The Ba’th Archives Use Against the Iraqi Nation (Essay Sample)

THE BA’TH ARCHIVES USE AGAINST THE IRAQI NATION
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Introduction
Archives have for long been used by nations as a means of documented heritage, connecting them to their former identities and helping them unearth forgotten pasts. However, archives have had a longstanding and troubled history in times of war and international conflicts. Past national and international conflicts around the globe have demonstrated that national archives can also have a dark side to them. The 2003 US invasion of Iraq and immediate seizure of the Iraqi government’s archival records is an exemplar account of how archives can be weaponized against their own nation in times of conflict. The Ba’th party archival records constitute millions of government collections documenting the Saddam Hussein era in Iraq. The records, including administrative documents and intelligence files, were discovered in the Ba’th party headquarters’ cellar in Baghdad in 2003 and ended up in the custody of the US government for 15 years. Like typical archival records, the Ba’th records are invaluable as they richly detail Iraq’s painful history under the Ba’thist regime. Consequently, they have been used as evidential ground for the justification of war as a humanitarian intervention and have proven that archives can be a threat to the national security of sovereign nations in times of conflict.[ Katelyn Tietzen, "Recording Conflict: the CRRC and Ba’th Party Archives," Wilson Center, last modified July 13, 2020]
Using Evidence From The Ba’th Archives As Justification For War
The US using the Ba’th archives for political interests functions as a deterrent on how the concept of human rights can be exploited to justify war. The main prewar rationale for invading Iraq in March 2003 was to destroy the country’s alleged weapons of mass destruction (WMD). The US argued that Iraq was a threat to the NATO allies. Further, some officials believed that Al-Qaeda was under the Saddam Hussein and linked him to the 9/11 terrorist acts. By April the same year, the ground invasion by the US army had overwhelmed the Iraqi regime. In 2004, the intelligence the US has relied on to go to war was proven to be imprecise. There were neither WMD found in Iraq nor an established relationship between Saddam Hussein and the Al-Qaeda group. The US faced heavy criticism from domestic voices, its NATO allies, and the United Nations secretary general for its deficient reasons for going to war. Over time, evidence indicated that the principal justifications provided for the Iraqi War were not as factual and many questions lingered.[Danju, Ipek, Yasar Maasoglu,