1. “War is peace” this phrase from a book which was written by
George Orwell (Orwell, p, 34,) and it shows how can wars create peace.
Obviously, countries may live in peace after having a massive conflict
with another nation. Iraq is that Arabian country which is located in the
north of the Arab peninsula as well as neighbouring Syria, Turkey, and Iran
surrounding it from West, North, and East respectively. In fact, this
Middle Eastern country went through unpleasant, tremendous, and
aggressive problems within the last five decades. During the past fifty
years, Iraq had several conflicts with its neighbours that made the Iraqi
authority to use deferent tactics just to protect their people from an
expected invasion. Of course, Iraq has a great influence on the politic of
Middle East region especially on politic, power and in deterrence.
First, Iraq is one of the strongest players in the Middle East due to
its location. Iraq has different parties, which has influenced all countries
that neighbouring Iraq. In fact, Saddam Husain, who belongs to Ba’athist
party, ruled Iraq for more than two decades with strong control over Iraqi
foreign policy. For example, Iraq engaged with destructive and aggressive
war against Iran for eight years of fighting which had influenced on the
political relationship between Gulf States, and Iran because Arab
supported Iraq during that war (Hunt, C, p. 90). The Arabian
governments, especially Kuwait and Saudi regimes were threatening by
Iraqi government power that persuaded them to finance Saddam Hussain
against Iran. Obviously, that was a clear apply for soft power due to the
Iraqi population and armed army, so that affected on political decisions in
Gulf’s countries. Moreover, invasion of this southern peaceful country was
a tremendous issue, which affected on the political matter in the Middle
East, and even on the international failed. After Iraqi army, invaded
Kuwait shocked the Arabian countries as well developing countries such as
the U.S and United Kingdom. Indeed, this cruel action gathered thirty
states under the low of the United Nation with one aim which is
overthrow Saddam Hussain from Kuwait( Fattah, p . 229-231). The
invention of Kuwait had changed and affected on the political issue of the
region and the rest of the world as well.

2. Second, Iraq has much power compared to its neighbours, and the
reason for that is the number of the Iraqi army that formed the
perception and decisions of the former Iraqi government. Thus, Iraq and
Iran had fought for eight years during 1980s over the Shatt Al-Arab
waterway, and both sides relied of their hard power. According to Fattah,
“Armies, air forces, and navies, the bombing of the important oil-refining
towns of the Shatt al-Arab […] poison gas attack,” (Fattah. pp 223, 224).
What we can infer from that quote is that Iraq and Iran took their
decision to protect their proprieties by using all available weapons they
had. On the other hand, there were able to meet and negotiate the best
solution for that conflict by using soft power, but Saddam and his regime
made the same mistake when they used hard power again as a failure
solution to solve their conflict with Kuwait. The main reason for invade
Kuwait was the oil prices, and Iraq was in debt because they spent a huge
amount of money during the Iraq-Iran war (Hunt, 94.) This led to debt to
Kuwait for about 13 billion dollar. Saddam wanted the Kuwaiti
government to reschedule the Iraqi debt, but they refused which was a
source of Iraqi-Kuwaiti conflict (Hunt. 96-97). As a sequence for Kuwait
invasion, the allies of Kuwait and Saudi Arabia were ready to operate the
war against Saddam; this war is called Desert Storm that lasted for almost
one month and half. To sum up, hard power seemed as the first choice for
Saddam regime.
Finally, Iraqi government used deterrence during the war against
Iran as well as against Iraqi people by the U.S. The regime in Iraq was
really smart because they had threaten their neighboring countries by
announcing misleading information that they have mass destruction
weapons which gave them more advantages to be on the head of Middle
East countries. The truth is that, Iraq had no nuclear weapons, but this
information was announced by the U.S. as a part of propaganda the U.S.
used against Saddam’s regime. According to Butler, “Saddam is back in
the business of developing nuclear weapons. (Iraqi defectors say he
already has them.) This quote shows how the U.S revealed invalid
information about Iraq’s army ability, which made other countries in the
U.N, supported the invasion of Iraq as it happened in 2003. Furthermore,

3. the Iraq’s army started again building factors, which would help them to
develop their chemical and biological bombs (Butler, p. vii). Moreover,
Iraqi Government announced information that supported them when
American army invade Iraq in 2003, and all of that information was
announced by the minister of information whose name is Mohammed
Saeed Al-Sahhaf. (Demers. P 169.) Propaganda was an effective tactic
during when the Iraq was invaded by the U.S. in 2003. The information
minister AL-Sahhaf tried his best to serve his country against the
American army. For example, AL-Sahhaf announced that the Iraqi army
was killing the invaders outside Baghdad, and the U.S solders were
trapped in different areas such in Saddam’s airport. However, the truth
was that Iraq was collapsing because the Iraq army was suffering fighting
against the U.S due to the lack of fighting equipments, and shiiah and
Kurds took their chance to rise against Saddam’s regime.
Iraq lost its position on the political stage of diplomacy, especially
in the Middle East as they lost their effective influence on the
international stage for different factors that are related to American
invasion, and due to civil war that started after the Iraqi governments
collapse. Additionally, lack of control over different parties has created
many problems for the government such as creating appropriate
environment for terrorists to have basis in Iraq. Over all, Iraqi people
have been practicing war for fifty years without finding any solution for
their crises during that period; they have seen the sequences of conflicts
that they had against their neighbors, yet against each other inside Iraq.
Obviously, the right solutions to stabilize Iraq are agreeing to negotiate
the issue by allowing wise people to practice using soft power when it is
affective beside of using hard power when it is necessary which will give
them the power to defer whoever has an aim to take over their country.