March 2003 was a turning point in modern American and world history; it marked a change in foreign policy of America, moving from a defensive military policy, to one of pre-emptive war. President Bush sent our armed forces overseas to overthrow Saddam Hussein's regime in Iraq. In the weeks leading up to, and after the deployment of our troops, there were many anti-war protests, questioning the legitimacy of the reasons for war. Given the intelligence President Bush had, and the audacious crimes committed by the regime, President Bush was correct in sending our troops to Iraq.
Saddam Hussein has been viewed as an international threat since the end of the first Gulf War. As a condition of Iraq's surrender, Saddam Hussein was forced to destroy all biological, chemical, and nuclear programs, and allow UN inspectors to investigate the weapons sites, however he has persistently denied weapons inspectors into places that seemed to be "concealing key information and material"(Spotlight on Iraq) about his weapons programs. He had finally refused the inspectors in 1998, a direct violation of the United Nations demands. The UN than placed Iraq under sanctions, while successful at first, the sanctions were "killing about 36,000 Iraqis a year, 24,000 of them children under the age of 5." (Friedman) This killed more Iraqis in a month than one week of war did. As a result of Saddam's defiantness President Clinton identified Saddam as a threat to both American and world security, an official in the Clinton administration said, "Washington already believes it has all the authority it needs to launch military action in Iraq."(Strobel) When discussing the military options in Iraq, President Clinton said, "Military bombing could remove Saddam's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons", which hints that he had strong intelligence that Iraq had a cache of banned weapons.
This supports the claim by the Bush administration's claims that Iraq has, or has the capability to produce chemical, biological, or nuclear weapons.
