October, 2002

The U.S. policy in Iraq: Rightist Intransigence and Security Hysteria

Dr. Gamal Abdel-Gawad

The clear hardline stance of the United States towards Iraq and its insistence on the need to launch a military attack against the country can be attributed to a number of factors. The United States occupies the position of sole world superpower and possesses a level of power that has not been enjoyed by any other power or empire in history. At the same time, authority is now in the hands of an extreme rightist administration, which favours individual work and rejects any limitation on the freedom of the United States to use its power.

The events of 11 September led to the reformulation of US foreign policy in terms of principles and goals, and increased the realisation of Americans that there is a link between US interests, security and welfare and what goes on elsewhere in the world. The context of 11 September and the US military campaign against terrorism increased the United States’ tendency for individual work, as was clear in its refusal of the support of NATO forces in its war in Afghanistan.

Since George W. Bush became US president, Iraq has been a source of annoyance to his administration, with the UN weapons inspection team unable to resume its mission since December 1998. According to some reports, Iraq has made use of this gap to reconstruct part of its arsenal of weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, the international boycott imposed on Iraq started to erode, with Iraq able to develop new means for freeing itself from certain limitations.

Following the 11 September attacks, the United States, unclear as to the nature of the body responsible, began to escalate its hardline approach towards Iraq. This hostile stance weakened briefly, only to resurface after the fall of Kabul, then lapse again until the beginning of the current wave following a speech by Bush on 29 January of this year in which he placed Iraq in his ‘axis of evil.’ The US administration considers Iraqi president Saddam Hussein as a threat to oil sources in the region and Israeli security. According to the US vision, the removal of Hussein would lead to a new wave of political reform and open the way for the settlement of the Arab-Israeli conflict by decreasing the opposition to peaceful settlement.