IraqKuwait conflict. To understand the essence of the conflict it is necessary to descry the reasons of the conflict.
Shortly after the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq s military dictator, Saddam Hussein, accused Kuwait of taking an unfair share of oil revenues. In August 1990 he made the claim that Kuwait was a part of Iraq and ordered his armies to invade and occupy Kuwait. The Iraqi invasion alarmed President Bush and other world leaders for three reasons. First, it was an act of aggression by a strong nation against a weaker nation. Iraq in 1990 had the fourth largest military force in the world.
Second, the taking of Kuwait opened the way to an Iraqi conquest of the world s largest oil-producing nation, Saudi Arabia. Third, the combination of Iraq s military power and aggressive actions would allow it to dominate the other countries of the Middle East. To prevent further aggression, President Bush ordered 200,000 troops to Saudi Arabia, followed later by an additional 300,000. We have drawn a line in the sand, said the president, as he announced a defensive effort called Operation Desert Shield.
US troops were joined by other forces from a UN-supported coalition of 28 nations including Great Britain, France, Italy, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, and Egypt. Members of the UN Security Council, including both the United States and the Soviet Union, voted for a series of resolution concerning Iraq s aggression. One UN resolution demanded Iraq s unconditional withdrawal from Kuwait. Other resolutions placed an international embargo on trade with Iraq and authorized UN members to use force if Iraqi troops did not leave Kuwait by January 15, 1991. As the January deadline neared, members of Congress debated whether or not to authorize the president to send US troops into combat in the Persian Gulf. Both houses voted in favor of the war resolution. The Gulf War had far greater significance to the emerging post-cold war world than simply reversing Iraqi aggression and restoring Kuwait.
In international terms, we tried to establish a model for the use of force.
First and foremost was the principle that aggression cannot pay. If we dealt properly with Iraq, that should go a long way toward dissuading future would-be aggressors. We also believed that the US should not go it alone, that a multilateral approach was better. 5.2.2.