...The Persian Gulf War started in the year of 1990, and continued until its end in the year of 1991 under the presidency of George H.W Bush. According to Kevin M. Schultz, “the Vietnam War was the first televised war, but the Persian Gulf War was the first to be televised live” (p. 538). The Persian Gulf War was mainly in the hands of two countries, them being the Middle Eastern country named Iraq, and the United States. First and foremost, this conflict started due to Saddam Hussein, who was the dictator of Iraq, tried to invade Kuwait. Subsequently, “Bush feared that Hussein might threaten American oil supplies” (Schultz, 2015), so therefore the U.S and other nations all decided on an embargo on Iraq. Since Hussein didn’t remove his troops...
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...Environmental Impact of the Gulf War The Gulf War of 1990-1991 seemed to have been a decisive victory from a militarily and tactical point of view. From an environmental point of view the Gulf War was a disaster that ravaged the local ecosystem that the conflict touched. Both the Iraqi aggressors and the allied forces committed crimes against the environment ranging from use of minerals such as depleted Uranium for weapons manufacturing, and deliberate dumping of oil into the Gulf. The dumped oil spills had a major impact on the ecosystem around the Gulf region and in the Gulf itself. The actions that were taken and not taken from both parties (Iraqi troops, and allied forces) had a negative implication on the resources, and ecosystem of the Gulf. There were three reasons as to why the Gulf war came about. First, Iraq had long claimed that Kuwait was a part of its own country. This claim led to many confrontations and hostility between the two countries. Along with Saddam Hussein’s defeated invasion attempt of Iran, it can be argued that he sought to find a weaker foe in order to conquer which happened to be Kuwait. Second, rich deposits of crude oil had straddled the borders of the ill-defined desert area, and Iraq claimed that Kuwaiti oil riggers were illegally tapping this rich reserve that was claimed to be part of Iraqi fields. The Middle Eastern deserts make it so that border differences between local countries are hard to distinguish, thus leading to conflicts. Finally...
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...The Persian Gulf War Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait in early August 1990. Alarmed by actions, fellow Arab powers such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt called on the United States and other Western nations to interfere. Hussein refused United Nations Security Council demands removed from Kuwait by January 1991, and the Persian Gulf War began with a massive U.S. led air offensive known as Operation Desert Storm. After 42 days of constant attacks by the allied coalition in the air and on the ground. U.S. President George H.W. Bush declared a cease-fire on February 28. By that time, most Iraqi forces in Kuwait had either surrendered or fled. Even though the Persian Gulf War was initially considered an unqualified success for the international coalition, firing conflict in that region led to a second Gulf War known as the Iraq War, that began in 2003. Adding to Hussein’s speech, Iraq had begun amassing troops on Kuwait’s border. Surprised by these actions, President Hosni Mubarak of Egypt initiated negotiations between Iraq and Kuwait in an effort to avoid intervention by the United States or other powers from outside the Gulf region. Hussein broke off the negotiations after only two hours. On August 2, 1990 he ordered the invasion of Kuwait. Hussein’s assumption that his fellow Arab states would stand by in the face of his invasion of Kuwait, and by not calling in outside help to stop it. Two-thirds of the 21 members of the Arab League...
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...The Gulf Wars, the wars that could have been prevented if not for one’s stubbornness. Unnecessarily, there were two parts to this war. The first part of it could have easily been shorter, while the second part could have been avoided. The Persian Gulf Wars were conflicts that had arisen when Iraq had invaded/annexed Kuwait, Iraq’s small neighbour, for their rich oils. This had then lead to the United States and several other countries involvement to take back Kuwait and establish peace. It was a good thing that many countries, at the time, had favoured peace and sided with the United States (United Nations), or else the whole thing could have ended up causing a chain reaction such as the one that had started World War One. The retaliation of the invasion still...
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...The gulf region & Gulf war The Persian Gulf is located in Western Asia. The Arab states of the Persian Gulf consist of Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Kuwait, Bahrain and Oman (Appendix 1a). The six nations are part of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). The GCC aims to boost economic cooperation between members and to guard against any threat from neighbouring states and from Islamic extremism (BBC 2012). The EU has a strong relationship with the GCC, ever since they signed a Cooperation Agreement in 1988. Its objective is to contribute to strengthening stability in a region of strategic importance and to facilitate political and economic relations. It therefore aims at broadening the economic and technical cooperation including cooperation in energy, industry, trade and services, agriculture etc. (Europa, 2012) Therefore when the Persian Gulf War took place on the 2nd August 1990 – 28th February 1991 the EU got involved, however they did not get involved until 17th January 1991. The War was an armed conflict between Iraq and a coalition of 34 nations which were assembled by the United States; including Britain, France, Egypt and Saudi Arabia (Full list Appendix 1B). Iraqi troops began the invasion of Kuwait). During the period of the Gulf War the European Economic Community (EEC) was in power, the majority of the aims and objectives where based on how they could improve the economy. The cost of the gulf war was calculated by the United States Congress to be...
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...Realism and the Persian Gulf War of 1990-1991 In the Persian Gulf War of 1991, Saddam Hussein’s quest for regional hegemony pitted his country against the forces of international law. A prime example of where realist theory falls short, Hussein’s forces were trumped by a multilateral coalition of international peacekeeping institutions in one of history’s most lopsided wars. Hussein sought power, and was willing to sacrifice his country’s foreign relations, as well as the health of his own people, to obtain it. In Gulf War I, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq was quickly dismantled in a conflict instigated by its own realist intentions. The theory of realism is based on the three factors of statism, survival, and self-help of the sovereign state. The survival of the state as a whole, rather than its citizens themselves, is the main focus of realism. The realist state is expected to enhance its national power by any means necessary; “A POLICY MAKER’S PRIMARY RESPONSIBILITY IS TO CREATE, MAINTAIN, AND INCREASE NATIONAL POWER – THE MEANS AVAILABLE TO A STATE TO SECURE ITS NATIONAL INTERESTS – AT ALL COSTS” (Lamy 71). Oftentimes, this comes at the expense of surrounding states. A realist state is concerned with its own security first and foremost; “THE FIRST MOVE…FOR THE REALSIST IS TO ORGANIZE OWER DOMESTICALLY. ONLY AFTER POWER HAS BEEN ORGANIZED CAN COMMUNITY BEGIN” (Lamy 72). However, once domestic security has been established, the realist state will look to pursue its self-interest...
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...richest oil countries. This was the first major international crisis after the Cold War (“The Persian Gulf War”, 2012). After a long process of diplomatic talk and sanctions, the President of the United States, George Hebert Walker Bush, along with the support of the U.S Congress and the United Nations, decided to declare war on Iraq. During his declaration of war speech, Bush expressed that It was a forceful choice, as there was no other way left but to drive Saddam Hussein out of Kuwait with force (pitythefool, 2008). As a result, the coalition led by the U.S won the war in a short time period. However, were the overall effects of the 1991 Persian Gulf War positive or negative for the United States? Political Perspective The 1991 Persian Gulf War had several positive impacts for the U.S from a political perspective. The first Persian Gulf War was not only limited to Iraq and Kuwait. It was also an issue of high political importance for the United States. One of the reasons why the region was so important to the U.S is because the U.S depended on Kuwait for the access of cheap oil. By trying to conquer Kuwai, Saddam Hussain was a direct threat to the economic ties between the U.S and Kuwait. Furthermore, the U.S was afraid that Saddam’s territorial expansion would not stop with Kuwait but would continue into Saudi Arabia (Kimmel, 1998), which is also rich in oil reserves. Thus entering the war, the U.S maintained the positive relations in the region with countries of vast...
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...ANALYSIS OF GULF WAR II-LESSONS FOR THE INDIAN ARMED FORCES INTRODUCTION 1. From time immemorial the land known today as Iraq has been the scene of conflict. Iraq has been, not only a strategic highway linking the Eastern Mediterranean lands with those of the Orient, but also the scene of frequent clashes between empires and great powers. It has seldom been the master of its own destiny, and in the numerous conflicts that stud its history, it has more often than not, been a pawn or the prize of other powers seeking regional hegemony. Until the beginning of twentieth century, most conflicts in the region were imperialistic in nature and involved Iraq because of its strategic important position. However, the discovery of vast oil deposits in the region in 1907 added another element to the equation, and conflicts, since have sprung from imperialistic motives as well as from a desire to protect or control sources of much of the world’s most important strategic resource. 2. Iran-Iraq war and the misadventure in Kuwait bear testimony to the misuse of power by Saddam Hussein. Saddam had always been labeled by the West as a producer of weapons of mass destruction. Ultimately a stage had reached where US and UK convinced themselves that Saddam was stockpiling these weapons. They demanded a change of regime and when threats were not taken seriously by Saddam, they launched Operation Iraqi Freedom or Gulf War II, despite all the opposition the world over, to attack and liberate...
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...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...
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...Total Burma is controlled by one of the most oppressive military regimes in the world since 1962 and has rich reserves of oil. French oil major ‘Total’ currently owns about 31.2% interest in Yadana gas field and funds the regime with $200m to $450m a year. Following a expose of how oil giant TOTAL plays a crucial role in funding and protecting Burma’s brutal military dictatorship there has been a global campaign against the company, supported by 40 organizations in 18 countries. Total admits to this by quoting on it’s website “Unfortunately, the world’s oil and gas reserves are not necessarily located in democracies”. 3 On similar lines, BP has big interests in Colombia, a country that runs essentially as a ‘war economy’ Save the environment: Oil Spills As per reports, 1.3 million gallons of...
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...administration 1981 from King Abdul-Aziz University in Jeddah. At secondary school and university he adopted the main trend of many educated Muslims at that time, Muslim Brotherhood. There was a collection of Muslim scholars in Jeddah and Mecca at that period. There was nothing extraordinary in his personality and that trend was rather very non-confrontational. He was killed May 2, 2011 by a small group of U.S. Forces, including Navy Seals that raided a high wall, and fortified compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan. Osama was married 6 times, and he had 24 children. He was the founder of al-Qaeda; a broad-based militant Islamist organization. Al-Qaeda began as a logistical network to support Muslims fighting against the Soviet Union during the Afghan war. When the Soviets withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, the organization dispersed but continued to oppose what its leaders considered corrupt Islamic regimes, and foreign presence in Islamic lands. Bin Laden returned to Saudi Arabia to step up fundraising for this new and more complicated mission. This led to the Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait, which was Saddam Hussein’s idea. Then, adding insult to injury, they sought help from the “infidel” U.S. instead. Furious about being snubbed, bin Laden vowed that it was al-Qaeda, and not the Americans, who would one day prove to be “master of this world.” Iraq maintained the world’s fourth–largest military and had mobilized an overwhelming invading force. Bin Laden was expelled by the Saudi regime, so he...
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...Reagan/Bush Era Reagan/Bush Era To take a look at the past and see how it has guided the present era; look back at the Reagan-Busch era and see what they were involved in, initiated or finished while in the Oval Office. These two were President and Vice President for two terms and George Bush succeeded Reagan as the 41st President of the United States and carried on where Reagan left off. His presidency was limited to one term as most Americans felt that he was not strong enough or not able to function without President Reagan. The Iran-Contra war was an embarrassing scandal that almost caused Reagan his presidency. The involvement of the United States in the business of supplying weapons to the enemy of the United States basically a black market operation that was not approved by the Congress and ran by a Military Officer. The whole matter was a negotiation tactic we sell you weapons and you release hostages. Monies profited from this illegal black market scandal was funneled to the contras of Nicaragua to support their internal democracy issue and eventually allowed them to overthrow Anastasio Somoza Debayle. This whole scandal reflected poorly on the United States and President Reagan as it was a defining point in his presidency and almost cost him his office. This scandal first began in 1985 and continued until 1986 and was actually effective until the Hezbollah terrorist group got greedy and started taking more hostages in demand for more weapons. The article was...
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...decade in history because many of those obstacles have been tamed and controlled. Although, there were many problems, George Herbert Walker Bush, The Persian Gulf War, and the World Wide Web changed the fate of this world. The 90s brought former president of the United States, George Herbert Walker Bush. George H. W. Bush was born on June 12, 1924 in Milton, Massachusetts. He grew up in New York City. During World War ll, Bush became the youngest navy flying pilot. In 1945, he married Barbara Pierce and attended Yale. There, he majored in economics, was captain of the baseball team, and graduated with Phi Beta Kappa Honors in 1948. During his presidency, Bush worked very much in the White House for eight years. “Bush traveled more than a million and a half kilometers and visited some 75 nations as a special emissary for the president…” (Grolier 1) Bush was then elected for president of the United States in 1988. He was cautious when it came down to domestic affairs. “He negotiated a treaty with the USSR to reduce nuclear and conventional arms, and in 1989 he intervened military in Panama to depose its president, Manuel Noriega.” (Grolier 2) People around the world supported Bush when he set more than 400,000 American troops in the Persian Golf region to defend Saudi Arabia. And that’s when the Persian Golf War comes into play. During the...
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...Kelvin Hugley Dr. Tanya Sharpe SOC 300 June 5, 2013 Military Industrial Complex is a phrase used to signify the relationship between government forces and defense-minded organizations. This union can produce benefits for both war planners receiving the tools necessary for waging an effective war while furthering political interest abroad while defense contractors are the recipients of lucrative deals.("What is military,") The term Military Industrial Complex was coined by President Dwight D. Eisenhower in his farewell address in 1961. Great and sustained spending for defense and war he warned created powerful groups that could disastrously harm the nations future.(Turse, 03) Causing harm is exactly what they did. Third World countries would receive the assistance of developed countries with the financing of its wars and in return would have to grant certain privileges to the countries that aided them. Oftentimes giving over control of rich soil, marine ports and even governments. After many years these countries would have to negotiate for the rights of their own land. For example, the United States was able to gain control over the Philippine Islands, Guam and Puerto Rico after the Spanish-American war. America then placed military bases the aforementioned countries. Developing countries are the main recipients of the arms sales. Developing nations continue to be the primary focus of foreign arms sales activity by weapons suppliers. In spite of our...
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...1. SS Notes 7: Iraq-Kuwait conflict Causes of conflict Factors: Economic problems, oil production and dispute over territoryEconomic problems: Iraq had previously fought a war with Iran, which drained its reserves. As aresult, Iraq’s economy was severely weakened. Iraq also had debts to other countries such as the USand France. For example, Iraq owed about US$80 million in debts. Iraq thus had to find ways to payoff its debts and saw Kuwait as a potential solution. Thus the economic problems of Iraq are animportant cause of conflict between Iraq and Kuwait.Oil production: Iraq’s main source of income is through the sale of oil. Oil production wasmaintained by OPEC, to prevent a decline in oil prices. However, Kuwait ignored its quota, thus theprice of oil dropped from US$18 to US$7 per barrel. This loss of revenue for Iraq meant that it wasunable to pay off its debts through the sale of oil. This prompted Iraq to look for alternative ways tosettle their debts and looked to Kuwait as a potential solution. Thus oil production is an importantcause of the Iraq-Kuwait conflict.Territorial dispute: Some borders in the region were not well defined as both Iraq and Kuwaitinherited their borders from the British. There were thus clashes between the two countries as theyboth wanted certain territories for themselves. An example is the Rumaila oilfield. The Rumailaoilfield was shared between both countries as its borders were not clearly defined. However in 1990,Iraq claimed that Kuwait...
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