Imperialistic Tendencies: a brief histoy of the U.S. in Iraq

The United States has long seen itself as “the world’s watchdog.” Often we get involved in other country’s foreign affairs, usually in the name of democracy and helping those in need. However, the almost imperialistic actions taken by the American government for the last hundred years have been less then beneficiary to those countries we seek to “help.” Little is done to help a country unless we see an opportunity to get something in return.
A prime example is the War on Terror. The official War on Terror did not begin with the invasion of Iraq, but rather began with the Regan administration. At that time although Iraq was still lead by Saddam Hussein, the American government supported his regime by taking Iraq off the list of countries that supported terrorism and giving him enough support to create weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). With these weapons Hussein committed vile human rights offenses, including the gassing of the Kurds in 1988.[1]
The envoy sent to Iraq to settle the deal was our former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. At the time, Rumsfeld worked with Regan as his ambassador to the Middle East. A few months after Rumsfeld’s first visit to Iraq he resigned, with Iraqi-American relations better then ever. During the time Rumsfeld served as the Middle Eastern envoy, America sold Iraq around $200,000,000 worth of military helicopters, the very same ones believed to be used in the attack against the Kurds.[2]
However, relations between Iraq and America went sour with the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990.[3] By taking over Kuwait, Saddam Hussein was in control of 20% of the world’s oil supply.[4] This brought about fears that Iraq would use the oil supplies to their political advantage. To regain political control, the U.S. sent troops, thus ending friendly relations between America and Iraq.[5]
This led to America’s policy on Iraq today. America went into Iraq not because of Saddam Hussein’s human rights abuses or because of his supposed possession of weapons of mass destruction, but because from invading Iraq America had something to gain. Now America is in control of the oil Hussein once possessed, while those in government who have had as much to do with the human rights abuses in Iraq as Saddam himself have not yet been held accountable for their actions.

Bibliography
1. http://www.chomsky.info/talks/20060118.pdf
2. http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0802-01.htm
3. http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/
4. http://www.historyguy.com/GulfWar.html
5. http://www.indepthinfo.com/iraq/interests.shtml
6. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/cron/

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[1] http://www.chomsky.info/talks/20060118.pdf
[2] http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0802-01.htm
[3] http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/cron/
[4] http://www.indepthinfo.com/iraq/interests.shtml
[5] http://www.historyguy.com/GulfWar.html