Intro Iraq & the

Persian Gulf War

Victory Parade for Operation Desert Storm

Military personnel carry a huge American flag through New York City during a ticker tape
victory parade for Operation Desert Storm. Image: Joseph Sohm; ChromoSohm Inc./CORBIS
June 1991

Middle East Quick

How much do you know about
Quiz
the middle east? 5 quiz
questions
1)
Who created most of the

borders and countries of the Middle

East?
a.
France and England
b.
Jordan and Syria
c.
Saudi Arabia
d.
The United Nations
e.
The United States
2

Middle East Quick

How much do you know about
Quiz
the middle east? 5 quiz
questions
2) Which of following is Iraq?

C
A

B
3

Middle East Quick

How much do you know about
Quiz
the middle east? 5 quiz
questions
Answers!!
1. A
2. C

Iraq Basics
Where?

Iraq Basics
Who? Ethnic Groups

A. Arab
2/3 of
Iraq
B. Kurd
1/4 of
Iraq
Own
language &
customs
Brutally
suppressed
in Iraq

Kurds

Iraqi History
A. British Mandate
Post WWII British
colony
B. British Backed
Monarchy
King chosen by
England
C. Dictatorships
1958 Baath
Revolution

King Faisal I of Iraq

Original caption: Death of King Faisal. Faisal, King of
Iraq, whose sudden death is just announced.
Image: Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS
Date Photographed:
ca. 1930

Baath Party
B. What does it do?
Secular (non-religious)
government
Uses oil $ for
government projects
Hussein begins to
eliminate opponents

HUSSEIN CARD AS PART OF DECK OF 55 CARDS OF US

CHARACTERS WANTED Reuters/CORBIS

That all changes with

Iranian
the Revolution
Iran-Iraq War
A. Why?
Pro-western Shah unpopular because of
his alliance w/US & secret police
B. How?
Religious (Shiite) revolution
C. Results
Fear in most neighboring Middle Eastern
countries, especially majority Shiite Iraq
9

Iran-Iraq War
A. Iraqs Goals:
Remove Irans leaders, gain oil-land, &
make Hussein a hero to neighbors
B. How?
Long brutal war, including use of
chemical weapons on both sides
UN creates a peace deal
C. Results
Iraq left with big war debt
10

IRAQ KUWAIT CONFLICT

 Richard B. Cheney:
Secretary of
Defense, 1989-93

George H. W. Bush:
President, 1989-1993

Colin L. Powell:
Chairman, Joint
Chiefs of Staff, 198993

The end of Soviet

Communism

1989: Communist regimes fall in Eastern

European states.
Berlin Wall opened in 1989, removed by 1990.

1990: Communist Party dissolved in Soviet Union.

1991: Soviet Union dissolves, replaced by
Commonwealth of Independent States

 Fall of the Wall

Boris Yeltsin,
Russian President,
1991-1999

Change facilitates (&

complicates) arms control
Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe
(CFE Treaty), signed 1990.
Limited offensive conventional arms held by Eastern
and Western states in Europe.

START Treaty, signed 1991.

Reduced total numbers of delivery vehicles and
warheads in U.S. and Soviet arsenals.

Fall of U.S.S.R. undercuts

Communist efforts elsewhere
Nicaragua: peace negotiated between Sandinistas
and contras in 1987.
Sandinistas voted out of power in 1990.

El Salvador: Peace negotiated between

government and Marxist groups in 1990.
Cuba: pulls troops out of interventions in Africa
(Angola, Ethiopia, Namibia)

More trouble
in the Persian
Gulf
August 2, 1990: Iraq
invades Kuwait.
Kuwait annexed
Saddam Hussein,
Aug. 8.
Aug. 5: Bush
declares will wage
war to restore
Kuwaiti
independence if
necessary.

Larger dangers
Unchallenged Iraqi occupation of Kuwait
threatened:
Saudi Arabia
other regional Arab regimes
Israel

Iraq also possessed chemical and biological

weapons.

Operation DESERT
SHIELD

Goal: Protect Saudi Arabia

Begins August 7, 1990.
Thousands of troops transported by air
Millions of tons of equipment and fuel transported
by sea.

Diplomacy
Bush Administration builds a coalition of 24 nations to
confront Iraq:
23 countries provide naval forces; 22 ground troops; 12
provide air units

Other counties also help pay the bills:

U.S. costs about $60-70 billion foreign contributions
covered $50 billion (not counting services in kind).

The problem of Israel

The coalition included many Arab states.
Israeli participation would have complicated the
position of allied Arab governments, leading to
their withdrawal from the war.
Bush Administration successfully keeps Israel out
of the conflict.

The Role of the United

Nations

Bush Administration uses the UN as a forum to

build and maintain the coalition against Iraq.
Gets UN to impose various sanctions upon Iraq
between August and November 1990.
UN Security Council authorized use of force against
Iraq if it did not withdraw from Kuwait by January 15,
1991.

Increasing the
commitment

October 1990: Bush wanted a plan to kick Iraq out

of Kuwait.
Military planners fail to come up with convincing
plans given projected force levels.

November 1990: Bush increases number of U.S.

troops to facilitate offensive operations.

The Powell Doctrine

U.S. military action:
should be used only as a last resort.
only for a clear national security risk.
force, when used, should be overwhelming and
disproportionate to the force used by the enemy.
there must be strong support for the campaign by
the general public.
there must be a clear exit strategy.

U.S. manpower
237,800 Reservists & National Guardsmen (&
women) were called to active duty during the Gulf
War.
40,000 in August
187,000 between November 1990 and January 1991
10,000 volunteered for active duty

H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.

Commander, U.S.
Central Command
and of coalition
forces in the Gulf.

The plan to attack Iraq

Month-long air campaign
Preliminary goal of destroying Iraqi air defenses.
Other targets included military and industrial
facilities, first in Iraq, then Kuwait

If needed, ground offensive would follow air

operations.

The ground plan

Operation DESERT
STORM

January 15, 1991: Ordered by President George H.

W. Bush
January 17: air operations began
February 24: ground campaign launched
February 28: ceasefire and coalition victory.

High-tech air war

Smart bombs,
precision-guided
munitions.
Advanced air
control & target
acquisition
systems.
New planes

Scud Attacks
Iraq launches
missiles at Israel,
Saudi Arabia, and
Bahrain.
Coalition responds
with Great Scud
Hunt, sending
planes and special
operations units to
locate and destroy
these weapons.

The 100-hour War

Coalition ground forces blast through Iraqi
defenses.
Highly effective artillery and air support.
Iraqi forces not as numerous or tough as anticipated.

Failure: Republican Guard divisions escape.

The Highway of Death

Fears of public reaction to large numbers
of Iraqi casualties helps push for quick
conclusion to hostilities.

Assessment
Casualties:
US 613: 146 killed, 467 wounded.
Coalition 410: 92 killed, 318 wounded.
Iraqi 12,000 killed, about 86,000 surrendered.

Kuwaiti independence restored.

Iraqi strategic military capability devastated.

Problems for the

future
Saddam Hussein
remains in power
in Iraq.

Persian Gulf War (the

Why?
1st one!)
1.Iraqs claimed to
the land
2. Claimed Kuwait
was stealing oil
(slant drilling)
3. $ owed to
countries Kuwait
4.Hussein thought
no one would stop
him

36

Persian Gulf War (the

What
1st happened??
one!)
US invades w/full UN
backing
US bombs Iraqi military
& civilian infrastructure

Destroyed Vehicles Along Kuwaiti

Highway
Destroyed cars and trucks line Kuwait's
"Highway of Death" during the Persian
Gulf War. The name was given to the
stretch of road leading north out of
Kuwait City which, while clogged with
retreating Iraqi forces, was furiously
bombed by coalition forces, killing most
on it.

We make no attempt
to hold Iraqi towns or
capture Saddam
Hussein
37

Persian Gulf War

Pictures

Kuwait Oil Well

Fires from Space
View from the
space shuttle
Atlantis of black
smoke billowing
from burning oil
wells in Kuwait,
which were set
ablaze by
retreating Iraqi
troops at the end
of the
Persian Gulf War.
Image: Digital
image 1996
CORBIS; Original
image courtesy of

38

Persian Gulf War

Pictures
George Bush and
Saddam Hussein on
CNN Television
Broadcast
The faces of the US
President George Bush
and the leader of Iraq
Saddam Hussein on a
CNN television
broadcast during the
Gulf War, 1990.

Image: Zen
Icknow/CORBIS
Photographer: Zen
Icknow
Date Photographed:
January 1990

39

Persian Gulf War (the

Results?
1st one!)
UN Embargo & Oil for
Food Program
Peace Terms:
Iraq accepts border with
Kuwait, surrenders all
WMDs, destroys all WMD
production capability
Iraq can sell oil in
exchange for food &
medicine

40

The Three Gulf

Wars
The Iran-Iraq War 1980-1988
The Expulsion of Iraq from Kuwait
The Regime Change

Before the Iran-Iraq War

In the years after the 1967 Arab-Israeli War Iran,
under the Shah, was a US ally while Iraq was in
the Soviet camp
Iran kept an eye on the USSR & OPEC
Iraq bought arms from the USSR

Major changes in 1979

Saddam Hussein & the Ayatollah Khomeini gained
power in Iraq & Iran, respectively
The Soviet army rolled into Afghanistan

The Iran-Iraq War, 19801988

In 1980, Iraq broke the Baghdad Pact, invading

Iran, expecting an easy victory, finding more
resistance than expected
In 1981, Israel bombed an Iraqi nuclear plant
In 1984, the USA, fearing victory by Iran, renewed
diplomatic relations with Iraq
The USA armed & trained the Iraqi army
Finally, stalemate in 1988

Impact on Saddam of US
Aid
Transformed Saddam into a much stronger, even
more ruthless leader
Baathist power solidified, cult of the personality
strengthened
The US had a hard time convincing Saddam to
engage Iran in the final battles that secured a
drawand a ceasefire
In short, we contributed enormously to the
creation of a nightmare

US Focus Remained on
Iran

After the Iran-Iraq War, the US continued to focus

on Iran rather than Iraq
Despite Saddams massacre of 5000 in Halabja
3/17/88
Despite growing power of moderates in Iran
Operation Stanch: stop the flow of Iran
Around the Gulf to the other oil countries
Toward Israel

Status of Kuwait
1899 agreement with Britain
1913 boundary with Iraq defined by AngloTurkish Convention
1938 oil discovered
1976 government assumes control over oil
Monarchy with several levels of
citizenship
Tight economic controls
1990 April Glaspie: The US has no interest
in Iraqs claim that Kuwait is part of Iraq

Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait

Great celebrations among some Arabs, but not
the other oil-producing countries
Fear over the safety of Israel
Fear over the global supply of petroleum
Commitment to reverse a clear violation of
international law
Unanimous Security Council support for forcing
Iraq out of Kuwait

Desert Shield to
Desert Storm

In the fall of 1990 a global force

gathered to quarantine Iraq and if
necessary evict Iraq from Kuwait
Iraq essentially capitulated but with
considerable casualties, retreating
Allied forces stopped short of Baghdad,
having achieved their official objectives
Security Council extracts acquiescence
from Iraq, imposing sanctions until
conditions met

Iraqi Uprisings
Global forces encouraged Iraqi uprisings
Kurds rose up in the north, Shia Arabs in the south
but not supported externally
No fly zones established
Sanctions imposed
Food for oil program initiated
Saddam remained deeply entrenched
Civilians suffered miserably

Meanwhile in
Tradition
of fiercely guarded
Afghanistan
...

independence
A pro-Soviet government, facing
serious resistance, invited the
USSR to provide military assistance
The USSR rolled into Afghanistan
late in December of 1979
Resistance was serious
Resistance was aided by the US
Pakistan cooperated

Emergence of the
Taliban

2 million Afghan refugees, mainly in Pakistan

Madrassas (Islamic schools) funded by the
Saudis in refugee camps
The Taliban (students) became a major
military force, eventually controlling most of
the country
Al Qaeda emerged as a military force against
the USSR, worked with the Taliban
Repressive regime with a puritanical
interpretation of Islam, oppression of women

Emergence of Al
Qaeda

Well funded, well armed, led by a charismatic

leader, Al Qaeda became a major force for change
for disaffected Muslims, particularly Saudis
Goals
End to sanctions against Iraq
USA out of Saudi Arabia
End of US support for the Saudi royal family

Al Qaeda Operations
Willing to use violent means to punish the US and
other enemies
1993 truck explosion in the basement of the World
Trade Center
1998 attacks on US embassies in East Africa
Many attacks against India
The 9/11 attack

Requirements for a Just

War

Just cause
Right intention
Proper authority & public declaration
Last resort
Probability of success
Proportionality
Just peace

War against the

Given support of Al Qaeda, a just cause
Taliban

If the intention was to remove Al Qaeda

& establish just rule, the intention was
just
Unprovoked attack provided the moral
authority
Last resort?
Virtually certain success at removing the
Taliban
Proportional to the attack on the US
Follow through with a just peace? Not
yet

The Third Gulf War

New principle in International Law
Pre-emptive War: The Bush Doctrine

Bush, Blair justification for attacking Iraq

Implicated in The Attack on America
Imminent threat to the region & world
Need to free the people of Iraq

Opposition to the rush to war

Unwillingness to wait to gain UN support
Opening Pandoras Box

Is the 3 Gulf War Just?

rd

Just Cause
Not part of the attack on America, not an imminent
threat, certainly a vile regime

Right Intention
Why concentrate on Saddam when bin Laden is still
loose? What if any part does oil play?

Proper Authority
Undercut international law by impatience with UN

Justice of the 3rd Gulf War

(cont)
Last Resort

What was the big hurry?

Probability of Success
Removing Saddam was the easy part
Establishing rule of law is more difficult

Proportionality
Compared to other tyrants?

Just Peace

Just Peace for the Middle

East

Given our willingness to go to war to change

the Iraqi regime, we have an opportunity to
change the facts on the ground
If we could establish a genuinely democratic
government we could change the region
How many countries should there be in Iraq?
How can security & justice be provided?
Are we in more or less jeopardy?
How will our actions now affect our jeopardy?