The 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq provides Western policymakers with an opportunity to restore trust in the rules-based international order. The United Kingdom can take the initiative by increasing its support for public-interest media and its development assistance to lower-income countries.
LONDON – The 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, represented a chance to reflect on the intelligence and policy failures that led President George W. Bush’s administration to launch an illegal war whose effects are still being felt around the world. It also provided Western leaders with a unique opportunity to right the wrongs of that disastrous decision.
As Lord Peter Ricketts, the former UK Ambassador to France, recently noted, the invasion of Iraq was the point at which the rules-based international order began to unravel. The invasion, together with the bloody occupation that followed it, turned Western voters against the concept of international intervention and caused poorer countries in the Global South to distrust wealthy liberal democracies.
The Iraq War, unlike the 1990-91 Gulf War, was conducted without the support of the United Nations. In the lead-up to the first war, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 660, which condemned Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, and the US-led coalition showed restraint by not deposing Saddam Hussein.
LONDON – The 20th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Iraq on March 20, 2003, represented a chance to reflect on the intelligence and policy failures that led President George W. Bush’s administration to launch an illegal war whose effects are still being felt around the world. It also provided Western leaders with a unique opportunity to right the wrongs of that disastrous decision.
As Lord Peter Ricketts, the former UK Ambassador to France, recently noted, the invasion of Iraq was the point at which the rules-based international order began to unravel. The invasion, together with the bloody occupation that followed it, turned Western voters against the concept of international intervention and caused poorer countries in the Global South to distrust wealthy liberal democracies.
The Iraq War, unlike the 1990-91 Gulf War, was conducted without the support of the United Nations. In the lead-up to the first war, the UN Security Council passed Resolution 660, which condemned Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, and the US-led coalition showed restraint by not deposing Saddam Hussein.