Meltdown Intelligence in Iraq War Essay

The war in Iraq became one of the most significant, historical events under the Bush presidency. However, the war in Iraq has revealed the extent to which intelligence can be significant in the outbreak of the war. On the other hand, the CIA has also proved to be unable to provide reliable and truthful intelligence information concerning the real situation in Iraq and its real military potential. In fact, the entire war has become a meltdown of American intelligence because the CIA provided inadequate report on the situation in Iraq and, what is more, the CIA has failed to locate leaders of terrorists operating in Iraq, which maintain the struggle with the US army and Iraqi officials today (Potter and Sick, 215). In such a way, American intelligence has proved to be unable to fulfill its main functions, adequate assessment of actual threats to the national security of the USA, location and elimination of enemies, which threaten to the national security and prevent a successful outcome of the military operation of the USA in Iraq.

Iraq became one of the major opponents of the US, which was considered to be as one of the main threats to the US. Shortly after the terror attacks on September 11, Iraq became one of the main targets of the US military forces and the Bush administration had started to plan the military operation against Iraq practically simultaneously with the start of the military operation against Afghanistan, where the presence of terrorist organizations was undeniable (Hamblen, 188). In the context of terror attacks on September 11, declarations of the American authorities concerning the threat of the repetition of terror attacks and mass destruction leading to numerous casualties were sufficient to convince the majority of Americans in the necessity of launching the military campaign against Iraq. On the other hand, the US lacked factual evidences and formal pretext for the war in Iraq. This was extremely important not only for the US but also for the world community. The US could not declare the war just because of the negative attitude of the Bush administration to Saddam Hussein and his regime or on the basis of unproved suspicions that Iraq supported terrorist organizations.

In such a situation, American intelligence has played the determinant role in the launch of the war in Iraq. In fact, the Bush administration attempted to represent Iraq as a serious threat to the US national interest and security of millions of Americans. The major goal of the Bush administration was to convince Americans that the potential threat from the part of Iraq was worth attacking this country, but Americans could hardly believe that such a threat is real since Iraq was situated in a different hemisphere and its technological and military potential was consistently weaker compared to the US military machine (Hale, 243). However, the report of the US intelligence revealed the fact that Iraq possessed the weapon of mass distraction and after this American people could not ignore anymore the potential threat (Levi, 147).

The war in Iraq seemed to be the only logical solution of the problem of the uncontrollable and dangerous regime of Saddam Hussein since, in case of the use of the weapon of mass destruction, the risk of numerous casualties seemed to be very high.

The US readily declared the war on Iraq after the promulgation of the intelligence report concerning the presence of the weapon of mass destruction in Iraq that became the formal pretext for the military operation and justified the war in Iraq for American people and the world community, which was also extremely disturbed by the perspective of the use of the weapon of mass destruction against third countries (Parker and Fellner, 65). However, eventually, the report has proved to be absolutely irrelevant to the actual military potential of Iraq since Iraq has never had the weapon of mass destruction. Moreover, the CIA proved to be unable to assist effectively in the elimination of terrorist organizations in Iraq, which represent a serious threat not only to the ruling Iraqi regime, which is loyal to the USA, but they also threaten to the life of American soldiers in Iraq since terrorists aim at Americans above all.

Thus, in conclusion, it should be said that the war in Iraq is a meltdown of the US intelligence, which has proved to be unable to provide precise information on the military potential of Iraq, overestimated its actual military potential and, finally, failed to eliminate terrorist organizations and their leaders in Iraq.



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