American Exceptionalism and the Iraq Conflict

Kevin Peng
Mentor: Professor Emily Rosenberg

The Iraq War of 2003 has been one of the most controversial events in the War On
Terror due to the tenuous nature of the justifying evidence and the high cost paid to keep troops
in order to pacify the country. In the debate over this conflict, there has been public knowledge
that the Iraq War was long planned by important intellectuals and political figures, many of them
of the neoconservative stance. In my project, I have endeavored to answer the question of why
these important figures planned the Iraq Conflict. Through my research, I have found that the
cultural belief of American exceptionalism, which sees America as an exceptional nation because
of its supposedly unique and even superior nature compared to other nations, played a great deal
in influencing those who planned the conflict with Iraq. This belief is imbued with a sense of
national importance in what appeared to be a mission to spread freedom and democracy into
Iraqs beleaguered people, combined with a strain of ideological intolerance that saw the same
country as a threat to be pacified due to its connection, though tenuous, with global terrorism. In
addition, the cultural force of American exceptionalism gave the issues of national security and
national resources in terms of oil reserves, already significant motives behind the Iraq War,
greater importance.