The Probert Encyclopaedia of Warfare

INVASION OF IRAQ

In 2003 a 'coalition' of American led forces invaded Iraq without United Nations approval on the pretext that Iraq possessed, and refused to relinquish, weapons of mass destruction which were a threat to the security of other countries, including the USA. Within weeks the ruling Ba'ath regime was overthrown in a conflict in which coalition forces, including British troops, were condemned by the International Red Cross for breaking the terms of the Geneva Convention, routinely abusing prisoners and in 2005 it emerged the US troops had used white phosphorus as an anti-personnel incendiary weapon - chemical weapon - contrary to international law. No weapons of mass destruction found and the justification changed to 'the liberation of the Iraqi people', which a year later became all the more ironic as reports and photographs were leaked of the torture of Iraqis captured by American troops, including a report by the International Red Cross. The reality, according to opponents of the war, was that the invasion was part of the corporate plan for world globalisation - the corporate takeover of water, oil and electric production and distribution for profit, and Iraq, led by Sadaam Hussein, was not cooperative to the idea of the theft of the country's resources by Anglo-American corporations. President Bush of the USA and Prime Minister Tony Blair of the UK both with major financial ties to the relevant globalisation corporations used their countries armies to further their own financial gain. The illegality of the war, which was still raging more than a year later, proved the United Nations to be ineffective in policing aggressive nations.

Following attacks upon Iraq, a one-man anti-war protest by Brian Haw outside England's Houses of Parliament, all day and all night everyday since 2001 led to the Home Secretary, Charles Clarke, passing a law banning spontaneous protests outside the Parliament after failing to have Brian Haw evicted under existing legislation.

After the Invasion of Iraq, and the securing of its plentiful oil supplies by western oil companies, western oil companies reported record-breaking profits, and in February 2006 the Dutch Shell oil company reported the largest annual profit ever made by any company in Britain.
Research Invasion of Iraq