Iraq's Forces example essay topic

The Persian Gulf War all started because of one country's greed for oil. Iraq accused Kuwait of pumping oil and not sharing the benefits, and Kuwait was pumping more oil than allowed under quotas set by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, it decreased the price of oil, Iraq's main export. Iraq's complaints against Kuwait grew more and more harsh, but they were mostly about money. When Iraqi forces began to assemble near the Kuwaiti border in the summer of 1990, several Arab states tried to intervene the dispute. Kuwait didn't want to look weak so they didn't ask for any help from the United States or other non-Arab powers for support. Arab mediators convinced Iraq and Kuwait to negotiate their differences in Saudi Arabia, on August 1, 1990, but that meeting resulted only in charges and countercharge's.

A second meeting was planned to take place in Baghdad, the Iraqi capital, but Iraq invaded Kuwait the next day, leading some people to think that Iraqi president Saddam Hussein had planned the invasion all along. The Iraqi attack began shortly after midnight on August 2. About 150,000 Iraqi troops, many of them veterans of the Iran-Iraq War, easily overwhelmed the unprepared and inexperienced Kuwaiti forces, which numbered about 20,000. By dawn Iraq had assumed control of Kuwait City, the capital, and was soon in complete control of the country.

The United Nation Security Council and the Arab League immediately condemned the Iraqi invasion. Four days later, the Security Council forced an economic restriction on Iraq that forbidden nearly all trades with Iraq. Any armed attempt to roll back the Iraqi invasion depended on Saudi Arabia, which shares a border with Iraq and Kuwait. Saudi Arabia didn't have the power to fight Iraq alone. So Saudi rulers did eventually open the country to foreign forces, in mainly because they were worried by Iraq's aggressive negotiations also U.S. intelligence reports claimed that Iraqi forces were well positioned for a strike against Saudi Arabia. Beginning a week after the Iraqi take over of Kuwait and continuing for several months, a large international force called the "international coalition" gathered in Saudi Arabia.

The United States sent more than 400,000 troops, and more than 200,000 additional troops came from Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, France, Kuwait, Egypt, Syria, Senegal, Niger, Morocco, Bangladesh, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Oman, and Bahrain. Other countries contributed ships, air forces, and medical units, including Canada, Italy, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Denmark, Greece, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Czechoslovakia, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Poland, and South Korea. Still other countries made other contributions: Turkey allowed air bases on its territory to be used by coalition planes, and Japan and Germany gave financial support. The primary goal of the force was to prevent further Iraqi action, but most countries were aware the force might eventually be used to drive Iraq from Kuwait. The Iraqis tried to prevent and split the growing international coalition through several means.

They made it clear that their adversaries would pay heavily if war broke out, and they hinted they would use chemical weapons and missile attacks on cities. Iraq also held citizens of coalition countries who had been in Kuwait at the time of the invasion and said they would be held in militarily camp areas in effect using them as human shields to prevent coalition attacks. Iraq finally released the last of the foreigners in December 1990 under pressure from several Arab nations. The coalition's greatest military concern during the closing months of 1990 was that Iraqi forces would attack before coalition forces were fully in place, but no such attack took place. On November 29, with coalition forces over whelming in Saudi Arabia and Iraq showing no signs of retreat, the UN Security Council passed a ruling to allow member states to 'use all necessary means' to force Iraq from Kuwait if Iraq remained in the country after January 15, 1991. The two sides met on January 9.

Neither offered to compromise. The United States underscored the ultimatum, and the Iraqis refused to comply with it, even threatening to attack Israel. For the United States, the meeting was its way of showing the conflict could not be resolved through negotiation When the UN deadline of January 15 passed without an Iraqi withdrawal, a vast majority of coalition members joined in the decision to attack Iraq. A few members, such as Morocco, elected not to take part in the military strikes. In the early morning of January 17, 1991, coalition forces began a massive air attack on Iraqi targets. The air assault had three goals: to attack Iraqi air defenses, to disrupt command and control, and to weaken ground forces in and around Kuwait.

The coalition made swift progress against Iraq's air defenses, giving the coalition almost uncontested control of the skies over Iraq and Kuwait. The second task, disrupting command and control were larger and more difficult. It required attacks on the Iraqi electrical system, communications centers, roads and bridges, and other military and government targets. These targets were often located in civilian areas and were typically used by both civilians and the military. Although the coalition air forces often used very accurate weapons, the attacks caused many civilian casualties and completely disrupted Iraqi civilian life. The third task, weakening Iraq's ground forces, was larger still.

The coalition used less complicated weaponry to strike Iraqi defensive positions in both Iraq and Kuwait, to destroy their equipment, and to weaken their confidence. After five and a half weeks of intense bombing and more than 100,000 flights by coalition planes, Iraq's forces were severely damaged. In an attempt to split the coalition apart, Iraq fired Scud missiles at both Saudi Arabia and Israel, which disrupted Israeli civilian life. The plan failed to split the coalition. Iraq also issued small indirect threats that it would use chemical and biological weapons.

The United States said in return that such an attack might provoke a massive response, possibly including the use of nuclear weapons. On February 24 the coalition launched its long expected land offensive. The land coalition surrounded Kuwait on all sides of the Iraqi forces there and in southern Iraq, and allowed coalition forces to move up the coast and take Kuwait city. Some Iraqi units resisted, but the coalition offensive advanced more quickly than anticipated. Thousands of Iraqi troops surrendered.

Others deserted. Iraq then focused its efforts on withdrawing its best units and sabotaging Kuwaiti transportation and industry. Many oil wells were set on fire, creating huge oil lakes, thick black smoke, and other environmental damage. Two days after the ground war began, Iraq announced it was leaving Kuwait. On February 28, with the cave in of Iraqi resistance and the recapture of Kuwait in that way fulfilling the coalition's stated goals the coalition declared a cease fire.

The land war had lasted precisely 100 hours. Almost all of the casualties occurred on the Iraqi side. While estimates during the war had ranged from 10,000 to 100,000 Iraqis killed, Western military experts now agree that Iraq had between 20,000 and 35,000 casualties. The coalition losses were really light by comparison 240 were killed, 148 of who were American. The number of wounded totaled 776, of whom 458 were American. Even though there was a victory there were consequences.

Following the war, thousands of American soldiers developed mild to unbearable health problems, as well as abdominal pain, diarrhea, insomnia, short-term memory loss, rashes, headaches, blurred vision, and aching joints. The symptoms became known together as Gulf War Syndrome but their cause was unknown. A theory about the cause centered on exposure to chemical and biological weapons experimental drugs given to troops to protect against chemical weapons; vaccinations against illness and disease; insecticides sprayed over troop-populated areas; and smoke from burning oil wells ignited by retreating Iraqis. The U.S. Department of Defense originally stated it had no convincing evidence that troops had been exposed to chemical or biological weapons.

However, in 1996 the department approved that more than 20,000 American troops may have been exposed to saran, a toxic nerve gas. In 1997 the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) suggested the deadly gas may have spread farther than previously thought, affecting perhaps hundreds of thousands of troops. The UN continued to maintain most of the economic restriction on Iraq after the war, and several coalition countries enforced other sanctions. The sanctions allowed Iraq to sell limited amounts of oil for food and medicine if it also designated some of the revenue to pay for damages caused by the war. Until December 1996, Iraq rejected this deal as an violation on its power.

Hussein also complicated matters by mobilizing forces on the Kuwaiti border in late 1994 and by interfering with the work of UN inspectors. This interference almost led to new military conflict in 1998, but a UN binding agreement allowing the inspectors to resume work averted the immediate crisis. Reports that Iraq was continuing to block inspections prompted the United States and Britain to launch a four-day series of air strikes on Iraqi military and industrial targets in December. In response, Iraq stated that it would no longer comply with UN inspection teams, called for an end to the sanctions, and threatened to fire on aircraft patrolling the no-fly zones. Through early 1999, Iraq continued to challenge the patrols, and British and U.S. planes struck Iraqi missile launch sites and other targets.