Why Bush Invaded Iraq

On March 19, 2003, 160,000 troops invaded Iraq on the orders of President George W Bush, which resulted in eight years of war, insurgency, and violence. An evil dictator was removed from power and Iraq became a struggling democracy, but in the process: Iraqi order and infrastructure were damaged, local terrorism flourished as terrorists flocked to the scene to defeat America and used the invasion as anti-American propaganda, Iraq fell into deadly civil strife, Iran’s power grew, over 4,700 U.S. and allied troops were killed, more than 100,000 Iraqi civilians lost their lives, and in time, former Iraqi military and al Qaeda combined to form ISIS which invaded Iraq from Syria before eventually being defeated.

Why did the U.S. do this? Why did the United States invade Iraq? One man had the ultimate power to make the call. The U.S. Congress passed a resolution that made the war legal under the U.S. Constitution. Advisors like Donald Rumsfeld, Dick Cheney, Condoleezza Rice, and Colin Powel had influence. So did foreign allies. But ultimately, George W Bush made the decision. Why did George W Bush make war on Saddam Hussein?

Primarily, Bush was motived by security. Bush feared what Saddam would do with weapons of mass destruction (WMD). In the context of 9/11, an attack on the U.S. homeland that killed thousands of people, American leaders were on edge and didn’t want to take any chance that there would be a second attack, especially a second attack with weapons of mass destruction.