hours, Bush-41 ordered a halt to the massacre. He then revealed a key part of his motivation by declaring: "We've kicked the Vietnam Syndrome once and for all." [For details, see Robert Parry's Secrecy & Privilege.]

Neocons Celebrate

Official Washington took note of the new realities and the renewed public enthusiasm for war. In a post-war edition, Newsweek devoted a full page to up-and-down arrows in its "Conventional Wisdom Watch." Bush got a big up arrow with the snappy comment: "Master of all he surveys. Look at my polls, ye Democrats, and despair."

For his last-minute stab at a negotiated Iraqi withdrawal, Gorbachev got a down arrow: "Give back your Nobel, Comrade Backstabber. P.S. Your tanks stink." Vietnam also got a down arrow: "Where's that? You mean there was a war there too? Who cares?"

Neocon pundits, already dominating Washington's chattering class, could barely contain their glee with the only caveat that Bush-41 had ended the Iraqi turkey shoot too soon and should have taken the carnage all the way to Baghdad.

The American people also rallied to the lopsided victory, celebrating with ticker-tape parades and cheering fireworks in honor of the conquering heroes. The victory-parade extravaganza stretched on for months, as hundreds of thousands jammed Washington for what was called "the mother of all parades."

Americans bought Desert Storm T-shirts by the caseloads; kids were allowed to climb on tanks and other military hardware; the celebration concluded with what was called "the mother of all fireworks displays." The next day, the Washington Post captured the mood with a headline: "Love Affair on the Mall: People and War Machines."

The national bonding extended to the Washington press corps, which happily shed its professional burden of objectivity to join the national celebration. At the annual Gridiron Club dinner, where senior government officials and top journalists get to rub shoulders in a fun-filled evening, the men and women of the news media applauded wildly everything military.

The highlight of the evening was a special tribute to "the troops," with a reading of a soldier's letter home and then a violinist playing the haunting strains of Jay Ungar's "Ashoken Farewell." Special lyrics honoring Desert Storm were put to the music and the journalists in the Gridiron singers joined in the chorus: "Through the fog of distant war/Shines the strength of their devotion/To honor, to duty/To sweet liberty."