During Iraq's eight-year war with Iran, Saddam used chemical and biological weapons against his enemy, including a massive chemical weapons attack against the city of Halajaba that killed several thousand civilians, and this was just one of some forty chemical assaults staged by Iraq against the Kurdish people (Pelletiere, 1998).
Since Saddam came into power, the people of Iraq have been in fear. In a dossier presented by Foreign Secretary Jack Straw in December of 2002, Saddam is said to have masterminded "the widespread and systematic torture of his political opponents and other citizens to hold on to power". The dossier lists intelligence material, firsthand accounts of Iraqi victims of torture and oppression, and reports by non-governmental organizations that show Saddam's inhumane treatment of his people, and the fear tactics used to force his people into compliance (Sardall, 2002).
In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, and was quickly counter-attacked by a U.S. led coalition. Though the coalition forces attempted to locate and destroy Saddam's weapons of mass destruction facilities, Israel's attack on Iraq's Osiraq nuclear reactor ten years earlier had scared Saddam into hiding redundant facilities all over Iraq. In an attempt to keep Saddam under control, the United Nations passed several resolutions that created sanctions and inhibited Iraq's actions, such as possession of weapons of mass destruction (WMD). .
Iraqi possession of WMD poses a serious world threat. Sadam has resorted to using WMD in the past without hesitation. What would stop him from doing the same in the future? According to the International Institute for Strategic Studies director John Chipman, "War, sanctions and inspections have reversed and retarded, but not eliminated Iraq's nuclear, biological and chemical weapons and long range missile capacities, nor have they removed Baghdad's enduring interest in developing these capacities" (Chipman, 2002).
