Cause of the Iraq War

In a series of posts Alexandre Debs and Nuno P. Monteiro engage in a discussion with David Lake over the true cause of the Iraq War. Debs and Monteiro tend to lean on the notion that the United States did not have credible information on whether or not Iraq maintained weapons of mass destruction, and therefore acted on a principle called, “One Percent Doctrine.” Meanwhile, Lake focuses on the fact that Saddam Hussein failed to give credible information to the international community that he did not posses WMD’s.  I agree with Debs and Monteiro’s perspective and that asymmetric information is a main cause of the Iraq War for if it had been known by both actors that WMD’s had no role in this conflict than the Iraq War may never have occurred.

            According to the rationalist point of view war occurs based on notions such as credible commitment, and or asymmetric information.  According to Debs and Monteiro asymmetric information is at the root cause of the Iraq War. In this case Saddam Hussein is the actor that knows his country did not maintain WMD’s, and the US is the actor that maintained different information. Had Saddam Hussein made it very aware and public that his country did not possess WMD’s the US perhaps would’ve never intervened in the Middle East; for WMD’s in the

Middle East was not acceptable to the United States and would’ve tipped the power scale. Although he denied having WMD’s he did not make it public enough to stop US intelligence from believing that he did, therefore leading to the Ira War.

            Though Lake believes that credible commitment is the true cause of the war, and that irrational factors played a crucial role. While irrational factors can undoubtedly lead to a war, in the case of Iraq and the US irrationality was not at play.  The United States still believed that Iraq maintained WMD’s and on this basis going to war in Iraq, according to US officials was crucial to maintaining peace in the Middle East.

            While both Lake and Debs and Monteiro all present notions that are absolutely the causes of war in the situation of the Iraq War asymmetric information is the most logical cause of the war. For if Saddam Hussein put all his effort into making it known that his country did not maintain WMD’s the Iraq War may would have never happened.