Going To War With Iraq

Submitted By DerekBrown64
Words: 500
Pages: 2

The major actor in the decision making to go to war with Iraq was President George W. Bush and Congress. After September 11 attacks, President George W. Bush was insistent about going to war with Iraq and even more so after Saddam Hussein. His reasoning was that Saddam Hussein had a part in the September 11th attacks and he also strongly believed Saddam was in the midst of making weapons of mass destruction. The President went as far as making a speech to the United Nations in which he stressed the urgent need that resolutions be enforced against Saddam Hussein and he also argued that America was vulnerable to terrorism and that Iraq may be willing to share it weapons of mass destruction. The other major actor was Congress, without the approval of Congress to authorize the use of military force, there would be no war. In Congress there were those that were for war and some were opposed, the text indicated that some Democrats voted for resolution for fear of voting against war could affect the upcoming election. There were also other actors in the effort, such as the Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, all of which were in favor of going to war.

In the beginning of Bush administration, he was not interested in involved with the war in the Middle East, even though Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz and Richard Perle, hold over's from the Clinton administration, were strongly for war and removal of Saddam Hussein from Iraq. As it said in the text, their arguments did not persuaded President Bush. It was not until after the September 11 attacks did President Bush and part of his administration start to consider what the aforementioned wanted, removal of Saddem. At a war cabinet meeting on September 15, 2001, the issue of war with Iraq was raised by Paul Wolfowitz, who strongly favored going