Pick a contemporary inter-state conflict between a Western state (i.e., the U.K., U.S., Canada) and a non-Western state and critically assess two competing explanations to the question ‘why do we fight?'

The U. S. -led invasion of Iraq in 2003, culminating with the final withdrawal of American troops in 2011, has had far-reaching consequences for the Middle East, resulting in regime change in Iraq, the outbreak of sectarian violence, regional instability, and arguably, the rise of extremist group Da’esh (Islamic State in Syria and the Levant), which now threatens the future of Iraq’s neighbours, particularly Syria (Fawcett, 2013). The result of the invasion, which was ostensibly aimed at the removal of a hostile regime and its replacement by a more pliant, liberal-democratic government, has severely impaired American interests in the Middle East, dragging the country through a damaging, expensive and prolonged war, and exponentially increasing popular hostility to the United States throughout the region, a factor which has proved to be a powerful recruitment tool for extremist terrorist groups (Isakhan, 2015). The question remains, therefore: why did the United States choose to go to war with Iraq in 2003?