Demorea Martin

First Iraq War

The leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein called on the invasion and occupation of the
neighboring Kuwait in august of 1990. Surprised with these actions, Arab powers such
as Saudi Arabia and Egypt called on United States and other western countries to help.
Hussein did not follow the united nations Security Council demands to withdraw from
Kuwait in January 1991 and a Persian gulf war began with a massive united state air
force known as operation desert storm. After 42 days of relentless fire power president
bush called a ceasefire on February 28th and by this time most of the opposing forces
have fled or giving up. Even though the gulf war was considered a success, rising
conflict led to the second gulf war or known as the Iraq war.
Knowing the leader of Iraq is a good way to understand the situation. Saddam
was born into a financially struggling family in Tirkit, about a hundred miles outside his
later acclaimed country. He moved to Baghdad as a teenager and joined a group that
he later became the leader of. Trying to several violent attempts to get to power, he
finally got his cousins to become the dictator. After his cousins 11 long year rule,
Saddam finally got to power. obsessed with security and his rule he terrorized his
citizens, making secret police to secure his position and ignoring the human rights of his
citizens. The leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein has been in power for at least two
decades, has an interesting description to him. Most of the world would call him the
most hated Arab leader (Gerald Butts article Saddam Hussein- his rise to power).
Saddam wasnt feared by any other country but only by his own people. People that
have been exiled from that country summed up Husseins strategy of rule by sacrificing
his own country just to stay on his throne in Baghdad. Nobody in Iraq would dare say
that publicly however in fear of the consequences. The Iraqi people are forced to be
brainwashed by triumphalism slogans and unbelievable praise to their president. He is
also looked at as a knight leading the Arabs into battle against the infidel (Gerald
Butts article Saddam Hussein- his rise to power) or the founders of Baghdad. Basically
ruining the reputation of Iraq, Saddam said he was leading the country into a new found
glory but in reality has done nothing of the sorts. The country is bankrupt and the
economy and infrastructure of Iraq is a disaster do to the seven years of United Nation
sanctions. All of this is before the first Iraq war so you could say Saddam has no
sympathy for his people or his country.
After the eight year Iran-Iraq which ended in 1988, Iran wasnt only attacking Iraq
but also the oil tanker in Kuwait. To help Iraq at the end of the war Kuwait lends Iraq
fourteen billion dollars but Iraq couldnt pay it back so they asked Kuwait to abolish the
debt but they declined. This caused tension between two the countries and for a year
the Iraqis tried to resolve the conflict to no success. Iraq asked the OPEC to reduce the
oil production so the value of oil would increase, this would benefit Iraq's revenues so
they could pay back their debt. Others disagreed with what was happening and said
Kuwait asked to increase its quota by fifty percent, much to the dissatisfaction of Iraq
(causes of the gulf war by peter Fitzgerald). Iraq started accusing Kuwait of drilling
diagonal into Iraqs oil field called Rumaila. This means Kuwait was taking Iraq's oil
instead of their own. Saddam Hussein decided his only option was to go to war; he put
100,000 troops on the border of Kuwait and then invaded the country in August. In their
journey of taking over the country they set fire to hundreds of oil fields, and then the UN
declared Iraq's actions unjust and put in economic sanctions. In November, the Iraqis
were still in charge of Kuwait so the UN drew up plans and called it resolution 678; this
was a plan that said Iraq had until midnight to retreat back to its land before foreign
military forces were granted to intervene. Iraq was still in Kuwait by January sixteenth so
a force of 34 countries, lead by America, was making its way to Kuwait and the task was
called operation desert storm. This was the start of the Gulf War. There is also a
possibility that Iraq being part of the Soviet Union during the cold war got on Americas
nerves and that's why they were eager to mobilize the troops.
There were complication before America and the other countries went to war.
This wasnt always a good source of defensive planning between America and Saudi
Arabia. Also there were problems getting everything the army needed do to the
efficiency of the transportation ships. over a hour of gunfights on the ground including
the militaries 7th corps and the 18th, 410 miles across the Saudi, Iraq, and Kuwaiti
desert was easy for the actual soldiers but was sometimes hard for the soldiers
providing Intel and missile strikes. there was also a big problem with allied soldiers
shooting each other, ignoring previous conflicts, 35 of 147 American troops killed in
action was caused by friendly fire. 467 wounded, 72 was friendly fire.
The Iraqi casualties were certainly more the Americans but they post war
estimates predicted that 100,000 Iraqis would have been killed and 300,000 but there
were actually 11,500 air casualties and only 10,000 ground casualties. The Iraqi
government also said The Iraqi government says 2,300 civilians died during the air
campaign. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/appendix/death.html). There
was incident that was the highlight of the whole war and this is how most of the Iraqis
died. This was called a bulldozer assault, where two fleets of American first infantry
divisions called the big one used mounted plows on tanks to bury Iraqi soldiers on the
Saddam line. There was an estimated 2,000 troops that surrendered but a local
newspaper recalled that an U.S commander estimated that more than a thousand Iraqis
were buried alive in the two day assault. There was a lot of speculation in how many
troops died in this strike, some said eight thousand, some said eighty to two fifty, but at
the end of all of that the Iraqi government found forty four bodies.
When the coalition of forces going to the gulf, America anticipated the casualties
to reach the hundred thousands of killed and wounded soldiers. The casualties never
reached that height but there was still a good amount of troops hurt, you estimate that
ten percent of the troops were either killed or injured. There was still a big possibility
that the war would still be a bloody mess, even if half of the Iraqi troops were killed by
air superiority before the ground troops were dropped. In December 1990, a general
was given orders to be prepared for deaths but none greater than the equivalent of
three companies per coalition brigade (Pentagon Report on Persian Gulf War: A Few
Surprises and Some Silences by John H. Cushman Jr). This was later translated into
what president Bush said the casualties might reach. General Schwarzkopf, the general
leading the attack was ordered to crush the Iraqi Republican guard; this was some of
Baghdads most experienced and trained units. When the first war ended the calculated
casualties were not that many, there was 148 troops killed in combat, including 35 of
which were killed by friendly fire, 467 wounded by friendly fire. These casualties stayed
within Presidents bushes liking. Spending nine months running Saddam Hussein was
captured on December 13, 2003. Saddam's downfall was the moment America led an
invasion operation to destroy Husseins rule in Iraq for 20 years.
Although the gulf war was a recognized victory for the coalition, Kuwait and Iraq
suffered more than anybody else. The ideal post war effects would be to have none but
instead it would have effects for a number of years, both in the gulf and around the
world. There were uprisings in the north and the south of Iraq, there was a group in the
south called Shiites and the group in the north was called the Kurds. The United
States failed to help the uprising in fear that Iraq might get dissolved if they succeeded.
In the years to come, Britain and America would patrol parts of Iraq. Iraq was being
difficult when it came to the peace terms and the weapon inspections made up by the
UN; this grew into hostility between the two powers in 1998. Later on, Iraq refused to let
inspectors to the weapons they were making and the fire fights taking place in the no fly
zone America and Britain were occupying. In 2002 the President at that time, President
Bush, sponsored a new UN resolution to the problems in Iraq, calling back all the
inspectors but then sending them back in November. There were obviously differences
between Security Councils on how good Iraq followed those expectations. The United
States and Britain started mobilizing troops along Iraq's border. Without the consent of
the UN president bush gave Iraq two options on March 17, 2003: Saddam Hussein
steps down from his power in Iraq within 48 hours or be forced to go to war. Saddam
refused that option like he always does and the second Persian Gulf War began or
better known was the Iraq war three days later.





http://www.history.com/topics/persian-gulf-war
http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/saddam-hussein-captured
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/16389128/ns/world_news-
mideast_n_africa/t/saddam-hussein-executed-ending-era-iraq/#.U5T7dnJdWAg
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/appendix/death.html
http://www.nytimes.com/1992/04/11/world/pentagon-report-on-persian-gulf-war-
a-few-surprises-and-some-silences.html?src=pm&pagewanted=1
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-14646835