Gulf War History Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Gulf War History - Research Paper Example The main cause of the schism between several countries was the Shiite Sunni split which often led to conflicts and warfare in some cases. Since coming to power, Saddam Hussein, the then president of Iraq, represented the rejectionist Arab states and was considered as one of the most quarrelsome leaders of the gulf countries. He was also considered an arch enemy of Israel. Its hatred against Israel can be summarized by the rhetoric he used very often against the nation, one time saying that he will let fire eat half of Israel if it did anything against Iraq (Bard, 2011). For years, Iraq had considered Kuwait to be a part of its territory and continued to influence the internal politics and working of the state through several means. Furthermore, Iraq was becoming economically weak so it sought to identify alternatives to help strengthen its economic situation. This paper shall analyze how Kuwait was an option in allowing Iraq to recover from its situation. Iraq was considered to be th e belligerent state in this dispute and UN authorized a full fledged coalition attack that aimed to topple Iraq’s incursion into Kuwait and restore the situation as it was before the conflict. Reasons for conflict:- The quarrelsome nature of the Iraqi president, Saddam Hussein made the state prone to violence and unneeded interventions to further individual causes. Furthermore, the war with Iran that ended in 1988 had an enormous economic impact on Iraq and left it on the verge of bankruptcy (HistoryGuy, 2011). Kuwait as natural part of Iraq:- Iraq considered Kuwait its de-facto part for a long period of time despite the latter’s independence on the country. This claim led to numerous confrontations throughout several years and hampered any diplomatic ties between the two countries for years to come. In 1961, Iraq’s president Qasim threatened Kuwait of invoking old ottman claims that were a part of the system during British imperialism. The Iraqri government als o sought to play the role of savior by saying that the Kuwaiti Emir was a highly hated figure within the Kuwait population and that people sought his ouster. Iraq claimed that it would liberate the Kuwaiti country off his tyranny with its intervention (Lowry, 2008). In 1973, Iraq continued to persist with its stance and occupied as-Samitah, a border post on Kuwait-Iraq border. The real dispute, however, began when Iraq demanded to occupy Bubiyan and Warbah (Kuwaiti Islands). This claim got the Arab nations into action and the Arab league called its summit to discuss this quickly boiling situation. A consensus was reached on the point that Iraq will be demanded to withdraw its claims on the said regions (HistoryGuy, 2011). Situation between the two countries was relatively calm during the Iraq-Iran war and Kuwait supported Iraq during this battle. Dispute over Oil:- There was a constant lack of consensus over borders between the two oil rich states and conflicts over ownership of oil reserves was inevitable. The situation started to deteriorate when rich deposits of oil were found at the undefined border between the two states and when Iraq constantly claimed that the Kuwaiti drills were violating Iraq’s territorial integrity by moving across borders to excavate oil. This conflict was triggered by the nature of middle eastern borders, which are not very clearly distinguishable due to desserts and sand (HistoryGuy,