Legitimacy and America’s Pursuance of the War in Iraq

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The US emphasized the terrible crimes of the Hussein regime against its own population. The discovery of mass graves of Saddam’s victims during the invasion strongly emphasized its appeal to be a moral source of legitimacy (Fawn, 2006, p. 15) but it was not enough to shape international unease as the rest of the world was unwilling to legitimize regime change. This breakdown did not fully constrain the US, and it continued to focus on a moral sense of duty as justification for going into Iraq. Legitimacy also clarifies why the Bush Administration sought the consensus of a ‘democratic coalition of the willing’ for its invasion of Iraq. With no prospect of UN Security Council authorization, the US actively sought to enlist the support of other countries, Great Britain, Poland and Australia, in effort to legitimize its use of force. The US sought a “democratic consensus, to be more important than international consensus” (Clark, 2007, p. 186) suggesting that a select group of countries with liberal democratic credentials would serve as an appropriate organization for legitimizing force. Since US ambitions were global, the choice to pursue interests multilaterally suggested that the US valued a stamp of validity that would come from this constituency, deeming its actions to be just. The US also had to provide these allies with various arrangements in exchange for their support.

Washington’s inability to legitimize its actions within the international community resulted in the US having to shoulder significant costs for its activities. If the international community deemed US actions to be appropriate, US action would have been acceptable allowing for the ability to enlist the support of numerous other countries to share the burdens of conflict. The vast majority of countries were unwilling to support this aggressive position held by the US as it circumvented the UN Security Council. Consequently, the US experienced greater human, financial and political costs during the invasion than it might otherwise have had to bear. US actions provoked anti-American dissent throughout the world particularly from France, but also Germany and Russia, hampering the US’ standings on the world stage as a responsible country. The existence of legitimate standards and principles within the international Community did exert some, indirect, influence over the US leading up to and during its 2003 invasion of Iraq.

The Bush Administration showed little sign of being affected by principles concerning the use of force solely on the basis of the UN Security Council authorization but exerted significant effort to legally justify its activities by appealing on a moral source to validate its actions to the rest of the world.

As the world’s most powerful country, operating in the most pressing of security environments, the fact that the US swayed in these directions by the existence of legitimate standards within the international community advocates that “legitimacy can be a powerful tool” (Hurd, 2008: 389). The US’ decision to actively seek the backing of a ‘democratic coalition of the willing’ further suggests that it valued the social aspect from legitimacy. In the end, the US provided 85% of the forces and logistics required to sustain such an endeavor, a war that continues to pulsate through the region today.

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