Persian Gulf War Prerequisites - Research Paper Example

?Introduction:- The Persian gulf war was fought between Iraq and a coalition of Middle eastern and western powers in 1991. The main cause of the conflict was Iraq’s belligerence and persistency towards its claims on Kuwait. The purpose of the all out war was to push Iraq out of Kuwait after it had conquered it in 1990 (howstuffworks.com, 2011). The coalition forces were led by the United States and consisted of 37 nations including Arab stalwarts such as Saudi Arabia and Syria, along with European states including Great Britain and France. The Arab world was known for schisms and divisions due to ideological, cultural and strategic differences. The main cause of the schism between several countries was the Shiite Sunni split which often led to conflicts and warfare in some cases. Since coming to power, Saddam Hussein, the then president of Iraq, represented the rejectionist Arab states and was considered as one of the most quarrelsome leaders of the gulf countries. He was also considered an arch enemy of Israel. Its hatred against Israel can be summarized by the rhetoric he used very often against the nation, one time saying that he will let fire eat half of Israel if it did anything against Iraq (Bard, 2011). For years, Iraq had considered Kuwait to be a part of its territory and continued to influence the internal politics and working of the state through several means. Furthermore, Iraq was becoming economically weak so it sought to identify alternatives to help strengthen its economic situation. This paper shall analyze how Kuwait was an option in allowing Iraq to recover from its situation. Iraq was considered to be the belligerent state in this dispute and UN authorized a full fledged coalition attack that aimed to topple Iraq’s incursion into Kuwait and restore the situation as it was before the conflict. Reasons for conflict:- The quarrelsome nature of the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein made the state prone to violence and unneeded interventions to further individual causes. Furthermore, the war with Iran that ended in 1988 had an enormous economic impact on Iraq and left it on the verge of bankruptcy (HistoryGuy, 2011). Kuwait as natural part of Iraq:- Iraq considered Kuwait its de-facto part for a long period of time despite the latter’s independence on the country. This claim led to numerous confrontations throughout several years and hampered any diplomatic ties between the two countries for years to come. In 1961, Iraq’s president Qasim threatened Kuwait of invoking old ottman claims that were a part of the system during British imperialism. The Iraqri government also sought to play the role of savior by saying that the Kuwaiti Emir was a highly hated figure within the Kuwait population and that people sought his ouster. Iraq claimed that it would liberate the Kuwaiti country off his tyranny with its intervention (Lowry, 2008). In 1973, Iraq continued to persist with its stance and occupied as-Samitah, a border post on Kuwait-Iraq border. The real dispute, however, began when Iraq demanded to occupy Bubiyan and Warbah (Kuwaiti Islands). This claim got the Arab nations into action and the Arab league called its summit to discuss this quickly boiling situation. A consensus was reached on the point that Iraq will be demanded to withdraw its claims on the said regions (HistoryGuy, 2011). Situation between the two countries was relatively calm during the Iraq-Iran war and Kuwait supported Iraq during this battle. Dispute over Oil:- There was a constant lack of consensus over borders between the two oil rich states and conflicts over ownership of oil reserves was inevitable. The situation started to deteriorate when rich deposits of oil were found at the undefined border between the two states and when Iraq constantly claimed that the Kuwaiti drills were violating Iraq’s territorial integrity by moving across borders to excavate oil. This conflict was triggered by the nature of middle eastern borders, which are not very clearly distinguishable due to desserts and sand (HistoryGuy, 2011). Conflict also shaped up due to Saddam Hussein’s disgust over Kuwait’s oil policies. He suggested that Kuwait’s policies had helped decrease oil prices. The overproduction by Kuwait was not welcomed by the Iraqi president and many were of the view that by conquering Kuwait, Iraq could control its oil production and manipulate prices to Hussein’s pleasure (howstuffworks.com, 2011). The Impact of the First Gulf War:- Relationships between Iran and Iraq were severely hampered as a result of the first gulf war between the two states. This war was one of the most bloody and destructive wars of the modern era. Iraq was again the aggressor with its invasion of Iran. The Iraqi army was not welcomed by the Irani state and soon, continued conflicts and warfare drove the Iraqi forces out of the country. The main motivation for the invasion was the fight against the new Islamic revolution that had taken place in Iran. Many Arab states backed Iraq for this war and supported it by all means. Kuwait had heavily funded the Iraqi the war for eight years against Iran. This continued to pile up debts that Iraq had to repay Kuwait. By the end of the war, an estimate of $14 Billion of debt was compiled by Iraq which it could not pay to Kuwait due to its bleak economic conditions. Iraq continuously asked Kuwait to forgive the debt however Kuwait’s reluctance to forego the amount exacerbated relationships between the two states which had its toll later on. Iraq launched a full fledged invasion of Kuwait on August the 2nd, 1990. The invasion caught Kuwait by surprise which, despite all tensions, did not expect a full fledged attack on its soil. This invasion prompted reactions from all ranks including western and arab powers. Arab nations, through its forum of Arab league, joined to condemn the invasion. Western powers, led by the United States, under the banner of the United Nations, formed an alliance and launched a full fledged intervention (Majid Khadduri, 2001). Breaking down the war:- The air battle between the coalition forces and Iraq was fairly one sided as the coalition forces outnumbered Iraq’s forces by a big margin. Latest American, British and French fighter planes were used by the coalition forces for its Arial assault. Intense diplomacy between the United States and Iraqi representatives could not trigger an Iraqi withdrawl. As a result coalition forces started devastating bombings of Iraq and its forces in Kuwait. The purpose of these bombings was to destroy Iraqi infrastructure and make it impotent and incapable of participating in the war. The Iraqi president responded with the SCUD Missile attacks on Israel and Saudi Arabia. Initial targets of the assault were antiaircraft weapons, radar sites and other forms of air defences. The main aim of the attacks was to destroy all modes of communication that would facilitate Iraq in its fight against the coalition forces. Slowly but surely, airfields and grounded aircrafts, missile launching sites and military command centers were destroyed. The Iraqis suffered a great number of civilian casualties due to these attacks, in thousands. The worst attacks saw a loss of 400 civilians on one day alone. Iraq did not sit idle and retaliated by attacking Israel and Saudi Arabia with its intermittent missile ranges, which were modified versions of the Soviet Missiles. Iraq had always considered Israel as its nemesis and the attack on Israel, despite the fact that it was not a part of the coalition, was to draw the country into the conflict to instigate Arab unity towards a common enemy. Israel benefited from the war, however it faced significant costs. The defense budget needed a boost of around $500 million. Approximately 3300 buildings and dozens of hotels were destroyed which had a huge economic cost. Iraq lost 35 planes in air to air battles. Emergency conditions restricted the Israelis to their homes which hurt the economy as well (Bard, 2011). The coastal vessels of Iraq were nothing compared to the coalition’s enormous naval force. The US Navy comprised of a significant percentage of the coalition forces. After the beginning of the war, the forces started to reclaim Iraqi occupied lands off the coast of Kuwait. The naval force also launched military attacks against Israel throughout this time and did anything to destroy its strength. Some 60 Iraqi naval vessels had been destroyed or sunk by the coalition’s strong naval force by the end of January and all but ended any naval resistance posed by Iraq during the war. Coalition ground forces were enormous in number and approximately totaled 660,000 troops (howstuffworks.com, 2011). The first attack on ground occurred on January the 29th when an Iraqi division seized the town of Khafji. Eleven US Marines were killed. Within two days the coalition forces, including US and Saudi troops took back the town and destroyed Iraqi forces. Sometime later, the coalition forces launched their major ground attack. A direct attack in the south of Kuwait and a flanking attack in the western region. The task force involved Saudi, US and Pan-Arab forces which worked together (howstuffworks.com, 2011). The underground Kuwaiti resistance also played a role in helping to take out the Iraqi forces. The invading forces pushed their way towards their objectives and did not get much resistance from the Iraqis as they were clearly destroyed by weeks of bombardment. The Iraqi forces soon surrendered to the assault. Soon this force successfully entered Kuwait city as US Marines began blocking exits and launched an attack on the city’s airport. Later on, the marines seized the airport while the Saudis cleared the city of Kuwaiti defenders (Shimko, 2010). The US president George H.W Bush declared a ceasefire on February 28th. By that time, most Iraqi forces had already surrered or fled the area of conflict. Although the war was initially considered a success for the coalition forces, this conflict led to a second war in the region on the fears of acquisition of nuclear weapons in 2003. Consequences of the war:- Despite continued attempts, Saddam Hussein failed to assert his supremacy in the Arab world and was forever recognized as a quarrelsome, uncompromising and self centered leader. He was involved in two major wars between arab states that saw the lives of millions of civilians wasted. Both of his attempts to gain the ascendancy and power in the region failed miserably and he lost both wars (Majid Khadduri, 2001). These failures, however, did not prevent Saddam Hussein from continuing to remain in power for a long period of time. It was the US invasion of Iraq that finally removed him from the leadership role in Iraq. Iraq’s aggression was not welcomed by the international community and Iraq became the center of attraction for a number of reasons in the years to follow. The cease fire terms prompted Iraq to accept no fly zones over its territory and allowed the United Nations inspection team to analyze and evaluate its nuclear facilities every now and then. Iraq suffered from several sanctions on the subjects of trade and economics. These sanctions continue to hamper growth and economic prosperity in Iraq to this very day and are reason of the hardships Iraq faces. This war diverted attention from the Syrian Lebanese conflict and while the world concentrated on this front, Syria cemented its de-facto control of Lebenon during this time (Freedman, 1993). This war further divided the Arab world. Any state that sympathized with Iraq was met with scorn and contempt. This was specially true in the case of Yemen. When Yemen declared sympathy for Iraq, Saudi Arabia expatriated a million Yemenei guest workers from its territory which had a huge economic cost since these workers were rendered jobless and homeless. The war had an enormous impact in terms of civilian and military losses. Estimates suggest that the United States lost 158 soldiers during the war, along with a total of around 500 wounded. Iraqi casualty estimates range from 30,000 to 100,000 deaths while a huge number of 300,000 wounded. Bibliography Bard, M. (2011). The Gulf. Retrieved 8 14, 2011, from Jewish Virtual Library: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/Gulf_War.html Freedman, R. O. (1993). The Middle East after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. University Press of Florida. HistoryGuy. (2011). The Persian Gulf War. Retrieved from historyguy.com: http://www.historyguy.com/GulfWar.html howstuffworks.com. (2011). Persian Gulf war. Retrieved 8 14, 2011, from howstuffworks.com: http://history.howstuffworks.com/cold-war/persian-gulf-war.htm Lowry, R. S. (2008). The Gulf war chronicles: A military history of the first war withy iraq. iUniverse. Majid Khadduri, E. G. (2001). War in the gulf, 1990-1991. Oxford University Press. Shimko, K. L. (2010). The Iraq Wars and America's Military Revolution. Cambridge University Press. Read More