Running Head: GULF WAR

Gulf War

Submitted By: Sidra Shahid Yumna Azhar

International Relations Ms. Amna Mustafa April 12, 2012 Lahore School of Economics

Gulf War Contents

Introduction ..................................................................................................................................... 5 Literature Review............................................................................................................................ 6 Aim ................................................................................................................................................. 7 History............................................................................................................................................. 8 The cold war in Iran .................................................................................................................... 9 Iran contra scandal ...................................................................................................................... 9 British interest in the gulf war ................................................................................................... 10 Saudi Arabia and Kuwaits role: ............................................................................................... 10 Reason for Kuwait-Iraq dispute ................................................................................................ 11 The truth behind the dispute ...................................................................................................... 11 US role to initiate the war ......................................................................................................... 11 Reasons for US to double cross Iraq ......................................................................................... 11 How many countries were involved in the gulf war?................................................................ 12 Execution of the actual war........................................................................................................... 12 Operation desert shield .............................................................................................................. 12 Operation desert storm .............................................................................................................. 13 The cost of the war .................................................................................................................... 13 Desert storm: the air war ........................................................................................................... 13 Desert storm: the land war ........................................................................................................ 14 Some Causes of World War II ...................................................................................................... 15 Here's the truth .......................................................................................................................... 16 Minor Correction ....................................................................................................................... 16 And another thing..... ................................................................................................................. 16

Gulf War Economic Causes of Gulf War ..................................................................................................... 17 Oil and Empire .......................................................................................................................... 17 Britain creates Kuwait ............................................................................................................... 18 The Shatt al Arab War ............................................................................................................... 20 Why Iraq invaded Kuwait ......................................................................................................... 21 Why the West is going to war ................................................................................................... 23 Effects of the gulf war................................................................................................................... 24 The aftermath of the gulf war .................................................................................................... 24 How many people died in the gulf war? ................................................................................ 24 How much money was spent on the war? ............................................................................. 24 What lesson was learnt from the war? ................................................................................... 25 Five reasons that distinguish gulf war from the other wars: ......................................................... 25 Environmental damage .............................................................................................................. 25 Gulf war syndrome .................................................................................................................... 25 Technological advances ............................................................................................................ 26 End of the world prophecies...................................................................................................... 26 Briefness .................................................................................................................................... 26 Gulf War controversies ................................................................................................................. 26 Gulf War Illness ........................................................................................................................ 26 Effects of depleted Uranium ..................................................................................................... 27 Highway of Death ..................................................................................................................... 27 Bulldozer assault ....................................................................................................................... 28 1991 Palestinian exodus from Kuwait ...................................................................................... 28 Conclusion .................................................................................................................................... 29 Appendix A ................................................................................................................................... 30

Gulf War Questions ................................................................................................................................... 30 Appendix B ................................................................................................................................... 31 Appendix C ................................................................................................................................... 32 Appendix D ................................................................................................................................... 33

FIGURE 1 ........................................................................................................................................ 31 FIGURE 2 ........................................................................................................................................ 31 FIGURE 3 ........................................................................................................................................ 32 FIGURE 4 ........................................................................................................................................ 33

Gulf War

Gulf War
Introduction

The gulf war is one of the most important modern-global wars of the history. It took place at the Persian Gulf and the gulf of omen. The military name for the war is operation desert storm. Thirty four countries participated in the war and it lasted for almost six months ending on a cease fire by Iraq. Following is a detailed synopsis of the events that took place and eventually lead to the gulf war. The Persian Gulf War (2 August 1990 28 February 1991), codenamed Operation Desert Storm (17 January 1991 28 February 1991) commonly referred to as simply the Gulf War, was a war waged by a UN-authorized coalition force from 34 nations led by the United States, against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait. The war is also known under other names, such as the First Gulf War, Gulf War I, or the Iraq War, before the term "Iraq War" became identified instead with the 2003 Iraq War (also referred to in the U.S. as "Operation Iraqi Freedom"). The invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi troops that began 2 August 1990 was met with international condemnation, and brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. U.S. President George H. W. Bush deployed American forces into Saudi Arabia, and urged other countries to send their own forces to the scene. An array of nations joined the coalition. The great majority of the military forces in the coalition were from the United States, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Egypt as leading contributors, in that order. Around US$36 billion of the US$60 billion cost was paid by Saudi Arabia.

Gulf War The war was marked by the beginning of live news on the front lines of the fight, with the primacy of the U.S. network CNN. The war has also earned the nickname Video Game War after the daily broadcast images on board the American bombers during Operation Desert Storm. The initial conflict to expel Iraqi troops from Kuwait began with an aerial bombardment on 17 January 1991. This was followed by a ground assault on 23 February. This was a decisive victory for the coalition forces, which liberated Kuwait and advanced into Iraqi territory. The coalition ceased their advance, and declared a cease-fire 100 hours after the ground campaign started. Aerial and ground combat was confined to Iraq, Kuwait, and areas on the border of Saudi Arabia. However, Iraq launched Scud missiles against coalition military targets in Saudi Arabia and against Israel.

Literature Review

Robert Carter (2005) in his paper: The History and Prehistory of Pearling in the Persian Gulf; presented an analysis and synthesis of historical and archaeological data on pearl fishing in the Persian Gulf. The history of pearling in the region is reviewed, from the earliest possible references to the mid-20th century. Economic data from the 18th-20th centuries CE is analyzed in detail, to define the economic course of the pearling industry during that time, and assess the impact on human settlement in the region. The archaeological data for pearl fishing are then examined, from the 6th millennium BCE onwards, and compared to the historical evidence. The results of archaeological survey in the Abu Dhabi islands region are then taken as a case study, and changes in settlement patterns are related to the historical trajectory of the pearling industry. It is observed that the regional economy became overwhelmingly dependent on the pearl trade in recent centuries, and was increasingly subject to the demands of the global market. (Carter, 2005) Peter Liberman (2007) in his journal: Punitiveness and U.S. Elite Support for the 1991 Persian Gulf War; explained that there is a substantial moralistic streak in U.S. elite attitudes about war against states perceived as evil. Among opinion leaders, death penalty supporters were substantially more likely than opponents to support the 1991 Gulf War, condone the Iraqi death toll, and favor escalating the war to topple Saddam Hussein. These relationships persist after

Gulf War controlling for ideology, nationalism, and instrumental beliefs about force and thus probably result from individual differences in retributiveness and humanitarianism, moral values known to underlie death penalty attitudes. Foreign policy expertise moderated this effect only on the regime change issue, and then only moderately, suggesting that "moral punitiveness" might also influence the thinking of decision makers. President George H. W. Bush evidently felt real moral outrage during the crisis about Iraq's aggression, but he refrained from escalating the war to punish Saddam more severely for it. (Liberman, 2007) Bill Durodi (2007) in his editorial: Risk and the Social Construction of 'Gulf War Syndrome'; explained that Fifteen years since the events that are held by some to have caused it, Gulf War Syndrome continues to exercise the mind and energies of numerous researchers across the world, as well as those who purport to be its victims and their advocates in the media, law and politics. But it may be that the search for a scientific or medical solution to this issue was misguided in the first place, for Gulf War Syndrome, if there is such an entity, appears to have much in common with other 'illnesses of modernity', whose roots are more socially and culturally driven than what doctors would conventionally consider to be diseases. The reasons for this are complex, but derive from our contemporary proclivity to understand humanity as being frail and vulnerable in an age marked by an exaggerated perception of risk and a growing use of the 'politics of fear'. It is the breakdown of social solidarities across the twentieth century that has facilitated this process. Unfortunately, as this paper explores our inability to understand the social origins of self-hood and illness, combined with a growing cynicism towards all sources of authority, whether political, scientific, medical or corporate, has produced a powerful demand for blame and retribution deriving from a resolute few who continue to oppose all of the evidence raised against them. Sadly, this analysis suggests that Gulf War Syndrome is likely to prove only one of numerous such instances that are likely to emerge over the coming years. (Durodi, 2006)

Aim

Gulf War

History To understand why the US went to war against Iraq, one needs to examine some of the history of US Middle East policies, as well as some of the domestic context in the US. In the Middle East, one should look at the US role in Iran, in particular. For the domestic scene, there is some relevant history, as well, but it is also important to bring to bear events in the US prior and surrounding the war. Throughout much of the Cold War, Iraq had been an ally of the Soviet Union, and there was a history of friction between it and the United States. The U.S. was concerned with Iraq's position on IsraeliPalestinian politics, and its disapproval of the nature of the peace between Israel and Egypt. Iraqi support for many Arab and Palestinian militant groups such as Abu Nidal, which led to its inclusion on the developing U.S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism on 29 December 1979. The U.S. remained officially neutral after the invasion of Iran in 1980, which became the Iran Iraq War, although it assisted Iraq covertly. In March 1982, however, Iran began a successful counteroffensive Operation Undeniable Victory, and the United States increased its support for Iraq to prevent Iran from forcing surrender. In a U.S. bid to open full diplomatic relations with Iraq, the country was removed from the U.S. list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. Ostensibly this was because of improvement in the regimes record, although former United States Assistant Secretary of Defense Noel Koch later stated, "No one had any doubts about [the Iraqis'] continued involvement in terrorism... The real reason was to help them succeed in the war against Iran." With Iraq's newfound success in the war, and the Iranian rebuff of a peace offer in July, arms sales to Iraq reached a record spike in 1982. An obstacle, however, remained to any potential U.S.Iraqi relationship Abu Nidal continued to operate with official support in Baghdad. When Iraqi President Saddam Hussein expelled the group to Syria at the United States'

Gulf War request in November 1983, the Reagan administration sent Donald Rumsfeld to meet President Hussein as a special envoy and to cultivate ties The cold war in Iran

The gulf war was an extension of the so-called "cold war," the essential goal of which was for the US to dominate the so-called "third world. Near the beginning of the "cold war," shortly after WWII, capitalist democracy arrived in Iran. Mossadegh attempted to nationalize Irans oil fields. For this crime, his administration was titled as "communist," and the CIA restored the shah in the early 1950s. From that time until the Iranian revolution of 1979, the US used its position in Iran as one cornerstone in its policy of attempting to control the oil resources of the region. When the Iranians finally expelled the shah again in the 1979 revolution, the US lost one of its key means of dominating the Middle East. The US then started down the familiar path of trying to destabilize a target country (Iran, this time) through a combination of economic and military measures and secret destabilizations. The underground operations centered on attempts to persuade a rebellion within the military, in this case through arms sales and transfers, some of which were later revealed in the Iran-contra scandal. Iran contra scandal Iran-contra scandal around the question of whether Reagan had been "trading arms for hostages." in so doing, the committee effectively covered up the true function and original purpose of the arms sales. Committee members wanted to hold Reagans feet to the fire for disobeying congressional will, but they did not want questions of actual policy to interfere with their power-play with the executive branch. However, the arms transfers were not the only front against the mullahs. The central initiative of the direct, military destabilization of Iran was US support and promotion of the prolonged and mutually shocking Iran- Iraq war during the 1980s. In 1979, the US exploited

Gulf War Iraq's desire for a port by encouraging Iraq to attack Iran, not that Iraq needed a lot of persuasion. The history of Iraq's quest of a port also brings Kuwait and Britain into the equation. British interest in the gulf war

In 1871, Germanys defeat of France in the Franco- Prussian war intensified the rivalry between the British Empire and imperial Germany. Because of that rivalry, Britain in 1899 placed Kuwait "under British protection. Britain's purpose in 1899 was to bar the best salt water port in the area from use as a finishing point for Germanys ambitious berlin-to-Baghdad railway project, which Britain feared would threaten its own hold on India. After Kuwait declared its independence in 1961, Iraq publicly asserted its claim to control over the area. British forces returned to Kuwait, and then were replaced by Arab league forces rushed to Kuwaits protection. Barred from moving its forces into Kuwait, Iraq let its claim drop. Saudi Arabia and Kuwaits role: US pressurized Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to finance Iraqs attack on Iran and in one way or the other it was in their best interest to do so. The attack on Iran was largely enabled by US and west European arms and Saudi and Kuwaiti money. Kuwait also used the war to play for position. First, it used the war as a cover to move its border many miles into disputed territory with Iraq, and pumped out billions of dollars worth of oil. And after the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq was somewhat distressed to find Kuwait and Saudi Arabia demanding quick repayment of the massive "loans" they had made to Iraq to finance the war. Iraq would obviously have had to use oil revenues to repay those moneys, but there followed as well a series of Kuwaiti oil market that halved the price of Iraq's crude oil, costing Iraq further billions. Iraq protested and tried to negotiate a solution in various high-level meetings and summits during the first half of 1990, virtually until their invasion of Kuwait. Kuwait was said to be willing to discuss everything but "territorial adjustments," and Iraq broke off talks and invaded.

Gulf War Reason for Kuwait-Iraq dispute Kuwait is a small country with a virtually nonexistent military machine, and the historical context of its very existence, let alone claims on additional territory, was one of western imperialism. Kuwait was clearly not acting alone against Iraq. As Iraqi foreign minister commented, "it was inconceivable that a regime, such as that in Kuwait, could risk engaging in a conspiracy of such magnitude against a large, strong country such as Iraq, if it were not being supported and protected by a great power; and that power was the united states." The truth behind the dispute There were no innocent parties in that war. The whole thing started when Kuwait used a "slant drill"--a machine that can drill an oil well at an angle--to tap the al-rumaila oilfield. There was historical enmity as well--Iraq had borrowed $14 billion from Kuwait to pay for the Iran-Iraq war. They were going to attempt to pay the debt by forcing the price of oil up, but Kuwait dumped a lot of oil on the market, causing the price to go down. US role to initiate the war US ambassador when asked about the US response to an Iraqi military action against Kuwait were, she repeatedly said that the US had "no opinion on . . . Conflicts such as your border disagreement with Kuwait," in addition, top state department officials were then publicly stating that the US "was not obligated to come to Kuwaits aid if it were attacked." in diplomatic terms, this was a clear green light for Hussein to invade Kuwait. I should note at this point that Iraq was hardly blameless in moving towards war with Kuwait because in one way or the other the motivation behind the war was same as that of US initiating it. Reasons for US to double cross Iraq There are two basic reasons that the US used Hussein and then turned on him. i. Sadams rebellious attitude

Gulf War First, Hussein started to represent a threat to US domination in the region. He asserted local power beyond the irritant role he'd been assigned, providing a model that the US did not want others to follow. And by invading Kuwait, a country that is basically a British banking region, he violated one of the fundamental rules of puppet Dom: don't harass other puppets with good connections. For US policy makers, the choice between turning on Hussein and creating friction with another friendly imperial power was no choice. ii. The aim to become the ultimate superpower

The second reason for the US about-face with Hussein is that the US was shopping for a war in 1990, and Iraq presented itself as a likely candidate. With a tremendous effort of propaganda and international force, the US satisfied all its war "needs" at the time by selling, creating, and moving with great consideration towards a war against Iraq. How many countries were involved in the gulf war?

Kuwait and United Nations (United States, Saudi Arabia, Great Britain, France, the Netherlands, Egypt, Syria, Oman, Qatar, Bahrain, United Arab Emirates, Israel, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Canada, Belgium, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Honduras, Italy, Niger, Romania, South Korea) Faced Iraq. (Jordan, Yemen and Palestine Liberation Organization Gave Moral Support to Iraq).

Execution of the actual war Operation desert shield The first phase of the operation is known as the desert shield operation in which was largely defensive operation in which the united states and Saudi Arabia rushed to build up the defensive forces necessary to protect Saudi Arabia and the rest of the gulf, and the united nations attempted to force Iraq to leave Kuwait through the use of economic sanctions. The United States urged the United Nations to set a deadline of 15 January 1991 for Iraq to leave Kuwait or face the use of force.

Gulf War Operation desert storm The second phase, known as desert storm, was the battle to liberate Kuwait when Iraq refused to respond to the UN deadline. The fighting began on 17 January 1991 and ended on 1 march 1991. The UN alliance liberated Kuwait in a little over six weeks, and involved the intensive use of airpower and armored operations, and the use of new military technologies. The gulf war left Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in power, but it destroyed nearly all of Iraq's conventional forces and allowed the united nations to destroy most of Iraq's longrange missiles and chemical weapons and capabilities to develop nuclear weapons. The cost of the war In 199091, the United States deployed a total of 527,000 personnel, over 110 naval vessels, 2,000 tanks, 1,800 fixedwing aircraft, and 1,700 helicopters. Britain deployed 43,000 troops, 176 tanks, 84 combat aircraft, and a naval task force. France deployed 16,000 troops, 40 tanks, attack helicopters, a light armored division, and combat aircraft. Saudi Arabia deployed 50,000 troops, 280 tanks, and 245 aircraft. Egypt contributed 30,200 troops, 2 armored divisions, and 350 tanks. Syria contributed 14,000 troops and 2 divisions. Other allied nations, including Canada, Italy, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates deployed a significant portion of their small forces. Iraq responded by building up its military forces in the Kuwait theater of operations to a total of 336,000 troops and a total of 43 divisions, 3,475 battle tanks, 3,080 other armored vehicles, and 2,475 major artillery weapons. Though a number of new efforts were made to persuade Iraq to leave Kuwait in late December and early January, Saddam Hussein refused to withdraw under any practical conditions. On that date, 15 January 1991, president bush ordered the military offensive to begin Desert storm: the air war The gulf war begin in the morning on 17th January when the united states launched a series of air attacks on the Iraqi command and control facilities, communication systems, air

Gulf War bases and land based air defenses. During the first hour of the war, U.S. sealaunched cruise missiles and f117 stealth aircraft demonstrated they could attack even heavily defended targets like Baghdad. Within three days, a mix of U.S., British, and Saudi fighter aircraft had established near air superiority. In spite of Iraq's air strength, UN air units shot down a total of thirtyfive Iraqi aircraft without a single loss in airtoair combat. Although Iraq had a landbased air defense system with some 3,000 surfacetoair missiles, the combined U.S. and British air units were able to use electronic warfare systems, anti-radiation missiles, and precision airtosurface weapons to suppress Iraq's longerrange surfacetoair missiles. As a result, alliance air forces were able rapidly to broaden their targets from attacks on Iraq's air forces and air defenses to target on key headquarters, civil and army communications, electronic power plants, and Iraq's facilities for the production of weapons of mass destruction. Victory in the air was achieved by 24 January, when Iraq ceased to attempt active air combat. Desert storm: the land war By 24 February 1991, airpower had weakened Iraq's land forces in Kuwait to the point where the UN commander, felt ready to launch a land offensive. Early that morning, UN land forces attacked along a broad front from the Persian Gulf to rafha on the IraqiSaudi border. The morale and motivation of the Iraqi soldiers kept dropping now that they could see the enemy encircling them from every side. Many Iraqi troops fled after putting up only brief resistance and others were taken prisoner. At the same time, the opponents continued its air attacks, dropping a total of 88,500 tons of ordnance. U.S. and British air units used 6,520 tons of precisionguided weapons and destroyed or damaged 54 bridges. These attacks helped to end the war by cutting off Iraqi land forces from the roads of Basra. Many of these advances had taken place at night and all occurred in spite of major rainfalls, substantial amounts of mud, and weather problems hampering the ability to provide air support. These advances effectively ended the war. "I have seen in your eyes a fire of determination to get this war job done quickly. My confidence in you is total, our cause is just.

Gulf War Now you must be the thunder and lightning of desert storm." - General Schwarzkopf

Some Causes of World War II Iraq, without justification or excuse, invaded and conquered Kuwait in order to gain control of its oil wealth and, quite possibly, as a prelude to doing the same thing to Saudi Arabia. The United States, with modest help from allies and other Arab states assembled a large army and forced Iraq out.

The gulf war was caused in the most part by Saddam Hussein's need for oil. He had amassed a huge debt with western Europe during the Iran-Iraq war and needed some way of re-paying that money. Hussein had also caught Kuwait exceeding quota's set out by OPEC which drove the price of oil down and making Iraq lose money. Iraq did also not have direct access to the Persian Gulf which would help in the exporting and importing of goods.

Saddam considered Kuwait as being a rogue providence. He also disliked Kuwait due to the fact it is mainly Shi'ite. From everything I have read, Saddam apparently brought it up to one of his closest allies, the French, and received little to no resistance on the thought of an invasion. During this period, the Iraq government was the top buyer of French military goods and the French had the majority of oil contracts in the country. Saddam was on the verge of canceling the Russian contracts and awarding them to the French. Saddam also accused the Kuwait government of stealing oil from the oil rich Basra area. Apparently their rigs were very close to the borders and Saddam felt that the oil was coming from Iraq's reserves.

America's involvement in the war was started by Kuwait asking for help getting invaders out of their country.

The Gulf War, aka Desert Storm, was the result of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait.

Gulf War Here's the truth

There were no innocent parties in that war. The whole thing started when Kuwait used a "slant drill"--a machine that can drill an oil well at an angle--to tap the al-Rumaila oilfield. There was historical enmity as well--Iraq had borrowed $14 billion from Kuwait to pay for the Iran-Iraq War. They were going to attempt to pay the debt by forcing the price of oil up, but Kuwait dumped a LOT of oil on the market, causing the price to go down.

On July 25, 1990, US Ambassador to Iraq April Glaspie told Saddam Hussein, "we have no opinion on Arab-Arab issues, such as your border disagreement with Kuwait." Saddam translated that to mean, "We don't care what you do" and, on August 2, annexed Kuwait into Iraq.

Minor Correction Desert Storm is often thought to be another name for the Gulf War, but it is not. It was the second phase of the Coalition strategy to oust Iraq from Kuwait. The first phase was to defend Saudi Arabia, and it was called Operation Desert Shield which lasted for months.

Desert Storm began when the first bombs were dropped on Bagdad, and bombings continued daily for more months. After Coalition forces crossed the Saudi-Iraqi border, Basra was quickly captured and Operation Desert Storm was concluded after a few days.

And another thing..... The causes of the Gulf War can be traced back to World War 1, and the betrayal of the Arabs by the British and French. For siding with the Allies against the Ottoman Empire, Prince Faisil was allowed to have Iraq, but Kuwait which had previously been part of this land was not included.

Gulf War Economic Causes of Gulf War

The Prussian militarist Clausewitz declared that war was "nothing but the continuation of politics by other means. He would have been nearer the truth if he had said that war was the continuation of economics by other means. Since the onset of capitalism five hundred years ago wars have been caused by conflicts of economic interest over sources of raw materials, trade routes, markets, investment outlets and strategic points and places to secure and protect these. The threatening war in the Middle East is no exception to this rule, and in fact strikingly confirms the socialist analysis of the cause of war. Although it is rather obvious that what is at stake is oil, both sides try to play this down. U.S. President George Bush and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher say that Saddam Hussein is a dictator whose expansionist ambitions must be checked in the interests of world peace. Saddam Hussein says that he has struck a blow for Arab Nationalism by eliminating a state tailor-made by Western imperialism to suit its interests. Saddam Hussein is a dictator and he has taken over a state created by Western imperialism, but it is not for these reasons that the West is preparing to go to war. The Western powers tolerate dictators when it suits their interests. In fact they tolerated, financed and armed Saddam Hussein himself when they needed someone to prevent Iran under Khomeini coming to dominate the Gulf area and threaten their oil supplies. And they tolerated the Indonesian invasion and annexation of East Timor in 1975 as they had that of Goa by India in 1961 without shrieking that world peace and order was threatened. The difference was that, while in East Timor and Goa only carrots grew, Kuwait is situated right in the middle of the world's largest and lowest-cost oilfields. Oil and Empire

British imperialism made Kuwait, which remained nominally part of the Ottoman Empire, a "protectorate" in 1899. This was done not for its oil resources, which nobody even suspected existed, but for its strategic position.

Gulf War At the time Imperial Germany, already squaring up to Britain in the inter-imperialist rivalry which eventually broke out as the First World War, was planning to build a railway that would extend from Europe through Turkey and Mesopotamia down to the Persian Gulf. This was the Berlin to Baghdad railway of history book fame and, if completed, would have represented an alternative and rival to the British-controlled Suez Canal as a trade route to and from the Indian Ocean and the Far East. Kuwait, a small port and pearl-fishing center at the northern end of the Gulf ruled by a sheik called Al-Sabah, was the likely terminus for the German project. So it was "protected" by British imperialism, to thwart German imperialism. Oil, however, was soon discovered near Kuwait, first in Persia and then in Mesopotamia. Britain acquired complete control of the Persian oilfields but those of Mesopotamia had to be shared with Germany. As Turkey had entered the First World War on the side of German imperialism, the British and French imperialists made plans to carve up the Ottoman Empire amongst them in the event of victory. A secret agreement in 1916 gave what is now Syria, Lebanon and the northern part of Iraq to France, and Palestine and what is now Jordan and the southern part of Iraq to Britain. Almost as soon as the agreement had been signed, someone in the British Foreign Office realised that a ghastly mistake had been made: northern Mesopotamia contained the oilfields of Mosul and Kirkuk. The French were persuaded on some pretext to agree to a rectification, and after the war the spoils were divided along the lines of today's Middle Eastern states. Iran is just as much an artificial creation of Western imperialism as Kuwait, though its ruling class ought to be grateful that perfide Albion outwitted French imperialism, otherwise its northern oilfields would be in Syria. Britain creates Kuwait

Kuwait remained a British protectorate when Iraq became an independent state in 1932, but the new Iraqi rulers were not happy about being deprived of a secure outlet to the Persian Gulf. A glance at a map of Iraq will show that it only has two possible outlets to the sea. The first is via the Shatt al Arab River, but this is shared with Iran. The second is via an inlet to the west, access to which is controlled by two islands belonging to Kuwait.

Gulf War At one time-in the fifties when Iraq under a pro-Western king and government seemed firmly anchored in the Western camp through its membership of CENTO, the Middle Eastern equivalent of NATO-British officials considered making some concessions to Iraq on this issue, but this was blocked by the Al-Sabah dynasty. The Emir of Kuwait, which since 1946 had become an oil-producing area with huge reserves, proved to be the better judge of his interests. On 14 July 1958 the king of Iraq and his pro-western prime minister were overthrown and killed in a military coup led by pro-Nasser army officers. The British Foreign Minister, Selwyn Lloyd, rushed to Washington to discuss the crisis. On 19 July he sent a secret telegram, recently released under the thirty-year rule, to Macmillan, the Prime Minister, in which he reported: I am sure that you are considering anxiously the problem of Kuwait. One of the most reassuring features of my talks here has been the complete United States solidarity with us over the Gulf. They are assuming that we will take firm action to maintain our position in Kuwait. They themselves are disposed to act with similar resolution in relation to the Aramco oilfields in the area of Dhahran, although the logistics are not worked out. They assume that we will also hold Bahrain and Qatar, come what may. They agree that at all costs these oilfields must be kept in Western hands. The immediate problem is whether it is good tactics to occupy Kuwait against the wishes of the ruling family. Selwyn Lloyd went on to discuss the options, including turning Kuwait from a protectorate into a colony, i.e., annexing it as Iraq has just done, but rejected this in favour of another option: On balance, I feel it very much to our advantage to have a kind of Kuwaiti Switzerland where the British do not exercise physical control. (Independent, 13 September). This was the solution eventually adopted and in 1961 Kuwait was granted "independence" in the sense of no longer being subject to direct "physical control" by Britain. Iraq immediately moved its troops up to the border-and British troops had to be rushed in to prop up the artificial Middle Eastern "Switzerland" that their government had just set up.

Gulf War Kuwait survived and its rulers prospered. Thanks to revenues from oil, the ruling AlSabah dynasty became one of the richest families in the world, overtaken only by fellow oil nouveaux riches the Saudi royals and the Sultan of Brunei, and far surpassing other dynastic billionaires like the Queen of England and Juliana of the Netherlands. The Shatt al Arab War

Iraq meanwhile also developed its oil resources and revenues, which were mainly used to build up its armed forces so strengthening the grip of the military on the state. Iraqi politics came to consist of coups and plots and counter-plots amongst the leaders of the armed forces. Out of these Saddam Hussein emerged as top dog in 1979. The current Iraqi regime, though in fact a military dictatorship pursuing the national interests of Iraqi capitalism, has as its ideology the Pan-Arab Nationalism of the Baath party. Iraq, however, is by no means purely an Arab country since up to a quarter of its population speak Kurdish rather than Arabic, and the attempt to impose Baathism in the 1970s led to a revival of the armed revolt of Kurdish nationalists in the North of the country, where the oilfields of Mosul and Kirkuk are situated-which explains why Iraq has been prepared to use all means, including, more recently, poison gas, to retain the area. This revolt was encouraged as a means of weakening Iraq by the Shah of Iran, whose country had a long-standing dispute with Iraq over the control of the Shatt al Arab river. The dispute went back to the time of the first commercial exploitation of Iranian oil before the First World War and concerned Iran's demand for access and protection for its bordering oil wells and installations. The Shatt al Arab is the name of the river formed by the confluence of the Euphrates and the Tigris. From the Iranian town of Khorramshahr to the sea it forms the frontier between Iraq and Iran. Safe, free navigation in this waterway is absolutely vital to Iraq as its main port, Basra, can only be reached via the Shatt al Arab. Without this, Iraq becomes virtually a land-locked country, dependent on other countries for the transit of its imports and the export of its main product, oil. Its vulnerability in this respect was well illustrated by the ease and speed with which the pipelines via Turkey and Saudi Arabia were closed to enforce United Nations sanctions (and

Gulf War by the fact that a third pipeline via Syria had long been closed by the Syrian government for political reasons). The Shah's strategy worked and in 1975 a treaty was signed between Iraq and Iran under which Iraq ceded control of the eastern side of the Shatt al Arab to Iran in return for Iran withdrawing its support for the Kurdish nationalists. When, however, the Shah was overthrown in 1979 and Iran began to slip into chaos, the tables were turned. The Iraqi ruling class decided to use the occasion to attack Iran and regain control of the whole of the Shatt al Arab and perhaps more. So began, in 1980, one of the longest and bloodiest wars of modern history. The war lasted eight years and led to the death of about one million people-all for control of a strategic commercial waterway. The Western powers were happy to let the war go on, using Iraq to block any Iranian take-over of the Gulf region. When, however, Iran began to attack shipping in the Gulf in 1987, the West was forced to send its own taskforce of warships and warplanes to the area to protect the free flow of its oil supplies. Why Iraq invaded Kuwait

The war ended in a stalemate, with Iraq in control of some Iranian territory but with the port of Basra blocked. This put pressure on Iraq to turn to its other possible outlet to the sea: that blocked by Kuwaiti control of the islands of Warba and Bubiyan. The Iraq-Iran war strikingly confirmed a point made in 1938 by the Iraqi Foreign Minister in discussions with his British counterpart: Iraq would like to rent a piece of land from Kuwait for establishing a deep harbour and connecting it to the Basra railway line, since Iraq could not guarantee navigational safety on the Shatt al-Arab in the case of an Iraq-Iran dispute. (Quoted in press release on "The Political Background to the Current Events" issued by the Iraqi Press Office, London, on 12 September, pp 1617). The present Iraqi Foreign Minister, Tariq Aziz, has made it quite clear that Iraq's motives for taking over Kuwait were economic, commercial and strategic. In a letter on The Kuwait

Gulf War Question sent to all foreign ministers on 4 September he denounced Britain for having created and sustained since 1899 an "artificial entity called Kuwait" which cut off Iraq from "its natural access to the waters of the Arab Gulf", and went on to say that all Iraqi governments since the establishment of the state of Iraq in 1924 had insisted that Iraq must have Kuwait to guarantee its commercial and economic interests and provide it with the requirements necessary for the defence of its national security. King Hussein of Jordan brought out the same point, in a message broadcast on the American TV network CNN on 22 September 1990, when he said that Iraq had been seeking: An agreement with Kuwait that would secure it an independent access to the sea which it considers of vital national interest. The phrase "vital national interest", invoked by both sides in the threatening war, is the key as in the mealy-mouthed language of diplomacy this refers to issues over which states are prepared to go to war in the last resort. Iraq emerged from its war with Iran with a huge financial debt and a desperate need for money to pay for reconstruction. With oil revenues as virtually its only source of income, Iraq favoured using the OPEC cartel to push up the price of oil by restricting its supply. Since this was in the interests of a number of other OPEC members, including Iran, some move in this direction was agreed. However, two countries in particular-Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates-failed to apply this. They consistently exceeded their quotas, so preventing the price of oil from rising. The reason why the emirs and sheiks and sultans of the Gulf pursued this policy was not shortsightedness or cussedness. It was because it had become in their economic interest to do so. The Al-Sabah family had not wasted all its riches on horse-racing, gambling and gold-fitted bathrooms. Most of it had been re-invested in capitalist industry and finance in the West, so much so in fact that a large part of Kuwait's income came from these investments. In other words, the Kuwaiti and other Gulf rulers had become Western capitalists themselves and not just oil rentiers-with the same interest in not having too high a price for oil.

Gulf War Iraq regarded this refusal to take steps to raise the price of oil as a plot to prevent it recovering from the war. Combined with their long-standing claim to Kuwait as a means of obtaining a vitally-needed secure trade route to the sea, this decided the Iraqi ruling class to take military action. On the night of 1/2 August 1990 Kuwait was invaded and later annexed. As an additional bonus, the Kuwaiti oilfields when added to the Iraqi ones make Iraq potentially almost as big a producer sitting on as big reserves as Saudi Arabia. Why the West is going to war

Bush, and Thatcher who happened to be in America on a lecture tour, reacted quickly, issuing an ultimatum to Iraq not to move further down the coast and take over the Saudi oilfields and dispatching a battle fleet to the Gulf for the second time in three years. Iraq probably had no intention of invading Saudi Arabia, but America had every interest in finding an excuse to send troops to protect the Saudi oilfields. Since 1950 these had been an American preserve: under an agreement with the King of Saudi Arabia European oil companies were excluded and US ones, grouped together as A.R.A.M.C.O., given a monopoly. In preparing for war by dispatching troops to the Gulf, Bush is applying the policy enunciated by Carter in his January 23 1980 State of the Union message: Let our position be absolutely clear: An attempt by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region will be regarded as an assault on the vital interests of the United States. It will be repelled by use of any means necessary, including military force. The Gulf, he explained, was of "great strategic importance" because "it contains more than two-thirds of the world's exportable oil" and because the Strait of Hormuz at its mouth is "a waterway through which much of the free world's oil must flow". At the time the immediate threat was seen as coming from Russia which had just invaded Afghanistan, but the Carter Doctrine applied equally to threats to American oil supplies from other states like Iran and now Iraq. In Britain the Sunday Times (12 August 1990), which has called for war since day one of the crisis, has been equally frank:

Gulf War The reason why we will shortly have to go to war with Iraq is not to free Kuwait, though that is to be desired, or to defend Saudi Arabia, though that is important. It is because President Saddam is a menace to vital Western interests in the Gulf, above all the free flow of oil at market prices, which is essential to the West's prosperity.

If war breaks out in the Middle East, the issues at stake will be purely economic and commercial: access to the sea and a high price of oil, on the one side, and control of oilfields and a low price of oil, on the other. Neither of which are issues justifying the shedding of a single drop of working class blood

Effects of the gulf war The aftermath of the gulf war

How many people died in the gulf war?

Although to this day no one knows exactly how many Iraqis died during operation desert storm, several attempts to tally the dead have been made. It is estimated that more than 2500 Iraqi civilians and probably more than 20,000 soldiers were killed. This is a drastic contrast from deaths of US soldiers, which only numbered 293. How much money was spent on the war? The cost of the war to the United States was calculated to be $61.1 billion. About $52 billion of that amount was paid by different countries around the world: about 25% of Saudi Arabias contribution was paid in the form of in-kind services to the troops, such as food and transportation.

Gulf War What lesson was learnt from the war? War is inherently unpredictable, and often won by the side that adapts most quickly to the unexpected. For this reason, we shall look for the important lessons that are learnt from the gulf war. Global threats At the strategic level, operation desert storm marked the first major international conflict of the post-cold war era. The changes allowed the development of a new American strategy; one should focus more on global threats than on regional conflicts. Too much too soon Execution of the war and the speed of advance outstripped planning. The military expected to take seven weeks to reach Baghdad, but took only two. The rapid action leads to vacate many posts. Backfill put people into power who were sometimes no better than those deposed.

Five reasons that distinguish gulf war from the other wars:

Environmental damage More than 80% of Kuwaiti livestock was killed, many fisheries were polluted. Half a billion tons of carbon dioxide released from burning oil, increases global warming. There are still pools of oil with unexploded bombs. The disease rate in the Kuwaiti population has gone up. Crops and livestock have still not been recovered. Gulf war syndrome After the war, many soldiers reported having disease-like symptoms, such as loss of memory, sudden onsets of cancer, a lowered immune deficiency, and children being born with deformities. There are many theories to the causes of the gulf war syndrome. Some say it is

Gulf War because of US experimentation with new vaccines that soldiers were forced to get prior to the war. Some say it is a result of chemical or biological warfare. Technological advances New technologies, like smart bombs, allow the US to more specifically target army operations, not hurt civilians. Its a war of information with the internet. We have to watch what is posted because we never know who will gain access to information. The US disabled parts of the Iraq army by infecting them with computer viruses.US. technological superiority allowed them to win the war, even though the smart bomb would be criticized as the smoke cleared. End of the world prophecies Because the gulf war was occurring in the Middle East, it sparked a lot of end-of-the world prophecies from fundamentalist Christian writers and speakers. Most of these people were very much for the war, wanting to portray the US as fighting on gods side. The war was said to have been predicted by the biblical chapter of revelations. The burning oil lakes in Kuwait were reminiscent of biblical predictions about a burning lake of fire. Prophecies sparked intense support for the war from believers of this biblical prediction. Briefness The actual war was very short, only lasted 39 days and consisted of one operation, desert storm. Many say the US won because of technological superiority.

Gulf War controversies

Gulf War Illness

Many returning coalition soldiers reported illnesses following their action in the Gulf War, a phenomenon known as Gulf War syndrome or Gulf War illness. There has been

Gulf War widespread speculation and disagreement about the causes of the illness and the reported birth defects. Some factors considered as possibilities include exposure to depleted uranium, chemical weapons, anthrax vaccines given to deploying soldiers, and/or infectious diseases. Major Michael Donnelly, a former USAF officer during the Gulf War, helped publicize the syndrome and advocated for veterans' rights in this regard. Effects of depleted Uranium

Depleted uranium (DU) was used in the Gulf War in tank kinetic energy penetrators and 2030 mm cannon ordnance. DU is a pyrophoric, genotoxic, and teratogenic heavy metal. Many have cited its use during the Gulf War as a contributing factor to a number of instances of health issues in both veterans of the conflict and surrounding civilian populations. However, scientific opinion on the risk is mixed. Highway of Death

On the night of 2627 February 1991, some Iraqi forces began leaving Kuwait on the main highway north of Al Jahra in a column of some 1,400 vehicles. A patrolling E-8 Joint STARS aircraft observed the retreating forces and relayed the information to the DDM-8 air operations center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. These vehicles and the retreating soldiers were subsequently attacked, resulting in a 60 km stretch of highway strewn with debris the Highway of Death. Chuck Horner, Commander of U.S. and allied air operations has written: By February 26, the Iraqis totally lost heart and started to evacuate occupied Kuwait, but airpower halted the caravan of Iraqi Army and plunderers fleeing toward Basra. This event was later called by the media "The Highway of Death." There were certainly a lot of dead vehicles, but not so many dead Iraqis. They'd already learned to scamper off into the desert when our aircraft started to attack. Nevertheless, some people back home wrongly chose to believe we were cruelly and unusually punishing our already whipped foes.

Gulf War By February 27, talk had turned toward terminating the hostilities. Kuwait was free. We were not interested in governing Iraq. So the question became "How do we stop the killing. Bulldozer assault

Another incident during the war highlighted the question of large-scale Iraqi combat deaths. This was the bulldozer assault, wherein two brigades from the 1st Infantry Division (Mechanized) were faced with a large and complex trench network, as part of the heavily fortified "Saddam Hussein Line." After some deliberation, they opted to use anti-mine plows mounted on tanks and combat earthmovers to simply plow over and bury alive the defending Iraqi soldiers. One newspaper story reported that the U.S. commanders estimated thousands of Iraqi soldiers surrendered, escaping live burial during the two-day assault 2425 February 1991. Patrick Day Sloyan of Newsday reported, "Bradley Fighting Vehicles and Vulcan armored carriers straddled the trench lines and fired into the Iraqi soldiers as the tanks covered them with mounds of sand. I came through right after the lead company,' Col. Anthony Moreno said. 'What you saw was a bunch of buried trenches with peoples' arms and things sticking out of them. . .'" However, after the war, the Iraqi government claimed to have found only 44 bodies. In his book The Wars against Saddam, John Simpson alleges that U.S. forces attempted to cover up this incident. After the incident, the commander of the 1st Brigade said: "I know burying people like that sounds pretty nasty, but it would be even nastier if we had to put our troops in the trenches and clean them out with bayonets." 1991 Palestinian exodus from Kuwait

Kuwait expulsion policy was a response to alignment of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat and the PLO with Saddam Hussein, who had earlier invaded Kuwait. Prior to the Gulf War, Palestinians made up about 30% of Kuwait's population of 2.2 million. The exodus took place during one week in March 1991, following Kuwait's liberation from Iraqi occupation. Kuwait expelled about 450,000 Palestinians from its territory,] an event, which has become the second largest displacement of Palestinian Arabs ever, and is related as an ethnic cleansing. By 2006,

Gulf War only a few had returned to Kuwait and today the number of Palestinians living in Kuwait is less than 40,000 (under 3% of the population).

Conclusion When it comes to a war of this magnitude, it is quite hard to determine who was right. In fact when should we say that war was the best decision? The gulf war that we are talking about showed a bit of grey shade in almost all the parties involved. All of them were against the crude oil. Of course when it comes to the moral ground, the conflict was basically between Kuwait and Iraq in which the United States, (being a third party) jumped in. In this was not to happen, the war would not have rose to such a high scale at all. The basic aim of US which is not very evident by looking at this war alone got fulfilled. If we look at the particular wars in this region against US collectively, we can clearly notice that the emerging powers were potential threat to the super power America. It was not at all possible for the US to get rid of all of them if by any chance they decide to unite. Despite all the territorial and historical disputes, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq and Pakistan share the same roots. And all of them were becoming nuclear powers. Not to mention the precious oil fields. U.s targeted Iran, then double crossed Iraq, invaded Afghanistan and destroyed Pakistan. Iraq, despite being a super power, was no match for the allied forces and was defeated by cease fire. Though it is said that the United States walked into the war for the protection of Kuwait rights and that Saddam Husseins government was no less than that of Adolf Hitler. True. But personally, for a leader who refuse to give up, who refuses to surrender and most of all who refuses to be a part of the puppet league has great respect in my eyes.

Gulf War Appendix A Questions

What are two gulfs that were in the gulf war? The Persian Gulf and the gulf of Oman

What war came after the gulf war? The Iran-Iraq war of 1980-1988. Operation desert storm Jan- Feb 1991. Operation Iraqi freedom 2003 to present.

What is the gulf the gulf war was named after? The Persian Gulf, off the coast of Iran (formerly called Persia).

What was the type of the conflict? It was an interstate conflict.

How many countries were involved in the gulf war? There were 32 nations involved in the war. However many of them did not take an active part in the war. Some were fighting in the frontline were some provided aid. Many of them were there only for the moral support.

Gulf War Appendix B

Figure 1

Figure 2

Gulf War Appendix C

Figure 3

Gulf War Appendix D

Figure 4