Hypocrisy & Norm Enforcement: US Responses to Chemical Weapons Allegations against Iraq and Syria

Abstract

The use of chemical weapons (CW) by Iraq during the Iran-Iraq War appears to have been subject to far less decisive US responses than similar accusations against Syria during the Syrian civil war. However, the two instances have not yet been subject to direct scholarly comparison. This article treats the Iraqi and Syrian instances as two distinct cases and compares US actions to prevent, investigate and deter CW use on each occasion. After demonstrating that the US responded more decisively to the allegations against Syria, we then employ process tracing to locate both cases within existing theoretical discussions of US intervention in the global South generally, as well as CW norm enforcement in particular. In doing so, we propose that, in addition to other factors including the US aspiration to world dominance and its resultant framing of its material and security interests as well as a lesser regard for citizens of the global South, the anti-US stance of either the CW perpetrator or victim can also affect how the US responds to accusations of CW norm violation. This casts further doubt on the veracity of stated humanitarian motives for US intervention abroad.

Key Words:

• Chemical weapons
• hypocrisy
• Iran
• Iraq
• norm enforcement
• postcolonialism
• process tracing
• Syria

Disclosure Statement

The authors reported no conflict of interests in the research for or writing of this article.

Notes

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2 See Michelle Bentley (2016) Syria and the Chemical Weapons Taboo: Exploiting the Forbidden (Manchester: Manchester University Press); Güneş Murat Tezcür & Doreen Horschig (2021) A Conditional Norm: Chemical Warfare from Colonialism to Contemporary Civil Wars, Third World Quarterly, 42(2), pp. 366–384.

3 See for example, Joost Hiltermann (2007) A Poisonous Affair: America, Iraq, and the Gassing of Halabja (New York: Cambridge University Press); Bentley, Syria and the Chemical Weapons Taboo.

4 See for example, Tezcür & Horschig, “A Conditional Norm.”

5 John Gerring (2006) Case Study Research: Principles and Practices (Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press), pp. 100–101.

6 Tezcür & Horschig, “A Conditional Norm,” p. 370.

7 Gerring, Case Study Research, p. 101.

8 Richard Price (2019) Syria and the Chemical Weapons Taboo, Journal of Global Security Studies, 4(1), p. 49.

9 The latter are modified from Jennifer Erickson (2020) Punishing the Violators? Arms Embargoes and Economic Sanctions as Tools of Norm Enforcement, Review of International Studies, 46(1), p. 100.

10 See Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (2022) Our Work. Available at: https://www.opcw.org/our-work, accessed May 12, 2022.

11 See Gerring, Case Study Research, p. 50.

12 Isabel Hull (2005) Absolute Destruction: Military Culture and the Practices of War in Imperial Germany (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press), p. 332.

13 Matteo Capasso (2014) The Libyan Drawers: ‘Stateless Society,’ ‘Humanitarian Intervention,’ ‘Logic of Exception’ and ‘Traversing the Phantasy’, Middle East Critique, 23(4), p. 393.

14 Irene Kornelly and Craig Williams (2023) Completion of Chemical Weapons Destruction in the United States. Paper presented at The Fifth Five-Year Review Conference of the Chemical Weapons Convention, The Hague, Netherlands, 15–19 May 2023. Available at https://www.opcw.org/sites/default/files/documents/2023/05/Joint%20NGO%20Statement%20-%20Statement%20on%20Completion%20of%20CW%20Stockpile%20Destruction.pdf (accessed June 12, 2023).‌

15 Reuters (2009) Factbox: Key Facts About White Phosphorus Munitions. Reuters, May 9, 2009. Available at: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-afghanistan-phosphorus-facts-sb-idUSTRE5471T620090508, accessed June 8, 2023.

16 CIA (1985) The Iraqi Chemical Weapons Program in Perspective, January 1985, declassified November 9, 2009, pp. iii, 2, 15. Available at: https://www.scribd.com/document/163050054/Intelligence-Assessment-of-Iraqi-Chemical-Weapons-Program, accessed April 25, 2022.

17 Arshin Adib-Moghaddam (2006) The Whole Range of Saddam Hussein’s War Crimes, Middle East Report 236, p. 31.

18 See Pollack’s comments in Michael Dobbs (2002), U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup, Washington Post, December 30. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/2002/12/30/us-had-key-role-in-iraq-buildup/133cec74-3816-4652-9bd8-7d118699d6f8/, accessed April 16, 2022.

19 Joseph Kelly (1994) Iraq: U.S. Military Items Exported or Transferred to Iraq in the 1980s. Report to the Chairman, Committee on Foreign Affairs, House of Representatives, U.S. Government Accountability Office, February 1994. NSIAD-94-98, p. 4.

20 Ibid.

21 David Walker (2017) ‘An Agonizing Death’: 1980s U.S. Policy on Iraqi Chemical Weapons During the Iran-Iraq War, Journal of the Middle East and Africa, 8(2), pp. 178, 188).

22 CIA, The Iraqi Chemical Weapons Program, p. iii.

23 Dobbs, “U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup.”

24 Walker, “‘An Agonizing Death’,” p. 192; CIA, The Iraqi Chemical Weapons Program, p. 14.

25 George Shultz (1984) U.S. Chemical Shipment to Iraq, U.S. Department of State, March 4, 1984. Available at: https://nsarchive2.gwu.edu/NSAEBB/NSAEBB82/iraq42.pdf, accessed April 30, 2022.

26 CIA (1983) Iran’s likely reaction to Iraqi use of chemical weapons. November 4, 1983, declassified November 15, 2007, p. 3. Available at: https://www.scribd.com/document/163046998/Iran-s-Likely-Reaction-to-Iraqi-Use-of-Chemical-Weapons, accessed April 16, 2022.

27 Walker, “‘An Agonizing Death’,” pp. 184–186.

28 U.S. Department of State (1984) Chemical Weapons and the Iraq War, Department of State Bulletin, no. 2085, April 1984 (Washington: US Government Printing Office), p. 64.

29 CIA (1982) Iran-Iraq Situation Report. July 29 1982, declassified June 29, 2007. Available at: https://www.scribd.com/doc/163045562/Iran-Iraq-Situation-Report, accessed November 30, 2022, accessed November 30, 2022.

30 Walker, “‘An Agonizing Death’,” p. 188; See also Shultz, “U.S. Chemical Shipment to Iraq.”

31 Quoted in James Blight, janet Lang, Hussein Banai, Malcolm Byrne, & John Tirman (2013) Becoming Enemies: U.S.-Iran Relations and the Iran-Iraq War, 1979–1988 (Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers), p. 183.

32 See for example, Richard Price (1997) The Chemical Weapons Taboo (Ithaca and London: Cornell University Press), p. 139.

33 Dobbs, “U.S. Had Key Role in Iraq Buildup.”

34 U.S. Congress (1984) A concurrent resolution condemning Iraq for its use of chemical weapons and Iran for its human rights violations, H.Con.Res. 292, 98th Congress. Available at: https://www.congress.gov/bill/98th-congress/house-concurrent-resolution/292?r=50&s=1, accessed April 20, 2022; see also, Hiltermann, A Poisonous Affair, ch. 8.

35 Quoted in David Ottaway (1988) U.S. Decries Iraqi Use of Chemical Weapons, Washington Post, March 24, 1988. Available at: https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1988/03/24/us-decries-iraqi-use-of-chemical-weapons/4421ebe8-df59-477d-882b-7d381f3a1868/, accessed May 8, 2022.

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38 M. Zuhair Diab (1997) Syria’s Chemical and Biological Weapons: Assessing Capabilities and Motivations, Nonproliferation Review, 5(1), p. 105.

39 Jason Ukman & Liz Sly (2011) Obama: Syrian President Assad Must Step Down, Washington Post, August 18, 2011, p. 65.

40 See for example, Philipp Bleek & Nicholas Kramer (2016) Eliminating Syria’s Chemical Weapons: Implications for Addressing Nuclear, Biological, and Chemical Threats, Nonproliferation Review, 23 (1–2), p. 199.

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42 Price, “Syria and the Chemical Weapons Taboo,” p. 40.

43 Ben Rhodes (2013) Statement by Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes on Syrian Chemical Weapons Use, White House, June 13, 2013. Available at: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/06/13/statement-deputy-national-security-advisor-strategic-communications-ben-, accessed April 6, 2022.

44 Åke Sellström (2013) Final Report, United Nations Mission to Investigate Allegations of the Use of Chemical Weapons in the Syrian Arab Republic, pp. 6–8. Available at: https://digitallibrary.un.org/record/762282?ln=zh_CN, accessed May 21, 2022.

45 Brett Edwards & Mattia Cacciatori (2018) The Politics of International Chemical Weapons Justice: The Case of Syria, 2011–2017, Contemporary Security Policy, 39(2), p. 290.

46 Wikileaks (2019) OPCW Douma Docs. Available at: https://wikileaks.org/opcw-douma/, accessed April 20, 2022.

47 Rhodes, “Statement by Deputy National Security Advisor.”

48 Quoted in United Nations Security Council (1986) Provisional Verbatim Record of the Two Thousand Six Hundred and Sixty-Sixth Meeting, February 24, 1986. Available at: https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/Chap%20VII%20SPV%202666.pdf, accessed November 30, 2022.

49 John Kerry (2013) Remarks on Syria, U.S. Department of State, August 26, 2013. Available at: https://2009-2017.state.gov/secretary/remarks/2013/08/213503.htm, accessed May 8, 2022.

50 Price, “Syria and the Chemical Weapons Taboo,” pp. 44–45.

51 Office of the Press Secretary (2013) Remarks As Prepared for Delivery by National Security Advisor Susan E. Rice, White House, September 9, 2013. Available at: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/09/09/remarks-prepared-delivery-national-security-advisor-susan-e-rice, accessed April 26, 2022.

52 Bleek & Kramer, “Eliminating Syria’s Chemical Weapons,” p. 220.

53 Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) (2013) Syria Sanctions Program, updated August 2, 2013, pp. 3–4. Available at: https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/126/syria.pdf, accessed November 30, 2022.

54 Barack Obama (2013) Statement by the President on Syria, White House, August 31, 2013. Available at: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2013/08/31/statement-president-syria, accessed May 12, 2022.

55 Bleek & Kramer, “Eliminating Syria’s Chemical Weapons,” p. 206.

56 Rhodes, “Statement by Deputy National Security Advisor.”

57 Michelle Bentley (2017) Instability and Incoherence: Trump, Syria, and Chemical Weapons, Critical Studies on Security, 5(2), pp. 168–172; Price, “Syria and the Chemical Weapons Taboo,” p. 45.

58 Jeff Davis (2017) Statement from Pentagon Spokesman Capt. Jeff Davis on U.S. strike in Syria, U.S. Department of Defense, April 6, 2017, https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/1144598/statement-from-pentagon-spokesman-capt-jeff-davis-on-us-strike-in-syria/, accessed April 17, 2022.

59 James Mattis (2018) Statement by Secretary James N. Mattis on Syria, U.S. Department of Defense, April 13, 2018. Available at: https://www.defense.gov/News/Releases/Release/Article/1493610/statement-by-secretary-james-n-mattis-on-syria/#.WtGGdY9isV0.twitter, accessed April 18, 2022.

60 Andrew Bennett & Jeffrey Checkel (2014) “Process Tracing” in Process Tracing: From Metaphor to Analytic Tool, eds. Andrew Bennett & Jeffrey Checkel (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press), p. 6.

61 Bennett & Checkel, “Process Tracing,” p. 29; Gerring, Case Study Research, pp. 97–99.

62 See Bennett & Checkel, “Process Tracing,” p. 9.

63 See for example, CIA, The Iraqi Chemical Weapons Program.

64 United Nations Security Council (1984) Report of the Specialists Appointed by the Secretary-General to Investigate Allegations by the Islamic Republic of Iran Concerning the Use of Chemical Weapons, March 26, 1984. Available at: https://www.securitycouncilreport.org/atf/cf/%7B65BFCF9B-6D27-4E9C-8CD3-CF6E4FF96FF9%7D/Disarm%20S16433.pdf, accessed November 20, 2022.

65 Ibid.

66 United Nations Office for Disarmament Affairs (2018) Fact Sheet: OPCW/UN Joint Investigative Mechanism, July 2018, p. 2. Available at: https://s3.amazonaws.com/unoda-web/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/JIM-Fact-Sheet-July2018.pdf, accessed May 20, 2022.

67 Price, “Syria and the Chemical Weapons Taboo,” p. 49.

68 Price, “Syria and the Chemical Weapons Taboo.”

69 Price, “Syria and the Chemical Weapons Taboo,” p. 45.

70 Renee de Nevers (2007) Imposing International Norms: Great Powers and Norm Enforcement, International Studies Review, 9(1), pp. 53–80.

71 Ibid., p. 77.

72 Ibid., pp. 57–78, 70.

73 Richard Herrmann & Vaughn Shannon (2001) Defending International Norms: The Role of Obligation, Material Interest and Perception in Decision Making, International Organization, 55(3), pp. 621–654.

74 Ibid., pp. 650–651.

75 Ibid., p. 651.

76 Kerry, “Remarks on Syria”; Donald Trump (2018) Statement by President Trump on Syria, White House, April 13, 2018. Available at: https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/statement-president-trump-syria/, accessed April 29, 2022.

77 Rouhollah Ramazani (1992) Who Started the Iraq-Iran War? A Commentary, Virginia Journal of International Law, 33(1), pp. 85–56.

78 Blight et al., Becoming Enemies, pp. 95–124; Hiltermann, A Poisonous Affair, p. 215; for Iran’s ceasefire conditions and examples of ceasefire proposals, see Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani with Yaser Hashemi (1999). Overcoming the crisis: Records and recollections of Hashemi Rafsanjani 1979–80 [in Persian], p. 503 (Tehran: Daftar-e Nashr-e Moaref-e Enqelab); Associated Press (1982) Iraq Vows to Quit Iran, Fight Israel, New York Times, June 10, 1982. Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/1982/06/10/world/iraq-vows-to-quit-iran-fight-israel.html, accessed June 8, 2023.

79 Herrmann & Shannon, “Defending International Norms,” pp. 650–651.

80 Samir Amin (2004). U.S. Imperialism, Europe, and the Middle East, Monthly Review, 56(6), pp. 13–14.

81 Ibid., pp. 25–27.

82 Ibid., p. 17.

83 Ali Kadri (2016) Introduction: Arab Development via the Channels of War and Oil, in Development Challenges and Solutions after the Arab Spring, ed. Ali Kadri, pp. 1–15 (London: Palgrave Macmillan).

84 Ibid., p. 15.

85 Michael Parenti (2002). Determining Intent: Why Do US Leaders Intervene in Other Countries?, New Political Science, 24(1), pp. 40–41.

86 Ibid., p. 39.

87 Michael Parenti (2013) Syria, Sarin and Casus Belli, Michael Parenti Blog, September 30, 2013. Available at: http://michaelparentiblog.blogspot.com/2013/09/syria-sarin-and-casus-belli-by-michael.html, accessed June 6, 2023.‌

88 Tezcür & Horschig, “A Conditional Norm,” p. 377.

89 Ibid., p. 369.

90 Price, “Syria and the Chemical Weapons Taboo,” pp. 44–45.

91 Bentley, Syria and the Chemical Weapons Taboo, pp. 139–144.

92 Karim Makdisi & Coralie Hindawi (2017) The Syrian Chemical Weapons Disarmament Process in Context: Narratives of Coercion, Consent, and Everything In Between, Third World Quarterly, 38(8), p. 1694.

93 Ibid.

94 Cited in Blight et al., Becoming Enemies, p. 102.

95 Bruce Jentleson (1994) With Friends Like These: Reagan, Bush and Saddam 1982–1990 (New York and London: W.W. Norton & Company), p. 15.

96 Barack Obama (2011) Statement by President Obama on the Situation in Syria, White House, August 18, 2011. Available at: https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/08/18/statement-president-obama-situation-syria, accessed April 25, 2022.

97 Mohammad Samiei (2010) Neo-Orientalism? The Relationship Between the West and Islam in Our Globalised World, Third World Quarterly, 31(7), pp. 1145–1160.

98 Patrick Donovan Higgins (2023) Gunning for Damascus: The US War on the Syrian Arab Republic, Middle East Critique, 32(2), pp. 220–225.

99 Linda Matar & Ali Kadri (2016) Investment and Neoliberalism in Syria, in: Kadri, A. (ed.) Development Challenges and Solutions after the Arab Spring, p. 214 (London: Palgrave Macmillan).

100 Parenti, “Determining Intent,” p. 45.

101 Amin, “U.S. Imperialism,” p. 54.

102 Russian Embassy in USA (2022) The Embassy’s Comment. Facebook, April 13, 2022. Available at: https://bit.ly/3rlEwkP, accessed April 20, 2022.