The Persian Gulf War Essay

Throughout American history wars have played a huge part. From the start of the country to the present wars have played a lagrge part in shaping America into the national power that it is today. Not only is America the most pwerful nation in thwe world but it is also the policeman for the entire world, making and checking up on the world and all the interactions of foreign countries worldwide. Being born in born in the early eighties prohibitied me from experiencing many of the Americas war firsthand. This however changed early in the 1990's.

The Persian Gulf War began with Saddam Hussein, the dictator of Iraq moving his forces into the neighboring country Kuwait mid-1990. During this time Iraq had the fourth largest army in the world, after being supplied by the United Sates during their eight year war with Iran raised some concerns. (Operation Desert Storm) Also with the chance of Iraq controlling one-fifth of the world’s oil supply didn’t sit well with the United States, nor its Allied forces. (Operation Desert Storm) Early August 1990 the United Nations Security Council directed Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait by 15 January 1991. (Operation Desert Storm) Towards the end of 1990 United Sates began the defense of Saudi Arabia, which known as Operation Desert Shield. Along with multilateral support, the United States sent

The United States savage bombing campaign caused most of the Iraqi deaths. The air campaign of the United States was very successful in terms of doing what it set out to do and that was to bomb everything that supported Iraq's war. This even includes some civilian facilities. Nothing was safe; Radar installations, military airfields, bunkers, electric power plants, highways, water treatment facilities,

What triggered the Iraq War that we are currently still having? During this time in history we were still in the cold war as well Cold War (1945–1991), a lot of events has happened during this time period. I am going to start with the Iran-Iraq war which started in 1980 and ended in 1988. The war began when Iraq invaded Iran, launching a simultaneous invasion by air and land into Iranian territory on 22 September 1980 following a long history of border disputes, and fears of Shia insurgency among Iraq's long-suppressed Shia majority influenced by the Iranian Revolution. (Wikipedia, Iran–Iraq War, 2011). This war had at least a million and half casualties and it severely damaged both their economies, the Iran-Iraq war conflict is often

The Persian Gulf War all started because of one country’s greed for oil. Iraq accused Kuwait of pumping oil and not sharing the benfits, 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

The Persian Wars, involving Persia and Greece, occurred in 480 and 490 BCE. Persia invaded Greece as she tried to expand her land into their territory. King Darius had already led Persia to gradually expand into Europe with Iona, Macedonia, and Thrace in her possession. The next place on King Darius’ list was Athens and the remainder of Greece.

The Gulf War is often remembered as an easy victory by most Americans. Perceived as an intense military campaign intended to bring about a swift victory, and often referred to as a battle between good and evil. In reality, the U.S. military had a host of troubles in the conflicts of Operation Desert Shield and Operation Desert Sheild which became known as the Gulf War of 1990-91, many of troubles were caused by the unnecessary deaths of allied troops, and the Iraqi civilians alike. Other catastrophes were avoided purely by luck or incompetence of the Iraqi Military. What new military strategies, procedures and technologies are now in place as a result of lessons learned. Hopefully to ensure that some of the worst mistakes that were made evident by the Gulf War will not be repeated in a subsequent war in Iraq or elsewhere. The intense reality of the actual battle fought by the United States and its allies against Iraq, left many a U.S. military spokesmen were scoffing at the Iraqi forces as “the fourth-largest army in the world.” And “the second-largest army in Iraq” by the world at the end of the Gulf War,

We had many revolutionary wars that shaped our world into becoming what it is today. The Persian Wars were one of those unforgettable events that inspired not only our military structure but government as well. The Persian Wars lasted for almost half a decade from 498 BCE to 448 BCE between the Persian Empire, of course, and Greek poleis. The war was centered around expanding the Empire of Persia as it claimed and took over land within battle and then ruling it as one while making a profit from it. Most of what we know about the Persian wars was written by Herodotus, who was born 484 BCE and gives us our primary source of what really took place during that time.

The first major take away from the Gulf War is the ineffectiveness of sanctions. The use of sanctions by the United States with cooperation from the international community completely failed in its goals of driving Saddam out of Kuwait. Studies have shown that sanctions only cripple infrastructure and primarily impact the middle class and not the leadership that needs to be deterred. The second major implication is how effective a military coalition can be in achieving its goals. The unipolar landscape that was brought forth by the end of the Cold War played a major role in shaping intervention policies. With Iraq being unable to fall back to the USSR if events took a turn for the worse for Iraq, the US led coalition was

President Bush's implementation of the invasion increased his approval rating from 60 percent to 76 percent in just one month. By November, the majority of the American people, 70 percent felt that the US should wait before going to war. On October 20, President Bush stated his 1988 campaign pledge, "no new taxes." People were no longer interested in the Gulf a few months after Bush's speech, but were becoming more interested in domestic policy.

The war against Iraq began on March 20, 2002, when the U.S lunched “Operation Iraqi Freedom”. This was after President Bush called Iraq part of an “axis of evil”, also calling the country dangerous which is threatening U.S with the world’s most destructive weapons. The major phase of the war began when U.S troops marched within 50 miles of Baghdad with heavy aerial attacks on Baghdad and other cities. After the attack on the Twin Towers and the Pentagon which was believed to be the work of Al Qaeda, U.S was concerned about the security of the Untied States which lead to the war in Iraq. Even though U.S officials felt the war in Iraq is the main priority, but many people in U.S opposes the war which brings up a lot of controversial issues.

Wars have been apart of this world almost as long as anything else has. Even in the Bible days there are records of wars. There are many reasons that states choose to go to war. Sometimes it is for the expansion of a nation or state, other times it is for financial gains, and it also could be for security or defense purposes. Whatever the case may be, wars have been apart of human life and will always be. There were no differences when it came to the Persian Gulf War. This war involved the United States, Iraq, and Kuwait. When trying to determine the purpose behind this war I chose to view it from a comparison of both the realist and liberalist views on the war.

The war began when Iraq invaded Iran on September 22, 1980, following a long history of border disputes. The conflict saw early successes by the Iraqis, but before long they were repulsed and the conflict stabilized into a long war of attrition. The United Nations Security Council called upon both parties to end the conflict on multiple occasions, but a ceasefire was not agreed to until August 20, 1988, and the last prisoners of war were not exchanged until 2003. The war irrevocably altered politics in the area, playing into wider global politics and leading to the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait. Iran saw the war as an opportunity to export its Islamic revolution to Iraq, where the majority of the population share their version of Shi'a Islam,

While the Iran-Iraq War during the 1980's may have permanently altered the course of progress in Iran and Iraq, the war also altered the resulting permanent involvement of the rest of the world in the middle-east. The rich and complicated history in Iraq has established numerous cultural and ethnic traditions that all play a part in where the country is today. The Iran-Iraq War brought into focus some of those traditions and how they conflicted, while also bringing Iraq and its economic situation into the spotlight. Being on top of some of the most mineral rich soil in the world makes Iraq a major contributor to the world's economy through petroleum and crude oil exports. This, among other reasons, ties nations

Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion and occupation of neighboring Kuwait in early August 1990. Alarmed by these actions, fellow Arab powers such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt called on the United States and other Western nations to intervene. Hussein defied United Nations Security Council demands to withdraw from Kuwait by mid-January 1991 and the Persian Gulf War began with a massive U.S.-led air offensive known as Operation Desert Storm4. After 42 days of relentless attacks by the allied coalition in the air and on the ground, U.S. President George H.W. Bush declared a cease-fire on February 28; by that time, most Iraqi forces in Kuwait had either surrendered or run away. Though the Persian Gulf War was initially considered an unqualified success for the international coalition, simmering conflict in the troubled region led