Iraq: The Iraq Invasion

The push for Iraq to invade and attempt the takeover of Kuwait was driven by the oil trade and the reluctance of Kuwait to adhere to the oil quotas of the OPEC agreement. This directly affected the price of oil. The reduction in oil prices directly increased the amount of deficit in which Iraq was operating. Saddam Hussein and the Iraqi regime felt Kuwait was their territory so they had the right to take it back and govern as they see fit. Kuwait rejected these ideas and opposed the takeover. Iraq was an ally of the Soviet Union and they were a huge supporter of the Palestinian and Arab militant groups this did not rub the US the right way and also assisted in forcing the hand of the coalition. These sort of economic and political issues fueled the fire for
Kuwait had been separated from Iraq in 1922 when the UK had drawn the borderlines. Kuwait had been part of the Ottoman Empire back in the day, which led Iraq to believe they held claim to their rule. Other issues like the Kuwaitis slant drilling the oil fields on the Iraq border fueled the fire for the invasion. The US did not want this to happen either due to the fact that the Iraqi regime would have the foot hold on most of the oil producing land in the Middle East. This was purely an economic decision on our part. President Bush (1) was not going to let Iraq bulldoze their way into Kuwait and control the majority of the oil in that region. He had to do something about it. The moves he made were very realist (hawk) based but they had sense of dove about them. He presented the issues and the plan and got the full support of the allies and went in as a coalition. This way it was not only the US kicking them out on the world stage. It was the world putting a stop to the problems. All in all this was a show of force but the lobbying and getting all the other countries aligned was the soft power aspect of