Implementation of U.S. Preemptive Defense Strategy and the Role and Place of the United Nations: The Case Study of U.S. Attack on Iraq

U.S. military invasion of Iraq, which was driven by the presumption of existence of weapons of mass destruction at the hands of Saddam, the undisputed leader of one of the eldest cradles of world civilizations, brought about numerous implications. U.S. performance demonstrated that preemptive attack doctrine had no operational justification due to lack of access to all needed information, a fact which was evidenced by U.S. failure to find weapons of mass destruction. At the same time, with its refusal to obtain UN permission for attacking Iraq, the United States questioned the legal principles upon which the United Nations was formed, thus undermining the international prestige of the institution. U.S. practice reveals intellectual weakness of the preemptive attack doctrine on the one hand, and displays U.S. inattention to legal and moral principles enshrined in the UN charter on the other.