Saddam Hussein sent his armies into Kuwait for their oil and planned to later extend his power over the entire Persian Gulf. UN embargoed Iraq and threatened to forcefully remove them if they didn't leave themselves. US spearheaded a massive international military deployment in 1991. 539,000 US and 270,000 from 28 other countries. Lasted 37 days, mostly in air, displayed impressive new post-modern warfare. "Operation Desert Storm:" land battle, destroyed Iraqi army, Saddam surrendered.…
In January of 1991, President H.W Bush played a significant role in organizing the international community of thirty-two nations against an aggressive Iraq who violated international law by annexing Kuwait, which is also known as the first Persian Gulf War (Gulf Wars, 2005). The United States led the coalition of nations and on January 18th of 1991, began an enormous air war to destroy Iraq's forces and military infrastructure. Iraq retaliated by launching missiles at…
A new decade glimmered with hopes and possibilities as the Berlin Wall crumbled to the ground and the cold war ended. As the world celebrated what some believed was a fresh move to democracy a new foe appeared in the Middle East. Iraqi forces invaded neighboring Kuwait in August 1990 marking the beginning of the Gulf War.…
On January 17 1991 combat aircraft from several coalition countries took off from land based or sea based runways with one common goal, drop their munitions on preselected targets deep inside Iraq. The Gulf War was about to begin. Downtown Baghdad was off-limits to conventional aircraft due to their sophisticated air defense network. The only thing permitted were cruise missiles and the most advanced fighter/bomber the world had seen, the F-117 stealth aircraft that was invisible to radar and could deploy their bombs with deadly accuracy. Storm over Iraq was written by Richard Hallion and provides a history lesson of sorts about the evolution of airpower from WWI to Grenada and ending with the Gulf War. He also has a chapter that deals with what went right, what went wrong and what can be improved. There are also appendixes that explain the information and capabilities better.…
Operation Desert Storm, commonly known as the Gulf War was a prime example of a U.S. allied response leading to their success against Iraq’s attempt to overrun the small country of Kuwait. Kuwait’s new reign of salvation in 1991 introduced a new age of military technology. Both Aerial and ground combat were applied in nearly all battles within Iraq resulting in few American casualties. Desert Storm laid down the foundation for Air Defense operations as well as the beginning of Saddam Hussein’s hostility towards the United States leading to a series of events which would conclude the second war in Iraq.…
A major result of Saddam Hussein's defeat in the Gulf War (1991) and Operation Provide Comfort was the ultimate establishment of Kurdish control over their traditional homeland in northern Iraq, known as Iraqi Kurdistan and "South Kurdistan". Just a few months after the creation of the autonomous zone, free elections (a first in Iraq) were held in 1992. The two main Kurdish parties, namely Barzani's KDP and the Jalal Talabani-led Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), split the vote, and subsequently split the government ministries evenly. In May 1994, however, fighting broke out between the Peshmerga of the PUK and of KDP. In the summer of 1996 Barzani called on the assistance of Saddam Hussein's regime to help him combat the PUK, which was receiving…
During the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s, Kuwait was allied with Iraq, largely due to desiring Iraqi protection from Shi 'ite Iran. After the war, Iraq was heavily indebted to several Arab countries, including a $14 billion debt to Kuwait. Iraq hoped to repay its debts by raising the price of oil through OPEC oil production cuts, but instead, Kuwait increased production, lowering prices, in an attempt to leverage a better resolution of their border dispute. In addition, Iraq began to accuse Kuwait of slant drilling into neighboring Iraqi oil fields, and furthermore charged that it had performed a collective service for all Arabs by acting as a buffer against Iran and that therefore Kuwait and Saudi Arabia should negotiate or cancel Iraq 's war debts. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein 's primary two-fold justification for the war was a blend of the assertion of Kuwaiti territory being an Iraqi province arbitrarily cut off by imperialism, with the use of annexation as retaliation for the "economic warfare" Kuwait had waged through slant drilling into Iraq 's oil supplies while it had been under Iraqi…
The Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait in 1990. Alarmed by these actions, fellow Arab powers such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt called on the United States and other Western nations to intervene. Hussein defied United Nations Security Council demands to withdraw from Kuwait by mid-January 1991, and the Persian Gulf War began with a massive U.S.-led air offensive known as Operation "Desert Storm".…
However, in 1990, when Saddam Hussein of Iraq invaded neighboring Kuwait, President George Bush of the United States decided to take action. Iraq acquired a huge debt in her war against Iran, and the abundant oil supply in Kuwait was an attractive means of erasing this debt. With Iraq in control of a large amount of the World 's oil supply, the United States would be at Saddam Hussein 's mercy. In addition to the Kuwaiti oppression, the United States could not let this monopoly take place. President Bush commanded a prolonged series of bombings on Iraq which resulted in Hussein 's eventual withdrawal from Kuwait. This was not a war of containment, but it served a similar purpose in that it sought to prevent an aggressor from overtaking a weaker neighbor. Also, the United States fought for her oily supply, giving the war significant purpose in contrast to wide opinions concerning the Vietnam War (Schwartzkopf 55). Thus, the Gulf War received exponentially more praise and reestablished the validity of the Truman Doctrine (Schwartzkopf…
The war started when a group of terrorists began causing havoc in their own country. The United States became aware of these actions and began taking precautions to safeguard the country in case of a threat. The Gulf War was one such conflict that occurred before 9/11. Saddam Hussein, leader of Iraq, lead his country to war over oil and invaded Kuwait. Hussein was said to have stated, “We are not intimidated by the size of armies, or the type of hardware the United States has brought” (www.cryan.com 2016). Saddam was defeated, but the United States would once again find itself fighting Iraq after 9/11. The initial war went well for the United States and Saddam was toppled. However, as war dragged on without end the United States began to suffer more and more casualties. George W. Bush, the PResident of the United States, became more concerned about the war and he took it upon himself to deploy more troops after asking Congress (www.cryan.com 2016). One of these people would be Chris…
The U.S. launched a missile attack aimed at Iraq's intelligence headquarters in Baghdad June 26, 1993, citing evidence of repeated Iraqi violations of the "no fly zones" imposed after the Gulf War and for incursions into Kuwait. "Some speculated that it was in retaliation for Iraq's alleged sponsorship of a plot to kill former President George H. W. Bush U.S. officials continued to accuse Saddam Hussein of violating the terms of the Gulf War's cease fire, by developing weapons of mass destruction and other banned weaponry, refusing to give out adequate information on these weapons, and violating the UN-imposed sanctions and "no-fly zones" (NSA). Isolated military strikes by U.S. and British forces continued on Iraq sporadically, the largest being Operation Desert Fox in 1998. Western charges of Iraqi resistance to UN access to suspected weapons were the pretext for crises between 1997 and 1998, culminating in intensive U.S. and British missile strikes on Iraq, December 16-19, 1998. "It is speculated that Iraq was playing a game of bluff, hoping to convince the Western powers and the other Arab states that Iraq was still a power to be reckoned with, rather than that Iraq was hiding significant stockpiles of prohibited materials" (Herald). The Iraqi government and military collapsed within three weeks of the beginning of the U.S.-led 2003 invasion of Iraq on March 20. "The United States made at…
The purpose of this Essay is to gain a better perspective on Operation Desert Storm and gain a better understanding on what brought upon this war why did Saddam want to control kuwait's oil, and what input did the United States have into starting and ending this War?…
The U.S led Iraq and Afghanistan wars have received praises and criticisms of different measures. The war was fought for almost a decade, starting back in 2003. In the case of Iraq war, the cause of the conflict was suspicion by the United States and United Kingdom that Iraq had in its possession Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) that it intended to use in case of war between nations. This was based on the past experience where Iraq had used WMD against Kurds. Despite the fact that an investigation by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) found no evidence of claims that Iraq indeed had WMD, The United States and United Kingdom went ahead and invaded Iraq on the 20th of…
Since the establishment of the United States, American security has often been threatened and in a majority of these instances, the country responded to these threats in order to secure its liberty and welfare. Although America won its independence from Britain in 1776, the cruelty of the British toward America had not ceased, as can be seen in the Chesapeake Affair of 1807 in which a US naval ship was cornered by British ships . This Chesapeake Affair created hostilities between the United States and Britain and eventually led to the War of 1812. In a similar context, the Iraq War was also a direct response to the evidence supporting the fact that Iraq was connected to terrorist activities and the assumption that Iraq was hiding weapons of mass destruction. The US response to Russia in the Cold War is similar to the US response today and set the precedent for the Iraq War. Conclusively, both the War of 1812 and the current war in Iraq can be justified considering that the country was provoked in both instances and had every right to defend itself and its people from all foreign dangers.…
The United States has started the countdown to launch a new war in Iraq. The deployment of 250,000 troops, fighter jets, aircraft carriers and heavy weaponry in the Persian Gulf shows we are on the eve of war, which most commentators say will soon happen. The United States decided to present their own intelligence report before the Security Council, in order to convince the public opinion in America and worldwide that the war is now inevitable, but there are a lot of reasons that explain why the United States should not invade the Iraq. The war we are trying to start will prove two things. First, that American power is overwhelming and irresistible. Second that US is more patient, persevering and much more powerful that the whole Islamic movement. To destroy a highly dispersed global net is something that nobody can do very well. "Bush seeks for an almost complete control in this strategic area of the planet - main oil reserves worldwide -reinforcing the rule and influence of US in world matters, looking for co-opting US peoples behind this counter-revolutionary enterprise" said one of the journalists of CNN.…
