United Nations Security Council And The Iraq War
Timelines
- 2003
- 2004
- 2005
- 2006
- 2007
- 2008
- 2009
- 2010
- 2011
Phases
- Invasion
- Post-invasion insurgency
- Civil war
- Insurgency 2008-2011
- US withdrawal violence
|
Battles and operations of the Iraq War |
|
|---|---|
|
Invasion (2003)
Post-invasion insurgency
Civil War
Surge (2007)
Insurgency (2008-2011)
Drawdown
|
|
|
Insurgent attacks of the Iraq War |
|
|---|---|
|
‡ indicates attacks resulting in over 100 deaths
|
|
In March 2003 the United States government announced that "diplomacy has failed" and that it would proceed with a "coalition of the willing" to rid Iraq under Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass destruction the US insisted it possessed. The 2003 invasion of Iraq began a few days later.
Prior to this decision, there had been much diplomacy and debate amongst the members of the United Nations Security Council over how to deal with the situation. This article examines the positions of these states as they changed during 2002-2003.
Prior to 2002, the Security Council had passed 16 resolutions on Iraq. In 2002, the Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1441.
In 2003, the governments of the US, Britain, and Spain proposed another resolution on Iraq, which they called the "eighteenth resolution" and others called the "second resolution." This proposed resolution was subsequently withdrawn when it became clear that several permanent members of the Council would cast no votes on any new resolution, thereby vetoing it. Had that occurred, it would have become even more difficult for those wishing to invade Iraq to argue that the Council had authorized the subsequent invasion. Regardless of the threatened or likely vetoes, it seems that the coalition at no time was assured any more than four affirmative votes in the Council—the US, Britain, Spain, and Bulgaria—well short of the requirement for nine affirmative votes.
On September 16, 2004 Secretary-General of the United Nations Kofi Annan, speaking on the invasion, said, "I have indicated it was not in conformity with the UN Charter. From our point of view, from the charter point of view, it was illegal."
Read more about United Nations Security Council And The Iraq War: Inspections, Colin Powell's Presentation, Report of Hans Blix On February 14, Report of Blix On March 7, Invasion, Positions of Security Council Members, Powell Retraction
Other articles related to "united nations security council and the iraq war, united":
... I'm the one who presented it on behalf of the United States to the world, and will always be a part of my record ...
Famous quotes containing the words council, war, nations, united and/or security:
“There by some wrinkled stones round a leafless tree
With beards askew, their eyes dull and wild
Twelve ragged men, the council of charity
Wandering the face of the earth a fatherless child....”
—Allen Tate (1899–1979)
“Peace to the shacks! War on the palaces!”
—Georg Büchner (1813–1837)
“He had that curious love of green, which in individuals is always the sign of a subtle artistic temperament, and in nations is said to denote a laxity, if not a decadence of morals.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“An alliance is like a chain. It is not made stronger by adding weak links to it. A great power like the United States gains no advantage and it loses prestige by offering, indeed peddling, its alliances to all and sundry. An alliance should be hard diplomatic currency, valuable and hard to get, and not inflationary paper from the mimeograph machine in the State Department.”
—Walter Lippmann (1889–1974)
“There is one safeguard known generally to the wise, which is an advantage and security to all, but especially to democracies as against despots. What is it? Distrust.”
—Demosthenes (c. 384–322 B.C.)