Should George Bush the Senior Have Ousted Saddam from Power?

Saddam Hussein was the president of Iraq until he was ousted by the United States government. During his rule, Saddam was criticized because of his method of ruling. In addition, Saddam was accused of exerting atrocities against the people of Iraq. This was evidenced by the mass killings carried out by his administration. Saddam Hussein and his administration were considered to be a security threat to the people of the United States. These insecurity issues were caused by Saddam’s involvement in biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons agenda. These weapons could lead to massive loss of lives if used against a nation like the United States. Moreover, some people thought that the United States ought to have made a humanitarian intervention to rescue the citizens of Iraq subjected to the harsh rule of Saddam Hussein. For these reasons, some people believed that Saddam should have been ousted by George Bush the senior. On the other hand, the opponents of this idea argue that the United States was interested in Iraq because of the rich oil deposits found in it. The opponents believe that, the United States only wanted to achieve selfish gains. This paper presents the reasons George Bush the senior should have overthrown Saddam Hussein during his reign.
There exist mixed reactions about the role of the United States in ousting atrocities across the world. The supporters of the United States interventions indicate that this country should use its powers to quell atrocities across the world. According to these supporters, the United States should intervene when the international organizations, such as the UN fail to stop human sufferings across the globe. These people believe that George Bush the senior should have used the powers he had to suppress Saddam Hussein and his administration when Bush was in power. This would have prevented Saddam from committing crimes he is accused of executing. For instance, it is claimed that Saddam may have taken part in the 9/11 attacks against the United States. If George Bush the senior had ousted Saddam, may be these attacks would have been prevented. In addition, Saddam would have been prevented from harming the innocent citizens in Iraq through his iron fist rule (Shields & Koestler-Grack, 2008). Therefore, the people who support this idea believe that George Bush wasted a chance to oust Saddam when he had the capacity.
On the other hand, some people believe that the United States makes ‘humanitarian interventions’ if they have interests in the affected countries. For instance, the opponents of such interventions refer to genocides that have been conducted in different parts of the world. The opponents question why the United States failed to stop such genocides. A good example is the Rwandan genocide that claimed close to one million civilian lives. In addition, there was the Cambodian genocide that killed most of the country’s population. Somalia is another country that has experienced disrespect of human rights as well as Sudan. Therefore, these people believe that George Bush did the right thing not to oust Saddam because the United States would have been criticized for engaging Iraq, and not the other countries with similar problems (Clark, 2012).
Nevertheless, Saddam Hussein committed many crimes against humanity, and ought to have been ousted by George Bush the senior. Although the United States had not made interventions in other countries experiencing similar problems, it is not justifiable to overlook when such cases recur in other regions in the world. However, the United States should have highlighted its objectives to the whole world so that people across the world could understand the intentions behind the interventions. If the objectives are unknown, people would doubt the motive behind the ousting. Therefore, George bush would have identified the threats posed by Saddam, and taken a decisive action to remove him from power. If this happened, Saddam would have been blocked from committing the crimes that he committed after the reign of George Bush (Wingate, 2004). In addition, Saddam had committed several crimes before, which were against the United Nations Security Council decree. In addition, Saddam had refused to abide by the ceasefire stipulations enacted after the Gulf War. Therefore, Saddam and his administration posed future threat to the people of the United States as well as the world at large. There are several atrocities committed by Saddam that necessitated his removal from power.
Atrocities committed by Saddam Hussein
Saddam Hussein was recognized for his ruthless dictatorship and the mass killings by his administration against those who opposed him (Wedgwood, 2003). He used power, and instilled fear to remain in power. In 1982, there were attempts to assassinate Saddam Hussein by the Shiite. When Hussein learnt of this, he ordered the killing of the residents where more than a 100 people were slaughtered including children. A year later, 8000 members of a revolutionary group that included children and women were abducted and it was believed that majority of them were slaughtered. These were crimes against humanity, and removing him from power would have been appropriate. This would have stopped him from committing such crimes as well as serve as a warning against leaders across the world who committed crimes against its citizens.
Saddam continued to commit inhumane acts because no one dared to stop him. For instance, Saddam was involved in the genocide that took place between 1986 and 1989. Saddam Hussein’s government ordered the killing of all people and animals in the northern part of Kurdish (Wingate, 2004). More than 18,000 people were slaughtered, and others exposed to fatal gas poison and other chemical weapons. Saddam did not, however, put his focus on the Kurdish people only, but also destroyed other groups like the Shiite. He killed more than 22000 members of this group and exhausted their supply and stock of food, thus exposing them to harsh conditions that included starvation. During these acts against human rights, the United States government urged the Kurdish people together with the Shiites to fight back the administration of Saddam Hussein. This was after the Operation Desert Storm that took place in 1990 when Saddam invaded Kuwait. These crimes are unacceptable, and the United States should have removed him from power headed. Performing mass killings against innocent people by a government should be suppressed to avoid similar cases in the future. The deaths of such large numbers brought great suffering and misery to the people of Iraq. Saddam incurred huge debts from the war with Iran and needed to recover by raising the price of oil. However, he was irritated when the other States of the Arab Gulf rejected the idea of raising the oil prices, thus making him attack Kuwait (Shields & Koestler-Grack, 2008). As a result of this invasion, President George Bush gave orders for military deployment. Several nations joined the United States in this mission against Hussein’s invasion whereas others provided financial backing. During this war, infrastructure in Kuwait and Iraq had been massively destroyed, and the number of casualties was also very high. However, the Saddam government withdrew from Kuwait. President George Bush helped by using military power to prevent the massive killings. However, he should have overthrown Saddam’s government because of these inhumane acts in a bid to stop him from repeating the same in the days that followed.
Saddam also used chemical, biological, and nuclear weapons during his regime. He exposed lethal gas to those who tried to oppose him like in Halabja a town in Kurdish where 5000 people died, including women and children from exposure to this gas (Clark, 2012). The symptoms ranged from vomiting, blindness, and convulsion. Those who lived remained permanently blind, or disfigured whereas others suffered from cancer. By the time the gulf war came to an end, Saddam Hussein’s administration had weapons of massive destruction. A commission was created to search for the weapons and destroy them. However, Saddam’s government refused to comply even after economic sanctions were enforced against his country. There was no evidence found on the weapons for the first years of this operation until Saddam’s son revelation. He was the one responsible of these weapons, and confirmed to the commission that the weapons were there as he gave details of where they were hidden.
Before 1998, the commission had conducted more than a 1000 inspections in Iraq. The project of these weapons had started after the invasion in Kuwait where they started mining materials to make the weapons. The commission claimed that this program would have succeeded if it had not been interrupted by the Gulf War. It was also estimated that Iraq spent more than 10 billion US dollars in early 1980s in a bid to build nuclear weapons. Such activities were a threat to the United States as well as the whole world. Therefore, Saddam Hussein deserved to be removed from power to curtail his efforts of manufacturing weapons of mass destruction (Shields & Koestler-Grack, 2008). The United States should have taken advantage of the war in Kuwait to proceed and remove Saddam from power.
Despite the threat of security, Saddam brought deaths and sufferings to innocent people in his country. He continued with his activities because he believed that no one would stop him. The reluctance of George Bush to oust Saddam gave him more time to plan for crimes against the people. This can be affirmed by the contribution of Saddam in the 9/11 attacks against the United States of America. The deaths that occurred on that day brought immense suffering for the American people. However, the attack made the removal of Saddam from power a priority, and was he eventually removed from power (Wedgwood, 2003).
Conclusion
There are many arguments supporting and opposing the idea that George Bush senior should have ousted Saddam Hussein from power. Those who support this idea cite the atrocities conducted by Saddam against his people as well his activities on the production of several weapons of mass destruction. On the other hand, some people believe that the United States only intervenes in countries in which it is deemed to benefit economically. Nevertheless, Saddam Hussein had committed huge crimes against humanity, and deserved to be overthrown from power. In addition, his ambitions of manufacturing nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons were a threat to the people of the United States as well as the whole world. Therefore, George Bush should have used the power bestowed on him to oust Saddam from power. This would have ended the misery of the Iraq people, and serve as an example to other leaders contemplating to engage in similar actions.

References
Clark, G. T. (2012). Echoes from Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush. Texas: George Thomas Clark.
Shields, C. J., & Koestler-Grack, R. A. (2008). Saddam Hussein. New York: Paw Prints.
Wedgwood, R. (2003). The Fall of Saddam Hussein: Security Council Mandates and Preemptive Self-Defense. The American Journal of International Law , 97 (3), 576-585.
Wingate, B. (2004). Saddam Hussein: The Rise and Fall of a Dictator. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group.

References: Clark, G. T. (2012). Echoes from Saddam Hussein and George W. Bush. Texas: George Thomas Clark. Shields, C. J., & Koestler-Grack, R. A. (2008). Saddam Hussein. New York: Paw Prints. Wedgwood, R. (2003). The Fall of Saddam Hussein: Security Council Mandates and Preemptive Self-Defense. The American Journal of International Law , 97 (3), 576-585. Wingate, B. (2004). Saddam Hussein: The Rise and Fall of a Dictator. New York: The Rosen Publishing Group.