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US - IRAQ WAR
Last updated on: 2/5/2009 4:15:00 AM PST US - Iraq War Home Page > Source Biographies > >National Security Council (NSC)

National Security Council (NSC) Biography

Position: Pro to the question "Should the US Have Attacked Iraq?"
Reasoning:
"The interesting thing about the Iraq case was that the United Nations had determined that Saddam Hussein was a threat. This is a regime that was sanctioned by the United Nations 17 times in resolutions, many of them referring directly to the threat of his weapons of mass destruction. This was a regime in which the United Nations had tried to put inspectors into the country, only to have them effectively pulled out of the country because they couldn't do their work. These were -- this was a regime that had lost a war in 1991, signed on to a set of obligations to the United Nations, and then systematically violated them. And so the idea that somehow this was an American decision to deal with the Iraqi regime, what the United States finally did -- not just the United States but a number of other countries, as well -- is to say that if U.N. resolutions are to actually matter, if countries are not just to violate them without -- with impunity, to have no responsibility for violating those, then the U.N. is not going to be very strong. The Security Council is not going to be very strong. And, indeed, Resolution 1441, the one that set up new inspections was a 15 to 0 vote of the U.N. Security Council."
"National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice Interview with ZDF German Television," American Presidency Project website, July 31, 2003
[Editor's Note: Condoleezza Rice was head of the National Security Council at the time of her Pro statement above.]
Theoretical Expertise Ranking:  Organizations/VIPs/Others
Individuals and organizations that do not fit into the other star categories.
Description:
"The National Security Act of July 26, 1947, created the National Security Council under the chairmanship of the President, with the Secretaries of State and Defense as its key members, to coordinate foreign policy and defense policy, and to reconcile diplomatic and military commitments and requirements...

Presidents have sought to use the National Security Council system to integrate foreign and defense policies in order to preserve the nation's security and advance its interests abroad. Over the years, the NSC has changed in its structure and function to reflect the management style of each President, as well as the demands of a world in constant flux."
"NSC History," White House website (accessed Feb. 4, 2009)
Mission:
"Since the end of World War II, each administration has sought to develop and perfect a reliable set of executive institutions to manage national security policy, and tried to install a policy-making and coordination system that reflected each President's personal management style. The National Security Council (NSC) has long been at the center of this foreign policy coordination system...

The view that the NSC had been created to coordinate political and military questions quickly gave way to the understanding that the NSC existed to serve the President alone. The view that the Council's role was to foster collegiality among departments also gave way to the need by successive Presidents to use the Council as a means of controlling and managing competing departments"
"NSC History," White House website (accessed Feb. 4, 2009)
Other: US government office
US - Iraq War Homepage
Top Pro & Con Quotes
Top Pro & Con Quotes
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Historic timeline
Historical Timeline, 1990 - 2011
RECOMMENDED to you...
1
Did You Know?
2
Readers' Comments
3
Historical Timeline, Pre-History - 1989
4
Deaths from the War in Iraq
5
Costs of the Iraq War
6
Opinion Polls/Surveys
7
Key Documents
8
Facts About Iraq
9
Maps of Iraq, the Middle East, and the Arab League
10
Coalition Forces in Iraq
11
26 Countries' WMD Programs; A Global History of WMD Use
12
United Nations Reference
13
United Nations Security Council Resolutions on Iraq
14
US-Iraq Relations by US President, 1981-Mar. 19, 2003
15
Bush Administration Quotes on Iraq
+ PROS & CONS BY CATEGORY
CORE QUESTION
Justifications for Invading Iraq
Saddam Hussein
Weapons in Iraq
US - Iraq Relations
Iraq's Oil
Iraqi Sectarianism
Safety and Security
Insurgency and Terrorism
Prisoners of War
Cost of the War
The United Nations (UN)
US Troop Reduction or Withdrawal
+ DIG DEEPER...
Source Biographies
Site Map
Notices Archive
Glossary
Arab League Reference
Ethnic and Religious Groups In Iraq
Downing Street Memo
Iraq Statements by Former National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
Iraq Statements by Former US Department of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld
Iraq Statements by Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell
Iraq Statements by US President George W. Bush
Iraq Statements by US Vice President Cheney
New Iraqi Flag Approved by Iraqi Lawmakers
President Bush Announces Combat Operations in Iraq Have Ended
Remarks to the United Nations Security Council from US Secretary of State Colin L. Powell.
Saddam Hussein Executed on December 30, 2006
43rd US President Speaks to the United Nations General Assembly
Oct. 2002 Congressional Votes Authorizing the President
to Use Military Force Against Iraq
Massive Reconstruction Waste in Iraq Says Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction
2012 Presidential Candidates' Positions on US-Iraq War
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