21 US Iraq Invasion

Question 1

At the end of the 20th century, Why was ME/NA so stable?

Answer 1

There were many dictatorships and little democracy.

Question 2

But what else was going on?

Answer 2

Al-Quaeda was planning attacks against the US.

Question 3

Do we know today the full fallout of 9/11?

Answer 3

Probably not, but it may be greater than the end of the Ottoman Empire.

Question 4

What peaceful transitions were going on at the time?

Answer 4

King Hussein (Jordan) son took over after his father’s death.

Question 5

What else?

Answer 5

In Algeria, Abdelaziz Bouteflika was elected President and remained so for 20 years.

Question 6

What else?

Answer 6

Morocco’s king died and was succeeded by his son.

Question 7

What else?

Answer 7

Bashar al-Assad succeeded his father in Syria.

He was an opthamologist

Question 8

What happened in ME/NA after 9/11?

Answer 8

Arabs waited for us to respond.

Question 9

What did the US do?

Answer 9

In October they invaded Afghanistan.
Other countries were relieved.

Question 10

Why Afghanistan?

Answer 10

They harbored the terrorists?

Question 11

But what did the US do next?

Answer 11

They went after longer-term foes Iraq and Iran.

Question 12

What is one reason that the US felt empowered to do this?

Answer 12

They were no longer counterbalanced by the USSR.

Question 13

How did the US justify this?

Answer 13

Found “intelligence” linking al-Quaeda to Saddam Hussein.

Question 14

DId this turn out to be true?

Answer 14

No

Question 15

What other “intelligence” did we claim to have?

Answer 15

That Iraq had weapons of mass destruction.

Question 16

What was the truth?

Answer 16

That Iraq had abandoned its weapons programs n 1991.

Question 17

What did the invasion accomplish?

Answer 17

It overthrew the government but created chaos and even more terrorist groups.

Question 18

When did the US invade Iraq?

Answer 18

March 20, 2003

Question 19

How long did it take to take Baghdad?

Answer 19

3 weeks

Question 20

What did that unleash?

Answer 20

1. Gratitude from Iraqis Hussein had been repressing.
2. Massive crime

Question 21

In particular, what was stolen?

Answer 21

Massive amounts of Iraqi military weapons.

650,000 tons of equipemtn

Question 22

What were those arms used for?

Answer 22

A prolonged insurgency

insurgency = prolonged, armed rebellion

Question 23

When did Bush declare the “mission accomplished”?

Answer 23

3 weeks after the fall of Baghdad

Question 24

Who did Bush appoint as temporary administrator?

Answer 24

Ambassador Paul Bremer

Question 25

What is the first thing Bremer did?

Answer 25

Prohibit any who served in Hussein’s government from holding offfice.

These were from the Ba’ath party

Question 26

What did this cause?

Answer 26

It eliminated the people who joined the party just to get a job.

Question 27

What did Bremer do next?

Answer 27

Dissolved the Iraqi military and polive putting many men out of jobs.

Question 28

What happened with these men?

Answer 28

The insurgency hired them.

Question 29

What happened in 2004?

Answer 29

Jordanian Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, a terrorist, joined them.

Question 30

What did that turn into?

Answer 30

ISIS / ISIL / Daesh

Question 31

How did they do it?

Answer 31

They created Sunni/Shia discord.

Question 32

When was Saddam Hussein tried and hanged?

Answer 32

2006

Question 33

When did we complete our pullout of Iraq?

Answer 33

2011

Question 34

How did all of this increase Iran’s influence in Iraq?

Answer 34

Shias felt more comfortable siding with them than the US