FREE ESSAY ON WAR - PERSIAN GULF - IRAQ

WAR - PERSIAN GULF - IRAQ

WHY WAR WAS UNAVOIDABLE IN THE PERSIAN GULF AND WHY IT WAS INEVITABLE THAT IRAQ WOULD LOSE

War was inevitable in the Gulf and it was a war in which Iraq was inevitable to lose.
There were several reasons why this was and became a reality. How, when, where did this
process of self destruction begin? It was quite evident that Saddam Hussein, the
president of Iraq, was becoming a military giant in the Middle East and therefore a
threat to the stability of the entire region. His war with Iran was proof of this. The
U.S. and other industrialized Western nations could not risk the loss of oil from the
area. Kuwait is the second largest source of petroleum in the Middle East and so the
Iraqi invasion of Kuwait sent the world oil market into a frenzy. Iraqi forces then
gathered their forces on the border with Saudi Arabia, the second largest supplier of oil
in the world. This in turn brought the military might of the United States into the
conflict. There are several reasons why Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. After the eight
year war with Iran over territorial disputes and religious rivalries between the Iranian
Shiites and Iraqi Sunni factions, Iraq had a massive debt to many Arab nations including
Kuwait. The rulers of these nations wanted some of their money back but Iraq thought they
were ingrates and were ungrateful for defending the Arab emirs from the Iranian Islamic
fundamentalism. The Arab emirs were afraid that the Islamic fundamentalists would rise
against the government and eventually take over the government as they had Iran against
the Shah. Kuwait was also afraid of this and so they supported the Iraqi Arabs against
the Iranian Persians. The funds that the Gulf countries lent to Iraq were used to buy
high tech weapons. These high tech weapons made Iraq one of the largest armies in the
world and a force to contend with. Ironically much of the money and weapons came from the
countries that united to fight against him. The Gulf countries bankrolled him while the
Western nations, who had many defense contractors going out of business because of the
end of the Cold War, supplied him with the weapons to fight Iran and later Kuwait and the
Coalition. With a large army like his, it would be very easy to defeat the far smaller
Kuwaiti army compared to his. Oil had made Kuwait one of the richest and most progressive
countries in the world. This desert land is one of the world's leading producers having
over one-tenth of the world's known petroleum reserves. This is all in 20,150 square
kilometres, a little smaller than the state of New Jersey. Kuwait is one of the world's
wealthiest nations in terms of national income per person. It has free primary and
secondary education free health and social services and no income tax. There was much to
protect. All of this was attractive and irritating to Saddam who would and did use a
fraction of his army to attack and invade Kuwait in which it only took the Iraqi army 6
hours to reach the capital city. After the invasion they had about 19% of the world's
known oil reserves. Historically Iraq had claimed that it had a right to Kuwait. Saddam
was jealous that Kuwait was in control of the two islands needed for a deep water
shipping port: the Bubiyan and Warbah islands. These islands along with some parts of
Kuwait were a part of old Mesopotamia which the Ottoman Turks conquered. The Ottoman
Empire was defeated during World War I and the British made their own lines in the sand,
dividing up the land according to their own strategic needs and in the process recklessly
dividing up ancient communities and boundaries that had been recognized for decades. Most
of Mesopotamia became Iraq and some other parts to Kuwait. In 1961, Kuwait became
independent and the Iraqis threatened to invade except that British troops kept the
peace. This was to be the first of many border skirmishes which included Iraqi missiles
fired at Kuwaiti oil installations and the reflagging of Kuwaiti oil tankers during the
Iran-Iraq War in which U.S. ships patrolled the Persian Gulf and Kuwaiti tankers were
reflagged with U.S. flags. The Iraqi government had also accused the Kuwaitis of stealing
2.5 billion barrels of oil from its Rumaila oil fields by sliding drills into Iraqi oil
pipelines. They had also accused Kuwait of exceeding OPEC oil production, which had
dropped the price of oil from $20 a barrel to $13 a barrel in the first six months of
1990. This meant one billion dollars less for Iraq everytime that price of an oil barrel
went down by a dollar. Saddam said he would stop them from continuing aggressive action.
Iraq's foreign minister Tariq Aziz later said in a letter to the Arab league that Kuwait
is systematically, deliberately and continuously harming Iraq by encroaching on its
territory, stealing oil, and destroying its economy. "Such behavior amounts to military
aggression. These were just signs of the Desert Storm to come. 
Personally, Saddam Hussein had reasons to want to go to war against the Western nations.
He grew up as a young boy hating the British for imprisoning his uncle that had cared for
him. Later, he joined the Baath Party which was based on a platform of Arab unity and as
a member was sent to try to assassinate General Abdul Karim Qasim who they believed to be
very friendly with the Western nations. By going to war, he hoped to foster Arab unity
against the Western nations, like an Islamic holy war against the infidels. He also
believed that it was his destiny to fulfill the prophecy of ruling an Arab nation
streching from Euphrates to the Suez. The Western and Gulf nations united together to
form a coalition to fight against Iraq that followed the United Nations resolution that
Iraq must pull out of Kuwait on January 15, 1991. They had several reasons for wanting
Iraq out of Kuwait. The two main reasons are the vast amounts of oil in the region which
account for 53% of the world's known petroleum reserves and the stability of the nations
that have the oil. The two biggest producers in the region are Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.
The Saudis were afraid that Iraq would invade Saudi Arabia just like Kuwait. The United
States depends on Middle East petroleum for about 25% of its energy needs and other
Western nations even more. Other sources of power are generally too expensive to be
practical or are still under development. So any disruption of oil from this region would
seriously affect the economies of the Western nations, just as they were slipping into a
recession, which would not be very good for the leaders of these countries at the ballot
box. However going to war or even the real possibility of it would give a big short term
boost to the economies of these nations by increasing the price for a barrel of oil which
would allow oil companies to make bigger profits and there would be more exploration in
North America to discover new sources of oil. This would help boost the stock markets by
increasing positive activity in the trading of shares. Also by going to war, it would
create jobs in many sectors of the economy from the defense contractors to the service
industries down the line. The main reason that the Coalition was formed was to protect
the vital interests in the often unstable Middle East. The Middle East has been the
source of many of the world's wars after, sometimes almost to point of going nuclear. The
Arab partners joined the Coalition so what had happened to Kuwait wouldn't happen to
them. The United States and the other Western partners wanted to ensure a steady supply
of cheap oil and the invasion of Kuwait had risen the price of oil along with creating
instability in the Middle East. The best way to restore order to the region and create
some stability was to force Iraq out of Kuwait and severely weaken its government and
military, which the Allies were successful in doing. Another reason that has been
suggested is that Iraq was permitted to invade Kuwait just to give the U.S. an excuse to
attack the Iraqis so that they would no longer be a threat to other countries in the
region. This would also make the Arab nations dependent on the Americans for their
defense so that they would not try to attempt hostile actions in terms of increasing the
cost of the oil to them or limiting the production of petroleum as had been demonstrated
by the OPEC nations in the 1970s. President Bush also had personal reasons as to why he
wanted Iraq to leave Kuwait. As the youngest fighter pilot in the Navy during World War
II, he flew in many missions before being shot down. These missions helped to shape his
beliefs that the U.S. should be like a global policeman. He felt Saddam Hussein must be
stopped just as Hitler should have been stopped from breaking the conditions of the
treaties the Germans signed ending World War I. Another reason he felt he had to take
military action was that there were American hostages held by the Iraqis after the
invasion of Kuwait for a couple of months. Iraq would lose in the war with the Coalition
because their forces were not as well trained as the Coalition forces, their weapons were
technologically inferior, they had no air support and the Coalition forces were well
prepared for moves against them. The Iraqi army was mainly composed of draftees, who are
not well trained or equipped. Only the few Republican Guard units, that were the elite of
the Iraqi army, were any match for the Coalition. The reason for this is that the
Coalition forces were composed of mainly professional, well-trained volunteers. Also the
Iraqi weapons were inferior compared to the Americans. The Iraqis had weapons mainly from
the late 1970s to the early 1980s while the Allies had the most- advanced weaponry
available including the AWACS system, the Stealth bomber and the Patriot missile. With
this, they quickly achieved air and naval superiority over Iraq and Kuwait. The Iraqis
had few planes that were of any threat to the Coalition and most of these never faced
combat for unknown reasons. This made the Allies job much easier. The Coalition forces
were also very well prepared as to the Iraq's battle tactics. This was because they used
the same tactics as the ex-Soviet Union which the Americans had studied for a possible
invasion of Europe. 
A Gulf War involving Iraq was unavoidable and in this war Iraq was defeated. The Iraqis
were becoming a major military power in the Middle East and therefore a danger to the
stability of the whole region. The United States and other industrialized Western nations
could not afford the loss of oil from the region and therefore they were very willing to
ensure that they continued to receive the oil. The U.N. and U.S. both wanted Iraq to
leave but realized that Iraq did not wish to leave and had no intention of doing so
unless they were forced out. Neither the Iraqis or the Coalition wished to back down
diplomatically. And with no other useful options available, war was the only option left
to the Coalition. In this war, Iraq would lose because it had inferior weapons, a poorly
trained army and the Coalition was well prepared for the Iraqi tactics. 
Bibliography CNN The Gulf War (Video), Atlanta, CNN News, 75 min., 1991 Iraq,World Book
New York, World Book, 1990, Vol 10, pp. 260-261 Kuwait,World Book New York, World Book,
1990, Vol 11, pp. 354-355 Toronto Star: special sections from January 14, 1991 to March
8, 1991. (Many sections were used)