The Gulf War and Sadam Hussain: 1991 - Term Paper Example

«The Gulf War and Sadam Hussain: 1991» Introduction: The Iraqi history and the Gulf war have a very big place in the history of the world. These have affected the world in many ways and have become a part of the historic studies of the various wars that have taken place over the past years. The following section will deal with an introduction to the Iraqi history, which will help understand the possible reasons of the war and how the war started off. Iraq: The year 1958 was when the military in Iraq were successful in removing the country’s monarchy. It was in this year that the coup leader, Abdul Karem Kassem tried to reduce the disparities between the rich and the poor class of Iraq and form relations with Communist countries. This brought about the Eisenhower Administration to be alarmed, along with the Iraqis who belonged to the political party – Ba’ath. There were efforts from the Ba’ath party to kill Kassem, and one of the members of this party was a 19 year old Iraqi – Saddam Hussain who studied at the Cairo University. Saddam Hussain was shot in his leg after which he fled back to Syria and then to Egypt. It was only in March of 1963, that the Ba’ath party were able to kill Kassem. It was only in 1963 – November that the Ba’ath were driven away from power and a new constitution was built. Later in 1966, after the death of the counter coup leader – General Abdel Salam Arif, his brother who was also a general, replaced him as the president of Iraq. However, in 1968 Ba’ath continued to fight and try to gain power back over the country and power Ahmed Hassan Bakr. It was now that thirty one year old Saddam Hussein took charge of the Bakr’s police and was mainly there to enforce authoritarian rule. Saddam was a distant relative of Bakr and he gradually became the vice president of the country. Saddam became the president of the country in 1970 and it was now that he changed the countryside of the country where most of the Iraqis lived. He modernized the countryside and mechanized the agriculture and distributed land to the farmers in accordance to the amount of individual work. He increased the expenditure on agriculture to almost double between 1974 and 1975. Saddam’s main aim was to improve the living standards of the agriculturists, and with the increased production it gradually went on to be so. He also ensured that the oil profits of the country were invested into the industries. Saddam’s efforts to improve the conditions within the country were appreciated by all and his appeal among the people was now increasing. It was in 1976, that Saddam became the general. He was not really a communist however his favorite reading has always been that about Joseph Stalin. He moved closer towards power and this was when his relative Bakr was now getting intimidated by his power. By 1979, Hussein pushed his relative off the power and took complete control of the power. Once in power he ensured that he took out a number of people he did not wan in the government and the party. He called out names of the individuals and they were executed. His power was displayed by this and the execution was to be treated as a warning for all. In certain ways this period was one of the most successful periods for the country. Iraq was now the world’s leaders in the production of oil. Also the living standards of the people had grown to a great extent and the people of the country appreciated Hussein’s rule in the country. He was appreciated for the growth that the country was facing and was like by all within the country. Saddam and Iran: Saddam Hussein played the role of an anti – Communist West against USSR. Saddam bought weapons from USSR and the West tried its levels best to move him away from the buying weapons from the Soviet Union. Saddam Hussein made sure to use every possible opportunity in hand. It was then that Iran saw the fall of Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, who was one of the great powers of Middle East and was also friendly with the United States. However this opportunity did not last too long and the new ruling did not last in Iran for a very long time. This ruling was weakened by riots and rebellion. Also the Iranians faced more issues as they were mostly part of the Shiite branch of Islam and there were constant issues with the Sunni Muslims all across the Middle East. It was also noted then that Saddam feared the affects of Iran on Iraq and also feared that Iraq would also move into fundamentalism and would destroy the country. To ensure that the Middle East countries were fine with an invasion on Iran, Saddam went to several countries that were mainly comprised of Sunni Muslims. Saddam also met with three CIA Agents in Jordan – the base of CIA operations, and King Hussein. Saddam also looked for more number of weapons to get more advantage over Iran. It was in 1980, that Saddam’s government declared the agreement with Iran null and void and Iran was now faced with a full invasion both of land as well as air, on the basis that Iran had been shelling Iraqi towns. The forces advanced with complete force to capture over the city of Khorramshahr however they failed to capture Abadan – the oil refining center of the country. At this point in time United States showed that it was neutral for both Iran and Iraq however it was more towards supporting Iraq. U.S. was not supportive of Iran taking over the oil fields of Iraq. U.S. also removed Iraq from the list of nations supporting terrorism and provided the country with arms for the war. Also France supplied Iraq with high tech weaponry as well and USSR also continued supplying Iraq with weapons. However in 1981, Israel bombed a site in Iraq so that Saddam would not acquire the bomb capacity, and this was not supported by the U.S. government in any manner. Iran was given weapons from Israel and U.S. was providing support in the form of weapons, as well as intelligence to both the countries, this however was to keep support from both the countries. U.S. believed it would be more useful to keep relations with Sunni Muslim states than that with Iran. The countries both attacked the oil industry of one another. By 1988, there were millions dying because of the Iran – Iraq war and lots of wealth as well was being lost making Iraq in a situation with huge debts, and it was now that Saddam agreed to cease – fire and come to an understanding with mediation of the United Nations. It was by 1990, that a peace treaty was still not created between the two countries. Saddam Hussein was accused for building of nuclear bombs, which Iraq denied however they did agree to have chemical weapons. Iraq also threatened to use these weapons against Israel when ever it was necessary. Over the years U.S. still tried keeping in good terms with the country and Saddam, with a hope that there was still civility in the Middle East. Saddam and United States: By 1990, Saddam agreed to give up the issues with Iran, however was also in need of money and wanted to so something about it. However as time passed Saddam was now against U.S. In a meeting with an American diplomat – April Glaspie, there was a complete disapproval from the U.S. to settle disputes in a peaceful manner which according to Saddam was pacifist nonsense. US also mentioned that there were no opinions of the country about the issues of Saddam and Kuwait. Further in time Saddam also met with the Egypt president who was in good terms with the Bush administration. Here Saddam told the president of Egypt, that the issues between the Arab nations would be sorted out amongst themselves and the Bush administration could relax about this. It was also said by Saddam then that they could accomplish whatever was needed from Kuwait without the intervention of the United Nations. However it was on 2nd of August 1990 that Saddam attacked Kuwait and this left Kuwaitis with lost property and many dead. It was now that George Bush the President of United States was alarmed about the attack and it was now being speculated that Saddam could have solved this issue by taking the small portion of land of Kuwait which sucked from Iraq. He continued to move against all of Kuwait. This had now caused a tension with the Unites States and Bush’s administration. However Schwarzkopf requested the president at the White House to send troops to the Gulf. By 2nd August the United Nations Security Council demanded an unconditional Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait. Following all these events there was a meet of Bush with the Prime Minister of Britain where there were discussions regarding Saddam’s invasions. Here the PM of Britain – Margaret Thatcher told Bush that if Saddam’s aggression continued in this manner, then no small country would be safe again. It was now that United States had ordered the navy to move towards the Persian Gulf. However at that time Saddam’s guards were outside the U.S. embassy with a number of threats to climb over the wall. By August 3rd Bush was now taking steps to committing the naval forces to the Gulf region. Also there were a number of announcements where Bush referred to the invasion of Iraq on Kuwait and said that this would not stand. As time passed by and number of discussions took place in regards to the invasions, U.S. was unwilling to risk the lives of young people for the war. However Bush was determined to get Kuwait its independence hoping that Saddam would do so voluntarily. It was still that both Bush and Saddam were on collision course however this would take time to come out. The international diplomacy was completely in favor of the U.S. Now Britain, France etc had come into Saudi to help protect the country from the invasion. This was when Saddam Hussein, offered to move out of Iran and give back all the gains that were won from the Iran – Iraq war. This however was done in bad taste, and Saddam threatened rather than offering the same in a peaceful manner. He also worsened the situation by sealing the borders which prevented the foreigners from leaving Iraq and Kuwait. Also a comment where Saddam announced that an outbreak of war could result in a number of thousands Americans wrapped in coffins further worsened the situation. However Saddam promised to free the foreign citizens if United States would withdraw its forces from Saudi Arabia and would promise to help improve the economic sanctions against Iraq. All efforts were made for the countries not to go into war. However in Kuwait after a false image that Saddam put up to be good to the ‘guests’ as he called the hostage, his forces still continued to execute people. Finally on 17 January, the air raids were started off. This was mainly to make the Iraqi militaries dysfunctional and cut off all the possible communications. It was now that Saddam Hussein had declared that the Mother of all battles had now begun, and Saddam’s forces started to fire a number of missiles towards Saudi Arabia and Israel. The war however was hopeless for Saddam Hussein. He had lost the most important war long time ago - the diplomatic war. However to his luck he still had Jordan on his side, however Japan had now come into the picture and Iraq was angry with the country for supplying weapons and monies to the allied. The air attack did not involve attacking the Iraqi soldiers however, it targeted the supply stores and the equipments and this kept the soldiers away from the equipment to avoid dying. It was on February 24th that the assault began full swing, and the frontline units of Iraq were immediately damaged and the Iraqi troops were lacking enough accuracy in the firing and thus they surrendered. By February 26th the war was now announced to have come to an end. It was also announced on the Bangladesh radios that Iraq forces would now comply with the United Nations resolutions. However it was on February 27th that the fight was still on in Iraq, however Kuwait was liberated on that day. The televisions however focused on the highway of death. This was an area which was considered as a place for death and even the civilians were being killed in this area. Bush and the others agreed to end the war in 100 hours once the ground war had begun. However on the 28th the Infantry Division fought Iraq’s Guards and this resulted in one of the biggest tank battles ever. The war ended with a death count of almost 148 people for the United States, and this was one of the best ever wins as a one sided victory. Settlement of the War: The settlement of this war was multi fold. The Bush administration and some others assumed that Hussein would not be active politically after the defeat of the country. However there were a number of doubts whether or not the danger of Iraq was now over and if Kuwait would be safe after the withdrawal of Saddam’s forces from the area. By March 3rd the war was completely ended by U.S. and the UN Security Council has now adopted resolution 687 to cease fire and also for the sanction against Iraq. Also on this day the Allied military and the Iraqi military to discuss the terms of the cease fire formally. By now Saddam Hussein wanted peace and was ready to get peace at any cost. However the United States wanted the return of the prisoners and Saddam’s appearance in the world court for a hearing. By March 5th the UNSC, had called for complete end of repression of the Iraqi civilians and Unites States and Britain were ordered that Iraq was now a ‘no fly zone’. By March 16 Saddam Hussein promised in a broadcast that he allowed multi party democracy. Conclusion: The end of the war was seen differently by a number of people however it was a common belief that this was one of the best wars for the US, as the war was won with the minimum casualties and the victory was overwhelming. However other views were of the idea that the United States was too cautious and other also argued that it was US who should have started the war against Iraq. The 19th anniversary of the Gulf war was in 2001, and it was now that Saddam Hussein was in greater power than what he had been in 1991. Saddam Hussein had told the people that the good and the evil still confront one another even now. Read More