21.04.2003 8:59
The Iraq Question
As we watch events unfold, incredulous and bemused, this page will try and bring together information and informed opinion on all sides of the 'Iraq Question'. It is intended as a learning tool rather than one for advocacy, although I have my opinions and they will probably be apparent in my framework and choice of links. I will update this as often as I can. Please send me links and articles you think should be included, and do feel free to use this as a resource in any way you need.
March 21, 2003: Links to background information and the debate in the run-up to the war have been shifted here. This page will now hold analytical assessments of the war, its aftermath and consequences of recent events for international relations.
As Fighting Ends
Special analysis: Iraq has fallen. Saddam is deposed. But, after 27 days of war, little else is resolved, Independent, April 16, 2003.
Sally Weale, Who was it good for? Guardian, April 15, 2003.
Robert Fisk, Library books, letters and priceless documents are set ablaze in final chapter of the sacking of Baghdad, The Independent, April 15, 2003.
Robert Scheer, It's U.S. Policy That's 'Untidy', LA Times, April 15, 2003.
Contrast: Maev Kennedy, British Museum rescue pledge, Guardian, April 15, 2003.
UN sends antiquities experts to Iraq, BBC, April 15, 2003.
Background Resource: Iraq-Museum Baghdad (in German, but the images speak for themselves.)
Adrian Hamilton, The obscenity of bickering over death and torture, The Independent, April 11, 2003.
Susan Block, The Rape of Iraq, Counterpunch, April 15, 2003.
Bob Herbert, What is it good for? New York Times, April 21, 2003.
Ahmed Mustafa, Now the battle will begin for the 'mother of all contracts' Gulf News, April 21, 2003.
The Consequences of War
Ben Kiernan, Collateral Damage Means Real People, Foreign Policy in Focus, November 5, 2002.
Carl Kaysen, Steven E. Miller, Martin B. Malin, William D. Nordhaus and John D. Steinbruner,
War with Iraq: Costs, Consequences, and Alternatives, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, December 2002.The Economic Risks, The Economist, Feb 20th 2003.
William Nordhaus, Iraq: The Economic Consequences of War, December 5, 2002.
Desmond Tutu and Ian Urbina, Antiwar thinking: Acknowledge despair, highlight progress on 'moral preemption', Christian Science Monitor, March 20, 2003.
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, Consequences of War with Iraq, Panel. Link to audio, video and PDF transcripts here.
Phyllis Bennis and John Cavanagh, Talking Points on the US-Iraq Crisis: As War Begins, March 20, 2003.
Shekhar Gupta, It isn't about saving Private Ryan, Indian Express, March 29, 2003.
Thomas Friedman, Scorecard for the war, New York Times, March 26, 2003.
Mounting Concerns in Iraq: Street-to-Street Fighting, Humanitarian Distress, More Military and Civilian Casualties, A Brookings Iraq Series Briefing, March 27, 2003. (PDF transcript)
Niall Ferguson, The True Cost of Hegemony: Huge Debt, New York Times, April 20, 2003.
The United Nations and international relations in general
Richard Perle, Thank God for the death of the UN, The Guardian, March 21, 2003.
Martin Woollacott, Now Bush's doctrine of war will be put to the test, The Guardian, March 21, 2003.
Siddharth Varadarajan, Hows & Whys of Iraq War, Times of India, March 2003. (Audio file)
Jean-Pierre Chevenement, Un monde nouveau va naître, Le Figaro, March 21, 2003.
Edward C. Luck, Making the World Safe for Hypocrisy, New York Times, March 22, 2003.
Janadas Devan, When laws of the jungle fail in the jungle..., Straits Times, April 4, 2003.
Lawrence Freeman, The limits of UN power in the new world order, The Independent, April 16, 2003.
Rupert Cornwell, Has the war left the world a safer place? The Independent, April 16, 2003.
The world and the US
John Lewis Gaddis, A Grand Strategy of Transformation, Foreign Policy, November-December 2002.
Justin Vaisse, Old Europe remembers its history, Times Union, February 5, 2003.
Omer Taspinar, Europe's Muslim Street, Foreign Policy, March-April 2003.
Janadas Devan, War will saddle US with prickly Mid-East mandate, Straits Times, March 21, 2003.
Michael Kinsley, Unauthorized Entry--The Bush Doctrine: War without anyone's permission, Slate, March 20, 2003; Today we obey--Invoking international law when it suits us, Slate, March 27, 2003.
Hussain Haqqani, The American Mongols, Foreign Policy, May-June 2003.
Phyllis Bennis, John Cavanagh and Sarah Anderson, "Coalition of the Willing or Coalition of the Coerced?" Institute of Policy Studies report, February 26, 2003.
Richard Perle and Daniel Cohn-Bendit, "Blessed are the Warmakers?" A debate, Foreign Policy, May-June 2003.
Janadas Devan, Playing the unwilling enemy to the US, Straits Times, March 28, 2003.
"America had no Verdun," Interview with Joschka Fischer, Der Spiegel, March 24, 2003. (reproduced in the New York Times)
Thomas Friedman, Come the Revolution, New York Times, April 2, 2003.
Shekhar Gupta, When Bush Comes Calling, Indian Express, April 5, 2003.
Jeffrey Garten, The Cost of an Empire, Yale Global Online, April 2, 2003.
Jawad Muaddi, Preaching Democracy, Rewarding Authoritarian Rule, Dissent - MER 226 Spring 2003. (Chart)
Iraq's neighbourhood
Shekhar Gupta, The New Great Game, Indian Express, February 8, 2003.
Bronson Finds Many Arab States Wary of U.S. Post-War Policy, Council on Foreign Relations.
From Afghanistan: Phil Reeves, Living in poverty and fear of abandonment, the barely functioning state that trusted its saviours, The Independent, February 24, 2003.
Scott Peterson, Iraq: Saladin to Saddam, Christian Science Monitor, March 4, 2003.
Michael Crowley, The Enemy of My Enemy of My Enemy Is My What? Slate, March 21, 2003.
Tom Carothers and Bethany Lacina, Quick Transformation to Democratic Middle East is Fantasy, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, March 16, 2003. (From Carnegie Endowment for International Peace website)
Marina Ottaway, Promoting Democracy in the Middle East: The Problem of U.S. Credibility, Working Paper No. 35, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, March 2003.
Thomas Friedman, The Sand Wall, New York Times, April 13, 2003.
Osama El-Sherif, Diabolical designs of Iraq's occupiers, Khaleej Times, 15 April 2003.
S. Nihal Singh, American hegemonism finds a testing ground, Khaleej Times, April 15, 2003.
Asia
Abdullah Al-Madani, Asia Will Suffer Most from Fallout of War, Gulf News, Bahrain, February 2, 2003.
What Next?
Ethan Bronner, Iraq and the Lessons from Lebanon: 'Don't Forget to Leave,' New York Times, March 30, 2003.
The Peace that should follow
Nicholas Kristof, After War, Let Iraqis Triumph, New York Times, March 21, 2003.
Gerald Butt, Lesson from history: 1955 Baghdad Pact, BBC News World Edition, February 26, 2003.
Michael R. Gordon, Baghdad Peace: Made in Kosovo, New York Times, April 18, 2003.
Rebuilding Iraq
The Guardian, Key people for post-conflict Iraq.
Columbia International Affairs Online Focus, April 2003: Rebuilding Iraq. (Access may be limited by institutional subscription).
Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, War on Iraq. See Reconstruction section.
George W. Bush, Speech at the American Enterprise Institute, Washington, DC, February 26, 2003.
James Fallows, The Fifty-first State? Atlantic Unbound, November 2002.
Jim Lobe, Specter of Lebanon Haunts Iraq Occupation Plans, January 31, 2003.
Interview with Abbas Al-Nasrawi, (Iraqi emigre) The View, University of Vermont, Feb. 26 - March 4 2003.
Ian Fisher, Experts See High Risk of Strife in Iraq if Hussein Is Deposed, New York Times, March 1, 2003.
George Packer, Dreaming of Democracy, New York Times, March 2, 2003.
Philip Smucker, History speaks as US preps for peacekeeping, Christian Science Monitor, March 21, 2003.
Marina Ottaway and Judith Yaphe, Political Reconstruction in Iraq: A Reality Check, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, March 27, 2003. (PDF)
International Crisis Group, War in Iraq: Political Challenges after the Conflict, March 25, 2003 (PDF); War in Iraq: Managing Humanitarian Relief, March 27, 2003 (PDF).
Nicholas D. Kristof, Handing Over the Keys to Iraq, New York Times, April 15, 2003.
Minxin Pei and Sara Kasper, Lessons from the Past: The American Record in Nation-Building, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, April 11, 2003.
United States Institute of Peace, Establishing the Rule of Law in Iraq, April 2003. (PDF)
Ray Salvatore Jennings, After Saddam Hussein: Winning a Peace If It Comes to War, United States Institute of Peace, February, 2003. (PDF)
If this war is a precedent...
James Steinberg, The Risks of Playing 'Who's Next?', Brookings Daily War Report, April 3, 2003.
Khaled Ahmed, Pakistan will have to be 'next', The Friday Times, February 7-13, 2003.
Prem Shankar Jha, After Iraq, Kashmir? Outlookindia.com, April 14, 2003.
Tahir Ikram, Pakistanis Wonder -- Will They Face Iraq's Fate? Reuters, April 21, 2003.
Irfan Husain, Onus on leadership to tackle 'Is Pakistan next?' question, Khaleej Times, April 18, 2003.
Yossi Klein Halevi, Next, turn the screws on Syria, LA Times, April 15, 2003.
Simon Jeffery, US Condemnation of Syria, The Guardian, April 15, 2003. (This article clarifies and explains US statements. See also: Sarah Left, What the papers say, The Guardian, April 15, 2003; The Guardian special report on Syria.)
Adrian Hamilton, Syria: the fork in the road for Bush and Blair, The Independent, April 15, 2003.
View from the Gulf states: Next target: Syria? Khaleej Times, April 15, 2003.Other Resources
United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission (UNMOVIC)
Le Monde Diplomatique, Focus on Iraq. (In French, L'Empire contre l'Irak)
Foreign Affairs Guide to International Relations resources on the Internet
Opinion: The Debate about Iraq and Confronting Iraq, Washington Post
Center for Strategic and International Studies, Articles on Iraq by CSIS scholars.
Soldiers for the Truth. (slow download)
Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty, Iraq Report Archives.
Middle East Research and Information Project.
Arms Control Association, Iraq: Documents, News and Analysis
Le Figaro, La Crise Irakienne.
News Resources
All the sources listed here are published in English.
New York Times Washington Post Dissent magazine International Herald Tribune Gulf News (U.A.E.) Daily Mail & Guardian (S.Africa) Financial Times Khaleej Times (U.A.E.) Arab News (Saudi Arabia) Le Monde Diplomatique, English Internet Edition Babil (Iraqi newspaper) The Straits Times (Sights on Saddam page) (Singapore) The Globe and Mail (Canada) Dawn (Pakistan) The News (Pakistan) The Friday Times (Pakistan) Buenos Aires Herald (Argentina) Jerusalem Post (Israel) The Times (U.K.) The Independent (U.K.) The Guardian (U.K.) Sydney Morning Herald (Australia) The Economist (U.K.) (Access is limited to subscribers) The Nation Foreign Policy in Focus Daryl Cagle's Professional Cartoonists Index Der Spiegel (Germany, in German) Seattle Post-Intelligencer I would like to thank the following individuals for sending suggestions and links: Brian Souders, Abraham Epton, Jonathan Allen, Anand Rajaram, Badredine Arfi, Ben Kiernan, Stacy Schlueter, Paul Wallace, Valerie Hague, Andrew Green, Heather Tafel, David Sweet, David Prochaska, Edmund Burke III, Shyamala Raman, Alex Mikulich, Niranjan Ramakrishnan, Joseph Miller.
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