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War, justifiable or not, is complete madness. It is hell. No matter what the cause, or what the reason is, war remains mankind's greatest source of tragedy, the plague of mankind, and the plague of this country. Our country has existed for only 200 years, a relatively short time, and already we have been involved in over eleven major wars.
Four have been fought this last fifty years. We are a nation of freedom, but we are also a nation of strong military presence. Our reasons for going to war have differed little from most nations. Political, social, and economic factors working alone or with each other lead us into all of our conflicts.
A drive for independence brought on the Revolutionary war. A common fear of living in a divided society created the Civil War. The need to bring down an aggressive nation took the United States into the Korean War. And territorial disputes lay behind the Mexican-American and American Indian Wars. Like most countries, the United States, at different periods, has been victimized by the dark forces of war.
Though reasons (or excuses) the American people have been given to the American people to justify military action were given before most of our wars, not every war has been popular. Ever since the Revolutionary War up until the Vietnam War, and even through to the Gulf War, public support has sequentially increased or decreased. For example, less than half of the early colonists backed America's war of independence. 1 According to historians, more than one third wanted to maintain their status of colonists. 2 During the Spanish-American War, such a strong anti-war mood was being expressed by the American people, the Democratic party made condemning the war a major part of their election campaign. More recently, the Vietnam War divided the nation like no other conflict had since the Civil War. Yet, there have been some wars that have attained much support, and much has even given people pride and joy. How ironic, and morbid, that a war could give a person feelings of joy or pride.
World War I and World War II were incredibly popular, since people thought the basis of democracy was at stake. During both wars, people were so committed to winning the war, and had such a sense of self-sacrifice, our nation showed incredible unity for such a diverse country. Support for food and fuel rationing was overwhelming, high rates of enlisted volunteers, purchases of war bonds, and countless other types of voluntary actions were characteristic of the times. Most recently, the Persian Gulf War showed to be one of this country's more popular wars, despite the fact we, as a land mass, were never directly endangered. Thousands showed up for rallies to send off the troops.
Tens of thousands of individuals and families across the nation sent packages of food, clothes, cassettes, CDs, suntan oil, and even cosmetics. Some wrote letters to unknown soldiers in the front line, and gave them their best wishes. In fact, most public opinion polls showed that about 90 percent of all Americans approved of the Gulf War. 3 This paper covers in detail the history of Iraq's involvement in the events leading to the war in the Persian Gulf, the involvement of the United States, and the main events that took place in Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm. For centuries, the Middle East has been one of the most important, most argued about, and most fought over areas of the world.
One reason for this is their strategic location. Since it lies at what many call the "crossroads of three continents-" Europe, Asia and Africa- people of these continents often had to cross through the Middle East to establish military and trade routes. To protect these routes, other nations took the advantage of conquering and controlling a nearby Middle Eastern country. An addition to the Middle East being a very strategic area, it is also an area that has been plagued by hostility and opposition for centuries. Among the most recognized and most relevant of these is the Arab-Israeli conflict. On May 14, 1948, an announcement from Palestine shocked the world.
David Ben Gurion, leader of the Jewish forces, announced the establishment of the nation of Israel. The Jews had decided to declare their independence before the UN officially granted it. By doing this, the Jews were able to postpone the UN decision to divide Palestine and had more control over Israel. The United States immediately recognized the new state. The Soviet Union and most other UN nations recognized it as well. Just as quickly, the members of the Arab League declared war on Israel.
Armies from six Arab nations marched into Palestine. The resulting 1948 Arab-Israeli War lasted less than eight months. Even though the combined population of the Arab nations was over four times larger than that of Israel, the Israelis won an astounding victory. In the war, Israeli forces succeeded in capturing some of the land that the UN provided to the Arabs.
In January 1949, Israel controlled 30 percent more land that the UN originally assigned to them. Thousands of Arabs that lived on this land became refugees or had to live under Israeli rule. The problem of what to do about these displaced Palestinians has been a weak point to any type of Middle Eastern peace ever since. Angry and humiliated over their defeat, many Arabs criticized the United States for recognizing and supporting Israel during the 1948 war. Thus begins the conflict. Convinced that the United States would continue to back and support Israel, several Arab nations turned to the Soviet Union for military and economic aid.
The Soviets agreed and supplied them with weapons and money. In order to limit Soviet actions in this region, as well as assist Israel, the United States became more allied with Israel and more involved in Middle East affairs. When the Arabs raised oil prices in the 1970 s, some Middle Eastern countries grew quite wealthy. Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait, which Britain granted independence in 1961, benefited enormously from growing oil profits. The increase in wealth also increased tensions among the oil-producing nations themselves.
For instance, both Iraq and it's neighbor Iran wanted to control oil shipping in the Persian Gulf. This rivalry reopened an old Iraqi-Iranian dispute. Since the 1800 s, Iraqis and Iranians had argued and fought over the Shatt al-Arab waterway on the northern edge of the Persian Gulf. Important to trade, the waterway was essential to the economics of both countries.
In 1979, the dispute got out of hand, and each side threatened the other. On September 17, 1980, Iraq's president Saddam Hussein claimed complete control of the Shatt al-Arab and ordered all Iranian ships to leave. Five days later, Iraqi troops invaded Iran and destroyed key Iranian oil installations. The Iranians counter-attacked, blowing up many Iraqi oil facilities. The eight year war that followed was the bloodiest yet seen in the Middle East.
An estimated one million people were killed in the conflict. Both sides launched missile attacks against one another, and both used chemical weapons on the battlefield. The Iraq-Iran war left a huge financial burden on Iraq. They had built up the largest military force in the middle east, and had spent a lot of money in the process- much of it borrowed.
They spent over five hundred billion dollars creating their army and militant arsenal. By 1990, the country was heavily in debt, and Saddam Hussein needed money badly. He wanted to find a way to eliminate Iraq's debts, expand the country's economy, and gain control of the Persian Gulf, all at once. The strategy he chose to achieve these goals would soon put his people and the people of many other nations into another disastrous war.
Saddam first attempted to raise Iraq's income by increasing the price of oil. Early in 1990, he demanded that all OPEC members reduce their prices. But some of the members, notably Kuwait, refused to raise their prices for fear of loosing customers. Without the support of OPEC, he could not raise his prices, thus he could not make more money. Saddam became increasingly angry at Kuwait. He also wanted to decrease his war debts.
He demanded that Kuwait cancel Iraq's debt of billions of dollars. He said the Kuwaitis should do this in gratitude to Iraq for stopping the Iranians from overtaking Kuwait during the war. The Kuwaitis pointed out that Iran never tried to take Kuwait. They ignored Saddam's demands and told Iraq to pay their debts. Saddam was now quite irritated with Kuwait. At an Arab conference, he again demanded money from the Kuwaitis.
They very bluntly refused. "If they don't give it to me, " he told an Arab diplomat, "I'm going to take it from them. " 4 As he thought about it, Saddam realized that taking over Kuwait would benefit Iraq in a number of ways. It would give them access to the rich Kuwaiti oil wells, it would get him the money to get Iraq going once again, and it would increase his sales of oil. Most importantly to Saddam, it would give him power. At 2: 00 A.
M. on August 2, 1990, the powerful Iraqi army launched a sudden and massive attack on Kuwait. Thousands of Iraqi soldiers crossed over the border. They quickly overtook a small force of Kuwaiti border guards, Kuwait's only defense. Iraq had penetrated deep into Kuwait, and by nightfall, had overtaken the capital, Kuwait City.
This sudden move had definitely gotten the attention of the world, the United States in particular. The US, along with many other nations and the UN, imposed strong embargoes on Iraq, and the US even sent the aircraft carrier USS Independence to the Gulf. The US, France, and Britain froze all Iraqi money, so as not to let Iraq make profits. The Soviet Union enforced their embargoes on Iraqi, ironically. Saddam Hussein had not expected such a huge international opposition to his actions. Especially from nations like the US, France, and the Soviet Union.
Leaving Kuwait, he thought, and giving into the demands to pull out, would only damage his image further. He was now seen as an aggressor, but if he took his troops out, he would been seen as weak and cowardly. This is exactly what Saddam did not want. On August 7, 1990, President Bush announced that he was ordering troops to Saudi Arabi...
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Research essay sample on Saddam Iraq And The Gulf War
