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Desert Storm Essay, Research Paper

The Persian Gulf War

War was inevitable in the Gulf and it was a war in which Iraq was

inevitability to lose. There were several reasons why this was and became a

reality. How, when, where did this process of self destruction begin? It

was quite evident that Saddam Hussein. the president of Iraq, was becoming

a military giant in the Middle East and therefore a threat to the stability

of the entire region. His war with Iran was proof of this. The U.S. and

other industrialized Western nations could not risk the loss of oil from

the area. Kuwait is the second largest source of petroleum in the Middle

East and so Iraqi invasion of Kuwait sent the world oil market into a

frenzy. Iraqi forces then gathered their forces on the border with Saudi

Arabia, the second largest supplier of oil in the world. This in turn

brought the military might of the United States into the conflict.

There are several reasons why Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. “After

the 8 year war with Iran over territorial disputes and religious rivalries

between the Iranian Shiites and Iraqi Sunni factions, Iraq had a massive

debt to many Arab nations including Kuwait.”2 The rulers of these nations

wanted some of their money back but Iraq thought they were ingrates and

were ungrateful for defending the Arab emirs from the Iranian Islamic

fundamentalism. The Arab emirs were afraid that the Islamic fundamentalists

would rise against the government and eventually take over the government

as they had Iran against the Shah. Kuwait was also afraid of this and so

they supported the Iraqi Arabs against the Iranian Persians.

2″Iraq”,World Book (New York, World Book, 1990), Vol 10, p. 260

The funds that Gulf countries lent to Iraq were used to buy high tech

weapons, high tech weapons that made Iraq one of the largest armies in the

world and a force to contend with. “Ironically much of the money and

weapons came from the countries that united to fight against him.”1 The

Gulf countries bankrolled him while the Western nations, who had many

defense contractors going out of business because of the end of the Cold

War, supplied him with the weapons to fight Iran and later Kuwait and the

Coalition. With a large army like his, it would be very easy to defeat the

far smaller Kuwaiti army compared to his.

1CNN The Gulf War (Video) (Atlanta, CNN News, 75 min., 1991)

Oil had made Kuwait one of the richest and most progressive countries

in the world. This desert land is one of the world’s leading producers

having over one-tenth of the world’s known petroleum reserves. “All of this

in 20150 square kilometres, a little smaller than the state of New

Jersey.”3 Kuwait is one of the world’s wealthiest nations in terms of

national income per person. It has free primary and secondary education,

free health and social services and no income tax. There was much to

protect. All of this was attractive and irritating to Saddam who would and

did use a fraction of his army to attack and invade Kuwait in which it only

took the Iraqi army 6 hours to reach the capital city. They had after their

invasion about 19% of the world’s known oil reserves.

3″Kuwait”,World Book (New York, World Book, 1990), Vol 11, p.354

Historically Iraq had claimed that it had a right to Kuwait. “They

were jealous that Kuwait was in control of the two islands needed for a

deep water shipping port:the Bubiyan and Warbah islands.”4 These islands

along with some parts of Kuwait were a part of Mesopotamia which the

Ottoman Turks conquered. “The Ottoman Empire was defeated during World War

I and the British made their “own lines in the sand”, dividing up the land

according to their own strategic needs and in the process recklessly

dividing up ancient communities and boundaries that had been recognized for

decades.”1 Most of Mesopotamia became Iraq and some other parts to Kuwait.

In 1961, Kuwait became independent and the Iraqis threatened to invade

except that British troops kept the peace. This was to be the first of many

border skirmishes which include Iraqi missiles fired at Kuwaiti oil

installations and the reflagging of Kuwaiti oil tankers during the Iran-

Iraq War in which U.S. ships patrolled the Persian Gulf and Kuwaiti tankers

were reflagged with U.S. flags.

1CNN The Gulf War (Video) (Atlanta, CNN News, 75 min., 1991)

4AP Press Toronto Star (January 20, 1991) A18

The Iraqi government had also accused the Kuwaitis of stealing 2.5

billion barrels of oil from its Rumaila oil fields by sliding drills into

Iraqi oil pipelines. They had also accused Kuwait of exceeding OPEC oil

production which had dropped the price of oil from $20 a barrel to $13 a

barrel in the first six months of 1990. This meant 1 billion dollars less

for Iraq everytime that price of an oil barrel went down by a dollar.

Saddam said he would stop them from continuing aggressive action:”The oil

quota violators have stabbed Iraq with poison dagger. Iraqis will not

forget the saying that cutting necks is better than cutting means of living.

O’God almighty, be witness that we have warned them”.1 His foreign minister

Tariq Aziz later said in a letter to the Arab league that Kuwait is

“systematically, deliberately and continuously” harming Iraq by encroaching

on its

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