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8 The Persian Gulf War and Sanctions, 1990–2002 On 2 August 1990, only two years after the end of the Iran-Iraq War, Iraq invaded Kuwait with the intention of annexing this oil-rich country. Saddam Hussein ordered his troops to take over Kuwait for a number of reasons. First, Hussein was angered that Kuwait and Saudi Arabia would not forgive the $60 billion debt incurred during the Iran-Iraq War. In Hussein’s view, he had saved the entirety of the Sunni world from Shi’i radicalism, so all Arab countries must help pay. Second, Kuwait, despite quotas set by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), was overproducing oil. The resulting drop in global prices meant that Iraq was losing approximately $6 billion in annual revenue, which made it even harder to pay back its war debt. Hussein spoke to the U.S. Ambassador April Glaspie on 25 July 1990, and this was the last high-level contact between the two governments before the invasion. The U.S. ambassador told Hussein that: “we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border agreement with Kuwait” (Sifry and Cerf, 68). Iraqi troops invaded the country eight days later, and Hussein announced that Kuwait would henceforth be the nineteenth province of Iraq. Iraq, however, had grossly miscalculated American concerns in regard to the Gulf region, for the United States immediately took action to liberate Kuwait from Iraq. In the opinion of U.S. policymakers, Iraq, already a principal oil-producer in the world, would simply be too powerful to contain if it controlled oilrich Kuwait and its coastline. This was especially true since it would give Iraq accesstoaseaport .(Basra,Iraq’ssoleport,hadbeendestroyedduringtheIran-Iraq War, leaving the country all but landlocked.) Within four days of Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait, UN SC Res 661 was adopted, which imposed sanctions on Iraq in order to induce Iraq to withdraw its troops. Sanctions, however, would not be enough. Military operations in the Gulf region can be divided into two distinct phases. At first, and with the assistance of other members of the United Nations, the 266 / A Documentary History of Modern Iraq United States began to act defensively to protect its ally Saudi Arabia, an operation called Desert Shield. By 9 August, the United Nations Security Council went so far as to declare Iraq’s annexation of Kuwait “null and void” (UN SC Res 662), and the exiled Kuwaiti government requested military assistance in implementing these resolutions. Exhibiting a brilliant use of multilateral diplomacy, U.S. President George H. W. Bush forged a Coalition of thirty-four countries, all of which agreed to military action against Iraq. By 29 November 1990, the United Nations Security Council authorized member states to facilitate Iraq’s withdrawal by “all necessary means” (UN SC Res 678). This resolution gave Iraq until 15 January 1991 to withdraw troops and restore Kuwaiti sovereignty. By the time the deadline arrived, 500,000 U.S. troops were stationed in the Gulf. The offensive maneuvers against Iraq began on 16 January, and these are called Operation Desert Storm. The Coalition of the Persian Gulf War began its offensivewithanairwar.TheUnitedStates,withitssuperiortechnology,targeted military facilities in Iraq, arguing that it was the headquarters of the Iraqi military in Kuwait. Unfortunately, civilians also suffered in what has been described as “the most intensive air bombardment in military history” (Cleveland, 484). The most famous civilian tragedy during the Persian Gulf War was the striking of the Amiriyah shelter on 13 February, a bombing that killed at least 408 people, mostly women and children. The ground war in Kuwait was not launched until 24 February, and it was more a rout than a military engagement. According to William Cleveland: “Evidence released after the war revealed that the US reports grossly inflated the size and the abilities of the Iraqi military in order to justify the massive force deployed against Iraq” (484). Fighting lasted forty-two days. At the end of the war, 26,000 Iraqi soldiers as well as 3,000 Iraqi civilians were dead.TheCoalition,however,whichhadreliedonhigh-techequipmentlostonly 148 soldiers. Iraq accepted all terms of the cease-fire agreement, but the United Nations neverthelessdecidedto maintainthesanctionsregime.Thesesanctions—aswell as a sanctions committee—had been established on 6 August 1990 through UN SC Res 661. The member states of the United Nations maintained these sanctions in order to make sure that Iraq recognized Kuwait’s sovereignty. They also wanted to force Iraq to eliminate weapons...

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