What's Behind US Action Against Iraq?

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, January 27, 2003

What's Behind US Action Against Iraq?

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In a historic move, UN weapons inspectors will submit a key report on Jan. 27 to the UN Security Council, and the world will be watching whether the United States consequently launches large-scale military action against Iraq.

Some international relations analysts observe that by its military action against Iraq, the United States is attempting not only to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime, but also to resolve problems in the Middle East in one go.

"The United States aims to achieve a series of strategic objectives by attacking Iraq, and the most important one is to remove Saddam, the core trouble for the United States in the Middle East," said Professor Wu Xinbo of the American Studies Center of Shanghai's Fudan University.

Recently US President George W. Bush has repeatedly threatened military action against Iraq if Saddam Hussein refuses to abide by UN resolutions calling for it to disarm.

US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld has ordered two more aircraft carrier battle groups, the USS Abraham Lincoln and USS Theodore Roosevelt, to be deployed in the Gulf region, joining two groups already positioned within striking distance of Iraq.

Tao Wenzhao, deputy-director of the Institute of American Studies under the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, a Beijing-based think-tank, said the basic reason for the Bush administration's seeking such military action is that the United States will "not allow any country, any organization or any individual to challenge its authority", which "Saddam precisely tries to challenge".

Although Iraq suffered severely during the 1991 Gulf War and the aftermath of UN sanctions have worsened its situation, Saddam still secured a record "100 percent vote" in a recent referendum.

"In no way can the United States tolerate such a challenge, so it is determined to remove Saddam," Tao said.

Another strategic bid by the United States is to address difficulties arising in its relations with some nations in the Middle East and the Arab world, including Iran, Libya, Jordan and Saudi Arabia, according to Wu.

"The United States will 'settle accounts', so to speak, with them one by one after it ends its action against Iraq," said Wu, adding that some Americans believe those nations are more or less problematic.

Even Saudi Arabia, which has good relations with the United States, has been accused of supporting terrorists or of being inactive in anti-terrorism campaigns, he said.

Tao said the US decision to resort to force also resulted from its suspicion that Iraq possesses weapons of massive destruction.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the United States, Americans worry greatly about the combination of terrorism with the proliferation of weapons of massive destruction.

Many Americans believe that Saddam has re-armed with chemical and biological weapons and improved cover-up skills. They think that Saddam is still "delaying" , "deceiving" and "playing hide-and-seek" with the UN inspectors.

According to Wu, however, the ultimate objective of the United States is to transform the Islamic world in the Middle East.

At present, a sort of "cultural conflict theory" is popular in the United States, which preaches that the Islamic civilization has fundamental conflicts with the Western Christian civilization. It is a "theory" coincidentally proven by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

In line with this "theory", the only way to eliminate the conflicts is to transform the entire Islamic world and steer it toward the path of Western-style democracy.

Such a strategic attempt might not be achieved smoothly, experts observe.

"Removing Saddam does not solve the core problems in the region (the Middle East), which revolve around the Palestinian issue," Ralph Cossa, president of the Pacific Forum CSIS (the Center for Strategy and International Studies), a Honolulu-based think-tank, told Xinhua via an E-mail.

Economic considerations are another factor, if not a major one, driving the United States to resort to military action. Wu and Taoshare the view that Americans are attempting to control the oil in the Middle East.

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