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Historical Account Of The War Between The Bushes(Iraq) - A Survey Of The Use Of Airpower

The various US administrations since the end of the Persian war wanted regime change through military and non military action in Iraq. It was a general belief by the various US governments that this change would be of great benefit to the Iraq people through what they called the “ousting of an oppressive regime,” and the” promotion of peace and democracy throughout the Middle East.” It was also in line with the US desire to control the Middle Eastern politics for the purposes of its vast oil resources and its likelihood to contain terrorist groups.
 
This interest continued for more than eleven years culminating into an attack in 2003. From the time of the Persian war until the final US attack in 2003 a lot of attempts, were made to bring about regime change in Iraq. The UN Security Council imposed a number of sanctions on Iraq. These included economic sanctions like imposing restrictions to the exports to Iraq of civilian equipment as well as banning on exports to Iraq of military useful goods which could help in building up Iraq Military strength.
 
One of the strategies mostly used during this period, by The UN Security Council and the US was the use of Coercive airpower strategy. Defined as, “the use of force, either to compel the enemy to stop an unwanted action or to deter him starting one,” Wessley, P.  (2003) The airpower employs strategies like: Denial: which seeks to deny the enemy an opportunity to attack, Punishment: which increases (even though may be imaginary) the costs of further non compliance to the enemy state, Risk: which employs the strategy of creating fear of terrible consequences as a result of non compliance in the enemy camp and Decapitation:  which seeks to eliminate the enemy leadership with the conviction that with the elimination of the head, the entire organization is severely crippled that it may not continue to operate further. This strategy uses techniques like the elimination of leaders of the enemy groups through...