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Section 1
R Theory and
Realist IR a the Ira
aq War
Introducttion
There aree many wayys in which h the decission of the Bush admministration to invade Iraq in
2003 both h fits into - and complicates - traaditional Realist
R acco
ounts of waar and the
international system m. For exam mple, a nummber of prrominent reealist schollars and otthers in
the Unitedd States pa aid for an announcem
a ment in thee New Yorkk Times onn 26 Septe ember
2002 argu uing that, as
a national security sscholars, th hey believe
ed the justi fications fo
or the war
with Iraq d
did not ma atch US national interrests.
In addition
n to readin
ng this secttion, you s hould cons sult the Lib
beralism, MMarxism,
Constructtivist, and Alternative
A e theory se ctions of th he case stu udy for impportant alte
ernatives
to Realismm. The purrpose of this section is to sugge est ways in n which thee insights you
y will
have learnt from Ch hapter 6 of The Globa alization off World Politics (6e.) illustrate im
mportant
aspects oof the Iraq War
W from a Realist perspective e. By no me eans can t he followin ng be an
exhaustivve survey of
o the possible ways Realist inte ernational theory migght help yo ou think
about the 2003 Iraq War. How wever, we w will briefly focus
f on 1) continuiing American
hegemon ny; 2) the 'new
' unila
ateralism' and 3) the e rationalitty of Sadd dam Hussein.
nuing Ame
1) Contin erican Heg
gemony
Realists g
generally criticize
c the idea that internation
nal organizations wie ld influence
separate from thosee bestowed d upon the m by powe erful states
s and the ccontention that
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international norms are a significant con nstraint on a state's pursuit of m
material nattional
interests. That the United
U Stattes invadedd Iraq without the consent of thhe United Nations
N
would see em to suppport this vie
ew. Even inn the face of major criticism of the justifications for
war (and the conseq quences fo or organiza
ations suchh as the UN N), the Bussh adminis stration
did what it desired in
n Iraq. From a realistt perspective, might continues
c tto 'make riight'.
However, even befo ore the warr, doubt exxisted abou ut the existtence of larrge stockppiles of
weapons of mass destruction (WMD) in Iraq, and there t was little evide nce that th
here was
a meaninggful link be
etween Iraq q and the pperpetrators of the 9//11 attackss. This did not stop
US Secreetary of Staate Colin State Powe ll from sug ggesting otherwise in a presentation to
the UN Seecurity Cou uncil. In his
s words, 'Irraqi officials deny accusations of ties with h al-
Qaeda. These denia als are simmply not cre edible… Sa addam bec came moree intereste ed as he
aeda's app
saw al-Qa palling attacks… Amb bition and hatred
h are enough too bring Iraq q and al-
Qaeda toggether, enough so all-Qaeda co ould learn how to build more soophisticated
bombs… and enoug gh so that al-Qaeda ccould turn to Iraq for help in acqquiring exp pertise on
weapons of mass destruction' (2003: 47 76, 477).
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2) 'Realis
sm and the
e New Uniilateralism
m'
The Bush h administration justiffied the invvasion and occupation of Iraq inn precisely these
terms. In an address to the na ation 48 hoours before e the war was
w due to begin, Pre esident
Bush statted that 'so
ome perma anent mem mbers of thee Security Council haave publicly
announce ed that theyy will veto any resolu ution that compels
c the
e disarmam ment of Ira
aq. These
governme ents share our assessment of t he dangerr, but not our resolve to meet it… … The
United Naations Secu urity Council has nott lived up to o its responsibilities, so we will rise to
ours' (Bussh, 2003: 504).
5
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Studyy: The Iraq
3) The rationality of
o Saddam
m Hussein
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IR theory in Practice C
Case Stud
dy: The Ira
aq War, 20003
Section 2
R Theory and
Liberal IR a the Ira
aq War
Introducttion
As noted in the prevvious sectio on of this ccase study y, the relationship bettween realist theory
and the 2003 invasion of Iraq is ambival ent. Simila arly, there are
a many w ways in wh hich the
Iraq war aand its afte
ermath both h contradicct and support eleme ents of Libeeral IR theo ory. In
addition to
o this sectiion, therefo
ore, you sh hould cons sult the Rea alism, Marrxism,
Constructtivist, and Alternative
A e theory se ctions of th he case stuudy for impportant alte ernatives
to Liberalism. The purpose
p of this sectio
on is to sugggest ways s in which tthe insights s you will
have learnt from Ch hapter 6 of The Globa alization off World Politics (6e.) illustrate im
mportant
aspects oof the Iraq War
W from a Liberal pe erspectivee. As with thhe previouus section, by no
means ca an the following be an n exhaustivve survey of the poss sible wayss Liberal
international theory might help p you thinkk about thee Iraq War anda its afteermath.
1) Iraq an
nd Human
nitarian Inttervention
n
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reason, so ome suppo orted the Bush
B admin
nistration's
s decision on
o the grouunds that it would
liberate Irraq from ann abusive despotism.
d . And afterr the war, when
w no weeapons we ere found,
the justificcation has increasing
gly focused
d on the rig
ght of the Irraqi citizenns to live in
n freedom
from Husssein's tyran nnical regime.
There aree some imp portant objections to the idea th hat Iraq constituted hhumanitaria an
interventio
on. As sum mmarized by b Human Rights Wa atch, 'the in
nvasion of Iraq failed to meet
the test…
…. Most imp portant, the e killing in IIraq at the time was not of the eexceptiona al nature
that wouldd justify su
uch intervention. In ad ddition, inte
ervention was
w not thee last reas sonable
option to sstop Iraqi atrocities.
a Interventio on was not motivated primarily bby humanitarian
concerns.. It was nott conducte ed in a wayy that maximized com mpliance w with internattional
humanitarian law. Itt was not approved
a b
by the Secu urity Counc cil. And whhile at the time
t it
was launcched it wass reasonab ble to belieeve that the e Iraqi people would be better off,o it was
not designned or carrried out with the need ds of Iraqis
s foremostt in mind' (RRoth, 2004 4).
d of Demo
2) Spread ocracy in the
t Middle
e East
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the region
n to the belief that de
emocracy w was not jus
st a Western inventioon, but a un
niversal
human rigght. This iss a profoun
ndly liberal argument adopted by
b the Bushh administrration.
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Box 2.3: Vice President Che
eney on fre
eedom in the Middle
e East
Regime cchange in Iraq would bring abou ut a numbe er of beneffits to the re
region. When the
gravest off threats arre eliminatted, the fre
eedom-loving peoples s of the reggion will ha
ave a
chance too promote the t values that can b bring lasting peace… Extremistts in the region
would havve to rethin nk their stra
ategy of Ji had. Modeerates throughout thee region wo ould take
heart. Andd our abilitty to advannce the Israaeli-Palestinian peacce process would enh hance.
Ricchard Chen
ney, 'The Risks
R of In action,' p.2
299
As you wiill have leaarned from Chapters 7 and 8, one o of the chief
c brancches of
contempo orary libera
al theory is democrat ic peace th heory. As with liberaal theory more
broadly, ddemocraticc peace the eory has a complicate ed relation
nship to thee Iraq war. One
branch off the theoryy, which Brruce Russe ett has called the cultural or noormative
explanatioon, arguess that demo ocracies foollow internnational norms of peaaceful confflict
resolution
n and expe ect fellow democracie es to do thee same; this would noot, howeve er, pose a
problem ffor the war between the t liberal United Sta ates and the illiberal IIraqi regime. The
other, term
med the sttructural orr institution
nal explana ation, suggests that feeatures of
governme ent in demo ocratic cou
untries, succh as chec cks and balances bettween bran nches of
governme ent and public debate e, make de emocracies s less likely
y to wage w war at all. Given
that the empirical coorrelation for
f democrratic peace e is strongeest betweeen two dem mocracies
and not between a democracy
d y and a no n-democra acy, this brranch of thee theory iss generally
considereed weaker; in the cas se of Iraq inn 2003, it is
s also challenged byy the apparrent
willingnesss of the United Statees to go to war (Russ sett, "Grasp ping the D emocratic Peace,"
in Brown et al, 1996 6; see also Panke an d Risse, 2007, pp. 98 8-105).
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a distinctly imperial foreign policy. The m
main disputte has bee
en over how
w to characterise
this form oof power and
a whethe er it should
d be welcom
med or feaared (see S
Section 4 of
o this
case studdy).
One impo ortant idea has been that the Un nited State es operatess at the ceentre of a distinctly
liberal em
mpire, an 'eempire of lib
berty' that is relatively benign. The
T extenssion of US power
has rarelyy fallen into
o the trap of
o making iimperialism m all aboutt the occuppation of te
erritory.
This charaacteristic of
o US hege emony mayy have parrtly resolved the prim ary problem of
imperial g
governmen nt - how to maintain ccontrol over diverse peoples
p in diverse terrritories.
Discussio
on questio
on
Do you co
onsider the
e US involv
vement in IIraq to be a good thin
ng?
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Case
C Studyy: The Iraq
q War, 2003
IR Theory in
n Practice Case Stud
dy: The Ira
aq War, 20003
Section 3
onstructiv
Social Co vist Theory
y and the Iraq War
Introducttion
In addition
n to this se
ection you should con nsult the Realism,
R Libberalism, M Marxism, and
a
Alternative theory seections of the case sstudy for immportant altternatives to constructivism.
The purpo ose of this section is to sugges t ways in which
w the insights yo u will have e learnt
from Chapter 10 of The Globa alization off World Pollitics (6e.) illustrate
i im
mportant as spects of
the Iraq W
War from so ome of thee constructtivist theoreetical persppectives. A As with the
e previous
section, h
however, byy no mean ns can the following beb an exha austive surv rvey of the possible
ways social constructivism mig ght help yo ou think ab
bout the Iraaq War andd its afterm math.
1) The im
mportance of law and internattional insttitutions
According g to construuctivists, le
egal normss structure social inteeraction at the interna ational
level in a way traditiional realis
st and liberral theoriess are not able to preddict. More
particularly, as Marttha Finnem more has w written, ‘inte
erstate use
es of force are increa asingly
shaped byy Weberian rational-llegal autho ority structures, speccifically legaal understa
andings
and the ruules or norrms of interrnational oorganizations’ (2003: 21). Finneemore sugg gests that
the two mmost significcant featurres of the ccurrent inteernational order
o are mmultilaterallism and a
general reeluctance byb states to o resort to force. At the
t same time, liberaal-democra atic
regimes h have emerg ged as und derwriters of international stability. With U UN backing g, it is this
liberal dem
mocratic blueprint tha at states a
and other multilateral
m agencies now use in na
humanitarian fashio on, Finnemore sugge sts, to ‘rec configure and reconsttruct problem states
when theyy intervene e’ (2003: 87; c.f. Owe ens, 2004).
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q War, 2003
to invade Iraq; the build-up
b of forces prio
or to invasiion was pre
esented ass designed
d to
ensure that war did not break out by com mpelling Sa addam Hussein to gi ve up his weapons
w
of mass ddestruction without re
esort to forcce.
well on Iraq
Box 3.1: Colin Pow
‘We wrote e [Security Council Resolution]
R 1441 not in
i order to go to war,, we wrote 1441 to
try to presserve the peace.
p We wrote 14441 to give Iraq one last chance.. Iraq is not so far
taking thaat one last chance. We
W must no ot shrink fro
om whatev ver is aheaad of us.’
U.S
S. Secreta
ary of State
e Colin Pow
well, 2003
Secondarrily, then-N
National Seecurity Advviser Condo
oleezza Rice argued that US pressure
on Iraq woould mainttain the cre
edibility of UN deman
nds that Ira
aq admit itss weapons
s
inspectorss.
The Bush h administration, afterr requests from Britain (where the t prospeect of war was
w less
popular), contempla ated askingg the Secu rity Counc cil for a sec
cond resoluution on Ira
aq. An
earlier ressolution ha
ad indicatedd that the iinternation
nal community had thhe right to take
t ‘all
necessaryy means’ to disarm Irraq if it faileed to comp ply. President Bush aargued tha at this
gave the United Sta ates authorrity to forcib
bly disarm Iraq.
Realists, w
who are scceptical of the UN an
nd international organ nizations, wwould argu ue that
this episo
ode revealss the weakness of thee UN and supports
s th
he realist cclaim that powerful
p
e the most important actors in t he internattional syste
states are em. Const ructivists would
w
respond, however, byb pointingg out the U
United Statees’ willingn
ness to preesent evide ence and
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expend re esources in
n pursuit of a second
d resolution
n itself reve
eals the poower of norrms of
international cooperration and negotiation
n.
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2) The so
ocial construction of
o threat
on questio
Discussio ons
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including by shaping
g the identtity and inte
erests of states. Warr, moreoveer, is also derived
d
from profo
oundly soccial processses, includ
ding the coonstitutive and
a regulaative effects s of
norms and collectivee expectattions, identtity and culture.
The war in Iraq, then, cannot be b fully undderstood from a cons structivist pperspective without
reference e to how thee identities aq and the
s of both Ira e United Sttates were defined affter the
1990-1 Gulf War an nd especiallly after the
e 9/11 attacks on the United Staates. The concept
of state id
dentity, as Latha Vara adarajan a argues, neeeds to be understood
u d as ‘dynam mic,
historically construccted structuures of mea anings tha
at constitute
e both “nattional secuurity” and
“threats”’ (2004: 3200). The United Statess government was ab ble to mob ilise domestic and
some inte ernational support
s to invade Iraqq by representing Saaddam Husssein as a tyrant,
while pressenting itseelf as relatively benig
gn.
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Baylis, Smith and Owens: The Globalization of World Politics 6e
Case Study: The Iraq War, 2003
IR Theory in Practice Case Study: The Iraq War, 2003
Section 4
From reading Chapter 9 of The Globalization of World Politics (6e.), you should now be
familiar with the basic tenets of Marxist International Relations (IR) theory. You are
advised to consult this crucial chapter if you have not done so already as its contents will
not be repeated here.
Where you see bracketed chapter references, for example (see ch.4), this refers to the
relevant chapter in The Globalization of World Politics (6e.).
Introduction
As with the other case studies, it will not take you long to realize that Marxists were the
most critical of the Iraq War, especially the motives of the United States and the way in
which the occupation and subsequent insurgency has affected the lives of ordinary Iraqis.
In addition to this section, you should consult the Realism, Liberalism, Social
Constructivism, and Alternative theories sections of the case study for important
alternatives to Marxism. The purpose of this section is to suggest ways in which the
insights you will have learnt from Chapter 9 of The Globalization of World Politics (6e.)
illustrate important aspects of the Iraq War from a broadly Marxist perspective. Again,
some of the authors mentioned in this part of the case study may not explicitly identify
themselves as Marxist, however, they are certainly radical in comparison to Liberalism,
Realism and Constructivism and they are all united in their critique of the United States’
actions. As with the previous section, by no means can the following be an exhaustive
survey of the possible ways Marxist and radical international theory might help you think
about the Iraq War and its aftermath.
In this case study, we will briefly focus on 1) the political-economic motives for the war
2) the hypocrisy of the United States and 3) the suffering of civilians in Iraq through
economic sanctions and war.
The principal justification given by the Bush administration for the invasion of Iraq is well
known – remove weapons of mass destruction and initiate regime change. Distinctive
about Marxism as a theoretical approach is its focus on political economy and the logic of
capitalism as the major factors in shaping world politics. Unlike a number of the other
theories discussed in Globalization, Marxism does not take the inter-state system for
granted. So although we might think of the Iraq war as a fairly traditional battle between a
state and coalition of states, Marxists and others suggest that something else was also
going on related to the structure of global capitalism. Recall that ‘No blood for oil’ was the
mantra of the millions who protested the war.
In the words of Michael T. Klare, ‘In the first U.S. combat operation of the war in Iraq,
Navy commandos stormed an offshore oil-loading platform. "Swooping silently out of the
Persian Gulf night," an overexcited reporter for the New York Times wrote on March 22,
"Navy Seals seized two Iraqi oil terminals in bold raids that ended early this morning,
overwhelming lightly-armed Iraqi guards and claiming a bloodless victory in the battle for
Iraq's vast oil empire." A year and a half later, American soldiers are still struggling to
maintain control over these vital petroleum facilities -- and the fighting is no longer
bloodless’ (‘Oil Wars’).
Although Marxists do not claim that the sole reason for war was to gain cheap access to
oil it is argued that the United States has positioned itself as the policeman of world
capitalism. Political-economic influence in the region is the most important factor, not
weapons of mass destruction.
Box 4.3: Why War? Links between oil and strategic control
In their quest for global supremacy and a capitalist world order favourable to US interests,
Bush administration officials may well have believed that militarily-based strategic
dominance in the Middle East, and an American hand on the world’s oil tap, would
represent a bargaining chip of incalculable value when dealing with potentially incompliant
allies and emergent rivals (especially China) even more dependent upon imported oil than
the USA itself.
Mark Rupert, “Marxism and Critical Theory,” in International Relations Theories:
Discipline and Diversity, 2007, p. 162
Other evidence in support of claims about the importance of oil may lie in the history of
President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, the latter of whom chaired the
administration’s National Energy Policy task force and was a major advocate for the Iraq
war (Rupert 2007: 162; Dreyfuss 2003: 44). Both are former oilmen with long-standing ties
to oil companies that do business in the Middle East.
Marxists are highly critical of the motives of powerful states and the way in which they
present themselves and their actions as benign. As the rationale for the invasion of Iraq
shifted as no weapons were found and the link between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda
was shown to be non-existent, Marxists found much to criticise, especially when the
rationale moved to the human rights of Iraqi civilians.
Between 1990 and 2003, the United States and the United Kingdom were the main
underwriters of a debilitating economic sanctions regime against Iraq. While the sanctions
were seemingly effective in preventing Saddam Hussein from acquiring weapons of mass
destruction, they had a lethal effect on Iraq’s humanitarian situation. Given the massive
human costs, Marxists question whether Bush and Blair’s claims to humanitarian
principles should be accepted. Added to this is the high number of civilian casualties as a
result of the war (discussed below). In short, Marxists suggest that American and British
claims to humanitarian purposes are hypocritical.
Marxism views itself as an ideology that has the interests of working and poor people at
heart. As suggested in Ch.9 of The Globalization of World Politics, ‘Marxist theories are
also discomforting, for they argue that the effects of global capitalism are to ensure that the
powerful and wealthy continue to prosper at the expense of the powerless and the poor’. In
relation to the Iraq war, therefore, the question is one of human cost, though of course,
Marxists are not the only ones concerned with humanitarian cost. (Much has been said
about this in other parts of this case study and in some sections of the Gulf War case study,
and you should consult these sections for additional material.) By the end of 2004, however,
independent security organization Iraqbodycount.net had estimated civilian casualties at
13,000 to 15,000. Within the Marxist paradigm, this evidence of widespread civilian
casualties underscored the brutality of Western capitalist states.
Section 5
From reading Chapter 11 and Chapter 12 of The Globalization of World Politics (6e), you
should now be familiar with Post-colonialism and Poststructuralism (which you may hear
called ‘alternative theories’ of International Relations). You are advised to consult these
crucial chapters if you have not done so already as the contents will not be repeated here.
The case study also references material covered in Chapter 17 on Feminist IR theory.
Where you see bracketed chapter references, for example (see ch.4), this refers to the
relevant chapter in The Globalization of World Politics (6e.).
Introduction
In addition to this section you should consult the Realism, Liberalism, Marxism, and Social
Constructivist sections of the case study for important alternatives to the theories
discussed here. The purpose of this section is to suggest ways in which the insights you
will have learnt from Chapters 11 and 12 of The Globalization of World Politics (6e.)
illustrate important aspects of the Iraq War from some of these alternative theoretical
perspectives. As with the previous section, however, by no means can the following be an
exhaustive survey of the possible ways alternative theories might help you think about the
Iraq War and its aftermath.
The concept of Orientalism is central to postcolonial scholarship (see ch.12). The term,
used by theorist Edward Said, describes the way in which the 'West' has constructed an
image of the 'East' as its Other, the opposite against which it defines itself.
Representations of the 'East', including the Middle East, have been central to Western
economic and political domination. Before Said's death in late 2003, he wrote that
Orientalism highlighted the Western representations of Iraq used to justify war. In his
words, 'There's been so massive and calculatedly aggressive an attack on the
contemporary societies of the Arab and Muslim for their backwardness, lack of
democracy, and abrogation of women's rights that we simply forget that such notions as
modernity, enlightenment, and democracy are by no means simple, and agreed-upon
concepts…' (Orientalism 25 years later).
The clash of civilisations that George Bush and his minions are trying to fabricate as a
cover for a pre-emptive oil and hegemony war against Iraq is supposed to result in a
triumph of democratic nation-building, regimes change and forced modernization à
l'américaine. Never mind the bombs and the ravages of sanctions which are unmentioned.
This will be a purifying war… Meanwhile, the soul-and-body destroying situation in
Palestine worsens all the time.
Edward Said, 'An Unacceptable Helplessness', p.446.
Post-colonial scholarship also found mainstream Western assumptions about the identity
of the insurgents in post-war Iraq problematic. In the words of Tarak Barkawi, 'The role of
the Iraqi people is to want to be free, for only then can the United States understand itself
as a liberator. Accordingly, the growing resistance to US occupation must be represented
as somehow not emanating from 'real' Iraqis. It is very important that the fiction that the
resistance in Iraq is mounted only by "Saddam loyalists" and "foreign terrorists" be
maintained, for to admit otherwise is to switch from discourses of liberation to those of
occupation' (2004: 33).
Discussion question
This is a more difficult question than at first glance because the meaning of an accident is
never given (Der Derian, 2001). Alternative theorists suggest that governments and
mainstream society attempt to normalise these events as unfortunate incidents for which
the US and its allies cannot justifiably be held to account. Because specific non-combatant
deaths were not wilfully intended as unique events, they should be classed as 'accidents';
the United States and its allies cannot be held responsible (or even criticised). A decision
to assign the label of 'accident' to an event, with its usually related idea of 'no fault',
however, can be contested by different and unequal parties through arguments supporting
particular social and ideological ends.
During the Iraq War, the political and military leadership in the United States sought to
portray all civilians who died as a result of the bombing campaign as having been killed
'accidentally'. In response a number of writers have suggested that large numbers of
civilian casualties have come to undermine - if not downright contradict - the humanitarian
In addition to the effect of the 2003 war on civilians, feminist IR theory (see Chapter 17)
focuses on the ways in which women were disproportionately affected by the sanctions
regime that preceded the war, an analysis which could possibly be extended to the
conduct of the war itself.
Feminists also note the presence of gender-based arguments and constructions in the
Iraq war. As Tickner and Sjoberg note, Saddam Hussein threatened to show the US what
a 'real man' he was, and the George H.W. Bush administration framed arguments of
sanctions and war partially on the terms of protection of Iraqi women (Tickner and
Sjoberg, 2007, p. 197).
A major strength of poststructuralist scholarship is its ability to reveal the way in which
political action cannot be understood outside of discourse, language and speech. It
suggests that the meaning of a particular discourse is always contested and that 'truth'
does not exist outside of (historically constructed political) discourse. As suggested in
Web links
www.un.org/Docs/scres/2002/sc2002.htm
Contains a link to UN Resolution 1441, which in November 2002 declared Iraq “in material
breach” of its obligations under previous resolutions.
www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/03/20030319-17.html
This page on the White House website contains the text of President Bush’s address
announcing the initiation of military action against Iraq in March 2003.
www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2003/iraq
Although it was archived in May 2003 after President George W. Bush declared an end to
major combat operations, this CNN website provides a snapshot of early coverage of the
war.
www.brookings.edu/saban/iraq-index.aspx
The Iraq archive, run by the DC think tank the Brookings Institution, contains a statistical
compilation of economic, public opinion, and security data, updated regularly.
www.iraqbodycount.net
This independent human security organization monitors civilian casualties in Iraq, based
on media reporting.
www.warphotoltd.com
The website of this museum of war photojournalism, based in Dubrovnik, Croatia, contains
partial displays of exhibitions related to the conflict in Iraq.
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