Читать реферат по английскому: "Persian Gulf Crisis Essay Research Paper Persian" Страница 1

(Назад) (Cкачать работу)

Persian Gulf Crisis Essay, Research Paper

Persian Gulf Crisis

Persian Gulf Crisis, 1990-1991: How Saddam Hussein’s Greed and Totalitarian

Quest for Power Led to the Invasion of Kuwait, World Conflicts and the

Degredation of Iraq

Joseph Stalin. Fidel Castro. Adolf Hitler. Saddam Hussein. These names

are all those of leaders who have used a totalitarian approach to leading a

nation. Stalin and Hitler ruled in the early to mid-nineteen hundreds. Like

Fidel Castro, Saddam Hussein is now. Saddam Hussein belongs to the Baath Party

of Iraq. This party adopts many techniques similar to those used by Stalin and

Hitler. Saddam Hussein conceived a plan to invade Kuwait. It was, perhaps, one

of the worst mistakes he could have made for his own reputation and for his

country. The invasion of Kuwait as well as the world’s response to it, the

environmental disaster it caused, and the degradation of Iraq were completely

the fault one man and his government: Saddam Hussein and his Baath Government.

One of Hussein’s weaknesses is negotiating. Negotiating in his terms is

to fight it out with as much carnage as possible until his side comes out

“victoriously”. Repeatedly, Saddam and his government break international

convention laws. During his war fought with Iran, the Iraqi army used chemical

weapons on the Iranian troops and even on their own Iraqi population. This was

seemingly overlooked by the rest of the world because most nations didn’t want

to see the Ayatollah’s Islamic revolution rise. Iraq often obtained foreign arms

support from other nations because of this. It wasn’t until the invasion of

Kuwait that the rest of the world seemed to realize the danger that Iraq posed

to its own people and to the Arab states surrounding it. Through poor planning,

Saddam Hussein made three major mistakes that enabled an easy defeat of the

Iraqis.

The first mistake was that he captured all of Kuwait at the same time,

instead of leaving it as a border dispute. This might have kept it from becoming

an international affair. The second error was that Hussein positioned his

troops too close to the Saudi Arabian border. Because of this, other nations

feared that Saddam’s aggression was endless. The third mistake was that Hussein

miscalculated the world’s response. He overestimated the Arab “brotherhood” and

by doing so, didn’t realize that the rest of the world would try to stop him. He

also overestimated his own country’s military power, and believed that he could

annihilate military superpowers like the United States, Britain and France.

Saddam Hussein’s ultimate dream was to possess a nuclear bomb. Most of

the world believed that Iraq didn’t have the resources and materials to

manufacture one. Despite a failed attempt at building two reactors in the late

seventies, Saddam was determined to hold nuclear capability. He tried again in

1989 to purchase three high-temperature furnaces from a New Jersey company,

claiming that they were to be used for prosthetic limbs for Iran-Iraq war vets.

The deal was called off after the company, Consarc, was warned by the Pentagon.

Despite this, Iraq was still rich with weapons. Between 1975 and 1990,

this Arab nation had spent $65 billion in arms [Macleans, June 3, 1991]. In the

five years before the Kuwait invasion, Iraq was one of the world’s largest

purchaser of arms. In those five years, Saddam had bought ten percent of all

weapons sold around the world. By 1990, Hussein’s Iraqi army had 5,500 tanks

(mainly Russian), 8000 Armoured Personnel Carriers (APCs), thousands of various

missiles (ground-to-air), 70 MiG 23s, 25 MiG 29s and 15 Su 24s [Outlaw State,

page 89].

Saddam’s quest for power by now was almost complete, except for nuclear

capabilities and a naval power. Most of this support of foreign arms came during

the Iran-Iraq war, against the Ayatollah’s Islamic revolution. $500 million of

the $65 billion was spent on high-tech equipment purchased from the United

States. It is ironic that some of the missile sites that were set up by the

United States would later become bombing targets during the Gulf War, in 1991.

There were two primary reasons that Saddam Hussein wanted to invade

Kuwait. The first reason was so that Iraq would have a navy and eventually be

classified as a naval superpower because Kuwait situated on the Persian Gulf.

His quest for power would nearly be fulfilled by doing this. Hussein thought

that Iraq would be unstoppable with a navy. The other reason was that the oil

fields could greatly improve the Iraqi economy that had suffered during the

Iraq-Iran war.

It is at this point that his greed comes into picture. Since most

industry had to be stopped during this war, Saddam had a reason to develop a new

military industry. The citizens were glad to support this because of a strong

sense of nationalism that had developed after an Iranian “defeat.” New missiles

were developed including the Scud.

Despite the weapon industry flourishing, the economy became increasingly

worse. Many Iraqis had travelled to Kuwait, which was a country left virtually

unscathed after the Iran-Iraq war. They realized what the Kuwaiti “oil-money”

could buy, for Kuwait had one of the best incomes per capita in the world. Its

major cities were similar to those in North America (such as New York, Los

Похожие работы