Gulf_War_Implications

We are asked to understand the causes and implications of the first Gulf War but first we must understand what led up to the war. The war called the Persian Gulf War went from August 2, 1990 until February 28, 1991. The events that led to the Persian Gulf War and you could say the rise of Saddam Hussein actually began way back in 1958. There was a military coup that overthrew the current monarch and that is how the Republic of Iraq was started and was supported by the communist. In 1959 Iraq then decided to withdraw from the Baghdad Pact which was a Cold War treaty among 5 countries including Iran and the United States. The treaty was trying to be used to threaten more Soviet movement into the oil producing area of the Middle East. Iraq had a revolutionary party called Ba’Ath Party and Saddam Hussein tried to assassinate General Kassem but was unable to and he had to run first to Syrian then to Egypt. Hussein lived there until about 1963 until the Ba’ath Party took over in February 1963. Then in 1961 Great Britain gives Kuwait its independence. But, just day’s later Iraq stated it owned Kuwait and placed troops along the border. In 1963 after the Ba’ath Party takes control and then there were power struggles within the Ba’ath Party, Hussein becomes a personal body guard to his relative who at the time was the leader of the Centrist faction which takes over the government. Hussein is then elected to general council of the Ba’ath Party and this is how he starts it all. Once Ba’ath Party was no longer in office Hussein went underground and takes command and his power becomes even stronger. Throughout the 1960’s there are more upheavals in different areas of the countries and as time went on Hussein moved up and ends up becoming the most powerful figure within the government. Just about 1969 the Shah of Iran decided to revoke the 1937 treaty between Iraq and Iran. Of course there were objections but the Ba’ath Party was not strong enough to retaliate. Iran was trying to keep control of the gulf and knew it was one of Iraq’s busiest shipping accesses to Persian Gulf. This is where you could say was another major factor in the Persian Gulf War because both wanted control for access to the Gulf. In 1972, not only did President Nixon tell Iran that it would help Iran and let them purchase American weapon system but he required that as long as they were they had to be non-nuclear. Plus Iraq and Soviet Union s Ba’ath Party signed a 15 year treaty of cooperation and friendship. Iraq also nationalizes its oil industry. Then in 1973 Iraq troops crossed into Kuwait and wanted to take control of two border posts but were unable to, due to international condemnation. About 8 months later Syria and Egypt create an attack against Israel and even though Iraq didn’t border Israel it sent troops to fight Israel. After this war Egypt and the United States get back to have diplomatic relations. They had not had relations since 1967. Egypt moved toward the pro Israel United States and away from the Anti Israel Soviet Union which subsequently impacted the politics in the Middle East. This is also a time when OPEC quadrupled the price of oil and temporarily stopped shipping to the United States which was a way of them trying to punish us for supporting Israel. An oil embargo against the United States from Libya, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar and Dubai started and then Iraq nationalized the holdings of the United Stated-owned Corporation Exxon and Mobil. We have an energy crisis and this is the time when Americans finally realize how important oil is to us. With prices going so high this is when the other countries started purchasing advanced weapon systems and Iraq was able to help Hussein’s ruling of the Ba’ath Party. In 1974 the PLO was officially the representative of the Palestinian. They get observer status in the United Nations. Then in 1975 Iran and Iraq finally get the Algiers Accord and this gives control to Iran for the eastern half of Shatt al-‘Arab and for this agreement they are to end support Ba’ath Party of Kurdish rebels inside Iraq. Later the waterway becomes an issue in the war. In 1978 President Carter had the retreat at Camp David where Sadat the Premier of Egypt and Begin Prime Minister of Israel agreed to peace negotiations and in 1979 they finally signed it. Months later in 1978 Iraq kicked Khomeini out of the country and he became the ruler of Iran in 1979. In 1979 we had many things that happened. After the peace treaty had been signed between Egypt and Israel the Arab League censures Egypt and breaks ties and imposes an economic boycott. Hussein becomes President of Iran and at the same time becomes Chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council. He then tries to get rid of most of the old regime to the Ba’ath Party because they tried to oust him. We then had the Iranian students who took the US embassy by force and took 66 hostages. The reasoning behind all of this they wanted to depose the shah and prosecute him. At the time he was in the United States in a hospital. The Iranians held these hostages from November 1979 until January 20, 1981 when they were released and also happened to be the day Reagan was inaugurated. In December, the Soviet invaded Afghanistan so they could help the regime they had there. This is when President Carter declared that the Persian Gulf is vital to the United States and we would do anything necessary to keep away efforts by any outside forces to gain control. In 1980 is when the official war between Iran and Iraq started. Iraq declared the war and nullified the Algiers Accord. So from September 1980 through July 1988 we had the Iran-Iraq Gulf War. Through the early 1980’s there was lots of fighting and different aspects happening. It went back and forth between Hussein and Khomeini many times. There were other countries involved supporting either Iran or Iraq. President Reagan in 1986 admitted that the United States did enter into an agreement with Iran that let them buy weapons so that they would set the hostages free that were in Lebanon. That is how the whole Iran-Contra affair was started. The profits for the weapons were illegally sent to help Nicaraguans against the Marxist Sandista. This is how a strain came between the United States and the Iraqi’s, but only a little setback happened because the United States eventually interferes on the Iraqi side of the war. The United Nations Security Council in 1987 passed Resolution 599 which called for a cease fire between Iran and Iraq. Khomeini rejected it and continued to fight his war. We then had to escort Kuwait tankers carrying Iraqi oil through the Persian Gulf. At that time Kuwait was an ally with Iraq. Although many countries wanted the Shi Ite-led Islamic revolution it just wasn’t happening. In 1988 due to many issues especially when Iran interpreted one of the attacks that the United States was going to launch a major attack they finally accepted a cease fire with Iraq. This was when the war officially between Iran and Iraq ended. Hussein claims victory and that the other Persian Gulf states were beholden to him and in reality there was no winner in this war. There was no change; Hussein did not get what he set out to especially the waterway that ran along the border. 1989 there was all the talk that the plant that Dr. Bull had designed exploded. It was blamed on the journalist Bazoft because they thought he was a spy and it blew up after his visit. Another person Daphne Parish was later arrested because she had been with Bazoft. Many believe Bazoft was under duress when he admitted to being a spy for Israel and that Hussein forced a false confession. Needless to say he was executed in March of 1990 and Parish was sentenced to 15 years in prison but later released in 1990. This was thought of goodwill by British and American. Bull was assassinated in 1990 possibly by Israel’s agents. Since so many thought Banzoft was innocent the United States, Great Britain and other Western Countries started to protest. Did you know that Kuwait held a quarter of the world’s oil supplies' Before it was invaded it was Kuwait’s largest industry and the biggest revenue for both exports and the government. Throughout early 1990 many things happened. Great Britain found an Iraqi plan to smuggle American made triggers for detonating nuclear bombs to Iraq. Then customs finds and keeps a shipment of high precision steel piping also going to Iraq. Even big voltage switches tried to get to Iraq. This all together made everyone think they were trying to make nuclear weapons. In May Iraqi Foreign Minister Aziz criticizes some unnamed OPEC members exceeding their oil production quotas. Later in that month Hussein hosted an emergency summit meeting for the Arab League. He said the meeting was because of the immigrant Soviet Jews expected in Israel but really it was to denounce Israel and the United States, build up his military, show he was leader and threaten Kuwait for making oil prices go down plus stealing oil from them. In July Iraq publicly denounces Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. His reasoning again for driving oil prices down by producing more than OPEC quotas. Kuwait puts its armed forces on high alert. Iraqi continues to put many troops along Kuwait border. There were oil barrel price compromises and the quotas. The over production of Kuwait was a major complaint of Iraqis. In a meeting that Saudi Arabia’s King Fahd hosted there was no compromise between Iraq and Kuwait officials. The Iraqi officials walk out. Iraq commences the invasion in the early morning hours the next day. This was the beginning of the Persian Gulf War also called the First Gulf War or Desert Storm. It started august 2, 1990 and ended February 28, 1991. Iraq invaded Kuwait by overrunning the border, and then continued to Kuwait City. They were attacked by helicopters, sea commandos and armored divisions. The invasion of Kuwait was once again met with international condemnation. France, Britain and the United States call for immediate withdrawal, besides freezing assets of both Kuwait and Iraq and no more weapons to Iraq. The Soviet Union even called for withdrawals and no more arms to Iraq. There were many meetings by different heads of countries and the United Nations Security Council passed Resolution 660 condemning the invasion and once again demanding withdrawal. There were economic sanctions brought also. President Bush realizes after he was briefed that force against Iraq may be required. One big concern was everyone knew that Iraq could be a big threat to Saudi Arabia, which meant Iraqi’s could take control of oil fields. That would mean along with Kuwait and Iraqi reserves Hussein would have control over all the worlds oil reserves. During the Iran-Iraq war, the Saudi’s backed Iraq for the fear of Iran. Even though Saudi loaned Hussein large amounts of money Hussein felt he didn’t need to pay it back because Iraq protected Saudi from Iran. President Bush then had to act since we didn’t want Iraq to invade Saudi. Bush decided to launch a “wholly defensive mission” to protect Saudi and this became known as Operation Desert Shield. This was August 7 and by August 8 the “wholly defensive mission” had to be abandoned because Iraq declared Kuwait to be the 19th province of Iraq and Hussein named his cousin Al-Majd its military governor. Between United States Navy and Air Force we started 24 hour patrols for Saudi-Kuwait-Iraq borders to let Iraq do no more harm and so they could advance no more. We ended up having 543,000 troops as military buildup started. As a series of resolutions were passed both by UN Security Council and Arab League they gave Iraq until January 15, 1991 to withdraw and “all necessary means to uphold and implement Resolution 660 would be used.” There were 34 countries that the United States got together to join in opposing Iraq. Some made financial contributions well others helped fight. On January 12, 1991 United States Congress voted to use military force to drive out Iraq from Kuwait. There were several public justifications given for the involvement in the actions of Iraq. We know one way, Iraqi invasion of Kuwait was in violation, the aggression with the way Iraq moved into Kuwait, supposedly photos of Iraqi force along the border, this was said later that it was false. Other reasons were the human rights violence under Hussein. We also knew that Iraq had biological and chemical weapons which they used in Iran-Iraq war and again on their own Kurdish population. We also thought about the nuclear weapons program. After Iraq did not withdraw by the deadline set, the actual aerial bombing started the next day. 88,500 tons of bombs dropped destroying both civilian and military areas. They were out to first destroy the Iraqi air force and anti air craft facilities. The next targets were the command and communication facilities. The biggest phase of the air campaign was to target the military targets that were all around Iraq and Kuwait. They wanted to get the scud missiles, launchers, weapons research facilities. They would get anything to destroy chances of fighting back. Iraq then started attacking Israel thinking they would draw Israel into the war. They continued to attack throughout the 6 weeks of the war but Israel didn’t join in and all the Arab states stayed in the coalition. As the attacks become more surprises and more often it became apparent it was tougher for Hussein. On February 24 just to the west of Kuwait we started another surprise attacking the Iraqi forces. The air and infantry attack started across the largely undefended desert of southern Iraq. The French force overtook the Iraq 45th division, took many prisoners and got blocking spots to prevent a counter attack on the coalition. They all just kept going deeper and deeper. There was a little attack by Iraq and unfortunately 28 American Military personnel were killed but on February 26 Iraq troops finally began retreating form Kuwait. We did keep bombing the troops on their way out since they had set 737 oil wells on fire while retreating. President Bush on February 28, 100 hours after ground campaign declared a cease fire and Kuwait was liberated. As during any war there were casualties for all sides. It does seem like number for this war are controversial. The coalition military death is around 378 with US having 148 battle related and 145 non-battle related. The UK had 47 deaths, the Arab contingency about 40 and France 2. The Iraqi death count is all over the place anywhere for 10,000 to 100,000 dead and 300,000 wounded. According to the Website www.vetshome.com “the cost of the war was about $61.1 billion. Some $52 billion was paid by different countries, $36 billion by Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and other Persian Gulf states. $16 billion by Germany & Japan although about 25% of Saudi Arabia’s contribution was paid in the form of in-kind services to the troops, such as food and transportation. US troops represented about 74% of the combined force and the global cost therefore higher. Were there really any winners in this war because here we are fighting again over there'