U2 11393154
Saddam had invaded Kuwait and attacked Saudi Arabia and Israel. The United States and other member nations were authorized by UN Security Council Resolution 687 to use all means necessary to remove Iraq from Kuwait as well as get Iraq to comply with all other resolutions. Iraq was not in compliance with 17 UN Security Council resolutions at the time of the invasion in March 2003. Saddam was in violation of the 1991 ceacefire agreement. So there was overwhelming justification for a ground invasion. Military action had already commenced against Iraq and had been steadily continuing from 1991 through 2003 in the form of limited military action primarily through airstrikes. So the United States was already engaged in a military conflict with Iraq prior to the March 2003 ground invasion!
All true, except this:
"Iraq was not in compliance with 17 UN Security Council resolutions at the time of the invasion in March 2003" that's because Iraq was in compliance with 1441. You forgot to mention that 2002 UNSC Resolution.
So why did Bush commit the US to UNSC 1441 in November 2002 which said in clear legal terms that SH can stay in power if he lets inspectors back into Iraq - which he did in fact do one month later.
Saddam Hussien and Iraq were never at any time from 1991 through 2003 in compliance with all the resolutions passed against the country. Iraq NEVER complied with resolution 1441 from 2002. To this day, Saddam's government has never accounted for thousands of missing materials from its WMD program that Saddam was required to account for as well as dismantle. Since the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States military over time discovered and collected over 10,000 artillery shells filled with Sarin Gas. These were old shells left over from the Iran/Iraq War, some too degraded to be a danger, but others still able to kill human beings or injure them. These shells were found all over Iraq in weapons depots mixed in with normal conventional artillery shells. In addition, to this the United States after the invasion found multiple WMD related manufacturing capabilities that were banned and in total violation of resolution 1441.
Resolution 1441 threatened Serious Consequences if Iraq did not comply and reaffirmed resolution 678 and 687 which authorized the United States and other UN member states to use all means necessary to bring Iraq into compliance with all UN Resolutions. Saddam's Iraq NEVER complied with resolutions that required Iraq to repair and repay all the damage he did to Kuwait as well as locate or explain what happened to several thousand Kuwaiti citizens who to this day remain missing. As of 2015, there remains unaccounted for WMD and WMD related weapons and production facilities, missing Kuwaiti citizens, property, and money that needed to be repaid to Kuwait. Saddam's Iraq was never in compliance with all the resolutions, and is still not today!
It was a necessity to remove Saddam from power, and the world and Persian Gulf region is much safer because it was done. Anyone that would argue against that would also likely have argued against removing Adolf Hitler from power in Germany prior to World War II there by saving 10s of millions of lives.