On American Policy Towards Iraq After The Cold War

The area of Middle East holds an important strategic position and has richresources, so it has always been a key area that big powers fight for and always beenin a state of war. Several governments of the US, to serve its global strategicinterests, gain a leading position in the Middle East and materialize its strategicintention, have carried out a series of hegemonist policies towards Middle East,especially towards Iraq. To study this issue is of great political and realisticsignificance for safeguarding world peace and stability. However, present studies onthis issue are neither systematic nor deep enough. In this article, the author, byanalysis and comparison on a large amount of first-hand materials and throughcombining normative research with positive research, concentrated his efforts onanalyzing and revealing and the policies of Clinton Administration and Bush Jr.Administration towards Iraq. Because of the close relationship between what thearticle explores and the current affairs, the author invested most of his efforts inanalyzing the true nature and consequences of policies of Bush Jr. Administrationtowards Iraq. This article consists of three parts: The first part: by starting with studying the position of Iraq in US globalstrategy, the author analyzed main content of the policy of Clinton Administrationtowards Iraq. 1. To destabilize Saddam's regime by means of economic sanction; 2.To weaken Iraq's military strength through the use of nuclear weapon inspection; 3.To cut the actual control power of Iraq government by setting up "no-fly-zone"; 4.To employ military attack to support the tactics of "effecting transformation bypolitical means". The above policy was aimed at containing Saddam's regime and"pressed transformation"so that inner change of Iraq regime would take place andthe goal of overthrowing Saddam's regime be achieved.0 The second part is about the reason why the US adjusted its policy towards Iraqafter Bush Jr. Administration took office. Mainly for two reasons, the US did so. Oneis that the containment policy of Clinton Administration towards Iraq twisted thenormal political and economic order in the Middle East and were against the will ofmost nations and thus fell into difficulties in the process of implementation; the otheris the change of international situation after September 11 resulted in a favorableopportunity for the US to adjust its policies towards Iraq. With this as a basis, theauthor analyzed the adjusting the US policy towards Iraq after Bush Jr.Administration took office. Main content of the policy: 1. To deny the legitimacy ofSaddam's regime politically; 2. To continue sanction economically; 3. To activelyseek to establish an international anti-Iraq coalition diplomatically; 4. To formulatethe "preemption"strategy militarily, step up military deployment and implementdirect military attack, overthrow Saddam's regime by the force of arms finally. The third part focuses on analyzing the true nature and consequence of the USpolicies towards Iraq. The US policy towards Iraq is a reflection of power politicsand hegemonism. The true nature of the policy manifested itself through thefollowings: 1. "Theory of Failed Nations"constitutes a pretext for the US to interferein the internal affairs of other countries; 2. "unilateralism"and the "preemption"strategy revealed the ambition of the US to seek a unipolar world. In the last sectionof this part, the author pointed out the effect of the hegemonist policy of the UStowards Iraq. 1. Cause the situation in Iraq to worsen in an all-round way; 2. It ismore turbulent in the situation of the Middle East; 3. Making the world"anti-terrorism"situation more severe and complex and 4. It is more difficult for theworld to develop in a multi-polar way. Through the above analysis we can find out that in post-cold war era thepolicies Clinton Administration and Bush Jr. Administration towards Iraq, though