Pretexts for war or reasons for war, Part I

  1. 2019:
    1. Administration Goal: Demonstrate to Iranians and to the American public that President DonaldTrump will respond to provocations
    2. Action: Assassination of General Quassim Suleimani
    3. Public Reason: Prevent an imminent planned major attack
    4. Honesty of public reason: Analysts say evidence for an imminent attack that was out of the ordinary is “razor thin.”
    5. Outcome: We don’t know. The possibility of a cycle of escalation leading to war
  2. 2003:
    1. Administration Goal: President GW Bush wanted to finish the war against Iraq undertaken by the previous President GHW Bush;
    2. Action: A war of choice against Iraq
    3. Public Reason: Remove a regime that had developed and used weapons of mass destruction and had harbored and supported terrorists.
    4. Minor public reason: Human Rights abuses and defiance of UN
    5. Honesty of public reason: Iraq had not developed nuclear weapons. Iraq had nothing to do with As Queda, which was responsible for the 9/11 attack. The minor reasons would not have been sufficient to go to war.
    6. Outcome: A nearly endless war. A war that is still going on. If there is a victor in this war, so far, it has been Iran.
  3. 1991:
    1. Administration Goal: Remove Iraq from Kuwait, which it had invaded.
    2. Action: President GHW Bush put together a coalition of countries from around the world and a UN resolution supporting them going to war.
    3. Public Reason: The same as the Administration goal
    4. Honesty of public reasons: Honest
    5. Outcome: Destruction of Iraq’s regime could lead to chaos, which is why GHW Bush stopped the war short of that destruction.