Iraq: U.S. Regime Change Efforts and Post-War Governance. Updated October 10, 2003

摘要

Operation Iraqi Freedom accomplished a long-standing objective: the overthrow of Saddam Hussein. But the post-war period has, by almost all accounts, proved more difficult than the Administration had anticipated. Past U.S. efforts to change the regime failed because of limited U.S. commitment, disorganization of the Iraqi opposition, and the efficiency and ruthlessness of Iraq's several overlapping security services. Previous U.S. Administrations had ruled out major U.S. military action to change Iraq's regime, believing such action would be risky and not necessarily justified by the level of Iraq's lack of compliance on WMD disarmament. In his 2002 and 2003 State of the Union messages, President Bush characterized Iraq as a grave potential threat to the United States because of its refusal to verifiably abandon its WMD programs and the potential for it to transfer WMD to terrorist groups. In Sep 2002, the President told the U.N. General Assembly that unless Iraq fully disarmed in cooperation with U.N. weapons inspectors, the United States would lead a coalition to achieve that disarmament militarily, making clear that this would include the ouster of Iraq's President Saddam Hussein's regime. After a November 2002-March 2003 round of U.N. inspections in which Iraq's cooperation was mixed, on March 19, 2003 the United States launched Operation Iraqi Freedom to disarm Iraq and change its regime. The regime fell on April 9, 2003. Prior to the war, the Administration stressed that regime change through U.S.-led military action would yield benefits beyond disarmament and reduction of support for terrorism. However, escalating resistance to the U.S.-led occupation has contributed to an Administration decision to enlist increased foreign participation in postwar peacekeeping and reconstruction. Formerly exiled opposition groups form the core of a U.S.-appointed 25-seat 'governing council' that was unveiled on July 13, 2003.