Gulf War II: Iraq 2003—E-Brief
issued 6 May 2003
Maria Lalic, Information/E-link
Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade Group
On 8 November 2002 the UN Security
Council passed Resolution 1441.
This Resolution gave Iraq a final opportunity
to cooperate fully with the weapons inspections regime.
After much acrimonious diplomacy, the
United States unilaterally gave Saddam Hussein
a 48 hour ultimatum to leave Iraq. This presaged the start of the Second
Gulf War under Operation IRAQI FREEDOM.
On 20 March 2003,
George
Bush announced that more than 40
countries, including Australia, supported
the military action against 'Saddam Hussein's regime'. Coalition planning for the war against Iraq faced
early difficulties due to Turkey's refusal to allow the US to attack Iraq from its territory. However, the coalition thrusts from the South drove quickly towards
Baghdad, despite temporary resistance in cities such
as Basra and Al-Nasiriyah. Less successful were the coalition
attempts to target Saddam Hussein personally.
As the war now draws to a close, the
coalition attempts to find Iraq's chemical and biological weapons will become
more focused, as will the international attempts
to deal with the problems of post-war occupation and reconstruction.
Useful links:
Is War on Iraq Legal? - Columbia
Law School, Global
Policy Forum
Forces in the Gulf - ABC
(Australia), CNN
Iraq-Official Texts - United
States Department of State, Speech
and Transcript Centre
For copyright reasons some linked items are only available to Members
of Parliament.
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