The Grand Experiment:

Iraq, the United States, and the Iraq War, 1990-2006

1) How did Iraq become an enemy of the United States after 1990?

2) What was the nature of American policy toward Iraq from 1990 to 2001?

3) What is neoconservatism? How has it shaped American foreign policy since 9/11?

4) Why did the United States invade Iraq? What went wrong since the invasion?

Key Terms

1) The Gulf War

2) Shia and Kurdish Uprisings, 1991

3) Containment of Iraq

4) No-Fly Zones

5) Neo-conservatism

6) Project for a New American Century

7) The Bush Doctrine

8) The “Al Qaeda Link”

9) De-Bathification

I. The First Gulf War: Origins and Aftermath

· The End of the Iran-Iraq War, 1988

· Saddam Hussein’s Ambitions in the Gulf Region

· The Invasion of Kuwait and the American Response

· Desert Storm: Why not go to Baghdad?

· The Kurdish and Shia Uprisings, 1991

· Iraq as a "Sanctions Regime," 1991-2003

· US Containment of Iraq, 1991-2003

o Allied Military Intervention: 1993, 1998, and the "No Fly-Zone" (2002)

II. The Origins of the Iraq War, 1991/2001-2003

· Neo-Conservatism and The Use of American Power (vs. Realism and Containment)

o The Project for a New American Century, 1997 (William Kristol & Robert Kagan)

o Max Boot “The Case for American Empire” (10/15/2001)

· 9/11 and American Foreign Policy:  New Opportunities for Neo-Conservativism

o Paul Wolfowitz makes his Case

· A Democratic Domino Theory:  Transforming the Middle East to Combat Terrorism

· The Bush Doctrine (2002):  Preventive War, American Hegemony, Democracy Promotion

The National Security Strategy (September 2002)

· Rumsfeld on 9/11 “Go Massive. Sweep it all up. Things related and not.”

· Selling the Iraq War:  “Weapons of Mass Destruction,” (WMD) the “al Qaeda Link,” and the American Public

o American Perceptions:  Was Saddam “personally/directly involved” in the 9/11 attacks?

§ August 2002                  53%

§ February 2003               72%

§ September 2003            70%

§ March 2006                    39%

§ September 2006            CNN: 43%

§ June 2007                       Newsweek: 41%

· Bush’s UN Gambit and UN Inspections, September 2002 – March 2003

· March 2003-May 2003:  The Invasion of Iraq and "Mission Accomplished"

III.  What went wrong?  Iraq under American Occupation since April 2003

1) Post-War Chaos, Looting, and Inadequate US Forces:  The Failure to Establish Security

2) De-Ba’athification and Dissolving the Iraqi Army

3) Sunni Insurgency and American Counter-Insurgency:  Fullujah and Abu Ghraib

4) The Power of the Shia:  Ayatollah al-Sistani vs. Muqtada al-Sadr

5) Failures of Reconstruction:  Electricity, Water, Sewage, the Economy

6) Failures of Understanding:  Where were the flowers?  [Iraqi Public Opinion Poll]