The Persian Gulf War :: History Iraq Middle East Papers

The Persian Gulf contend War was inevitable in the Gulf and it was a war in which Iraq wasinevitability to lose. There were several reasons why this was and became areality. How, when, where did this process of self destruction begin? Itwas quite evident that Saddam Hussein. the chairman of Iraq, was becominga military giant in the Middle East and therefore a threat to the stabilityof the entire region. His war with Iran was proof of this. The U.S. and new(prenominal) industrialized Western nations could not risk the loss of oil fromthe area. Kuwait is the second largest source of petroleum in the MiddleEast and so Iraqi invasion of Kuwait sent the world oil market into afrenzy. Iraqi forces then gathered their forces on the border with SaudiArabia, the second largest provider of oil in the world. This in turnbrought the military might of the United States into the conflict. There are several reasons why Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. Afterthe 8 year war with Iran over terr itorial disputes and religious rivalriesbetween the Iranian Shiites and Iraqi Sunni factions, Iraq had a massivedebt to many Arab nations including Kuwait.2 The rulers of these nationswanted some of their specie back but Iraq thought they were ingrates andwere ungrateful for defending the Arab emirs from the Iranian Islamicfundamentalism. The Arab emirs were afraid that the Islamic fundamentalistswould rise against the administration and eventually take over the governmentas they had Iran against the Shah. Kuwait was also afraid of this and sothey supported the Iraqi Arabs against the Iranian Persians. 2Iraq,World Book (New York, World Book, 1990), Vol 10, p. 260 The funds that Gulf countries lent to Iraq were apply to buy high techweapons, high tech weapons that made Iraq one of the largest armies in theworld and a force to contend with. Ironically much of the bullion andweapons came from the countries that united to fight against him.1 TheGulf countries bankrolled him w hile the Western nations, who had manydefense contractors going out of business because of the end of the ColdWar, supplied him with the weapons to fight Iran and posterior Kuwait and theCoalition. With a large army like his, it would be very easy to defeat thefar smaller Kuwaiti army compared to his. 1CNN The Gulf War (Video) (Atlanta, CNN News, 75 min.