- September 12, 2012
- Posted by: essay
- Category: Free essays
Persian Gulf War took place in the end the 20th century (from 2nd August 1990 till 28th February 1991). It was the war between international united forces with the US in the head and Iraq. The aim was to release Kuwait from Iraq expansion and re-establish independence there.
This war is well known for its unprecedented scope of air strikes and according to the opinion of many specialists opened the new page in the war tactics. It is one of the most well known conflicts in the end of the 20th century.
2nd of August 1990 4 regular Iraq divisions invaded Kuwat and according the total military superiority of Iraq army Kuwait defense establishments provided deterrent struggles retreating to the territory of Saudi Arabia. The major part of Kuwait air forces chanced to redeploy to Saudi Arabia airdromes. Till the end of the day El-Kuwait was under the control of Iraq army.
What were the reasons for such an aggressive intervention?
“In Iraq’s view: economic war was being waged by Kuwait and other Gulf states, with the encouragement of Washington, against Iraq; Kuwait, originally part of the Ottoman vilayet of Basra, was now properly regarded as part of Iraq; Kuwait had systematically encroached on Iraqi territory over a period, and deliberately stolen Iraqi oil from the Rumeila oil field; Kuwait, despite Iraq’s horrendous losses in the Iran-Iraq war, was refusing to pay off debts incurred in the defense of the Arab nation; Kuwait, in refusing to negotiate over the Warbah and Bubiyan islands, was insensitive to Iraq’s deep-water needs; and in general Kuwait, in its arrogant and uncompromising attitude to negotiations, seemed more interested in following the hidden agenda of its Western backers than in seeking harmonious relations with its neighbors” (AHA, 2009)
Already on the 2nd of August United Nations Security Council accepted Resolution 660, in which condemned the invasion of Kuwait and demanded Iraq to withdraw the forces from Kuwait. Iraq government ignored the resolution and there was determined so called provisional government in Kuwait, which turned to Iraq government to include Kuwait into the Iraq territories.
UN Security Council regularly turned to Kuwait crisis and take up the resolutions (actually by the end of the year there were 12 of them).
Iraq was imposed a number of sanctions as well as sea blockage. To reply such sanctions there were imprisoned citizens of the countries which took part in the sanctions. These people turned to be hostages and were used by Iraq government headed by Saddam Hussein for political manipulation. Only by the December the problem of foreign citizens in Iraq was actually solved.
Only on the 29th of November 1990 after numerous failures to incline Iraq government to peaceful crisis regulation, United Nations Security Council accepted Resolution 678. This resolution left one month and a half for Iraq government to stop Kuwait occupation. If it won’t happen, countries UN members, co-operating with Kuwait government to start the operation: “Demands that Iraq comply fully with resolution 660 (1990) and all subsequent relevant resolutions, and decides, while maintaining all its decisions, to allow Iraq one final opportunity, as a pause of goodwill, to do so; 2. Authorizes Member States co-operating with the Government of Kuwait, unless Iraq on or before 15 January 1991 fully implements, as set forth in paragraph 1 above, the above-mentioned resolutions, to use all necessary means to uphold and implement resolution 660 (1990) and all subsequent relevant resolutions and to restore international peace and security in the area”¦” (UN SCR 678, 1990).
The war was ended on the 28th of February 1991, when international forces headed by the United States ended a number of so called “desert operations” ”“ Desert Shield, Desert Storm and Desert Sabre. The status quo was restored and Kuwait becomes independent again.
What is interesting about that conflict, that the region of influence of Persian Gulf attracts more and more attention. The Us did not stopped that time. But the conclusion about the “First Persian Gulf War” is the democracy of the occupied country. Kuwait got the independence aback and everybody seems to be happy. But what about people? A number of civilians and even citizens of the neighboring countries such as Israel, Palestine and Saudi Arabia were passively involved in the conflict and their civilian population suffered from the air bombing, many people were injured and killed. That was the result of totalitarianism and the concentration of power in one hands. The civilian people usually pay for the decision of the people they will never see behind their eyes and these people pay no attention to their grieves and pains. It is just very interesting thing to invade something that have never belonged too.
The position of UN Security Council has brilliant ideas and aims but unfortunately can do nothing with aggressive misunderstanding and now after almost twenty years has passed and this conflict is already a history, people researching the history of the conflict understand that the military method was the one and possible to keep territorial integrity of Kuwait and save the citizens of this small country from troops of aggressive people who engrafted the will by the power of their aggressive dictator. The reasons were not among the evident, probably some governments could not take the lessons from the history and understand that military conflict is not the best way to solve certain problems.