The first gulf war, also termed as the Persian Gulf, emerged as a result of conflict of the Iraq nation and the merging of quite a number of nations 32 in number. These nations include Egypt, the United States, France, Britain, and Saudi Arabia. The theory of the world system explains that the world is divided into three groups. The first is the main developed countries; North America, Western Europe, and Japan. The second includes the underdeveloped countries in Africa, Latin America, and Asia. The third group include the countries in Eastern Europe, Russia and Asian societies who struggle to outweigh the underdeveloped countries. Therefore, the developed countries are in full control of the underdeveloped countries and their aim is to procure raw materials from them at the cheapest prices, use those materials in manufacturing products and sell the same products to the underdeveloped countries with the highest prices. The reason for doing so is based on the fact that the underdeveloped countries do not have access to technologically-advanced machines to convert the raw materials into finished and consumable products. This further explains the reason why the western countries’ effort to intervene the Iraq invasion of Kuwait and formed the genesis of the gulf war.
The main cause of the war was the fight for the natural resources, in this case, oil. The state countries example Japan, the United States and Europe who were in quest for the control of the oil production saw that the monopoly control of oil by Iraq could pose a dangerous situation worldwide.
The war was catalyzed by the possession of harmful weapons by both fighting teams. It was also reinforced by the trained soldiers who had experience in the battlefield for the case of Iraq who were from a battle with the Iranian government. The war lasted for two months, that is from January to February in the year 1991.There was introduction of massive weapons which were advanced technologically. For the countries that could not engage in the war, they contributed their support financially example Kuwait and Saudi Arabia who were the main donors.
The war began when Iraq invaded Kuwait on the 2nd of august 1990.Saddam Hussein who was the president of the nation of Iraq announced that they had invaded in order to respond to the discovered natural oil which was overproduced in Kuwait. They were responding due to the fact that overproduction resulted to wastage and therefore had cost Iraq an estimate of a billion, of a year when the prices of oil fell. There was also an accusation made by Hussein that Kuwait had pumped oil from Rumaila which was Iraq’s secluded field for oil production. The troops detained a large number of civilians and controlled the Kuwait media. They also looted food and medical supplies and held hostages the visitors from western .As explained in the first paragraph the armed forces from the Iraq had more experience on the battlefield and hence encouraged their ability to defeat the coalition.
At that time, the Security Council of the United Nations requested Iraq to stop the invasion and withdraw from their continued attacks. United nations alternatively engaged in trading with Iraq, the trading activities were perceived to convince the Iraq to end the attacks .On the other hand when the united states became aware of this, they sent their troops to Saudi Arabia with the aim of protecting oil producing fields of Saudi Arabia. It took place on 7th of august 1990.
The involvement of the United States in the war was mainly because of two reasons. The first reason being on the importance of the oil to the economy of the Americans. The second reason was to strengthen a relationship with the Saudi Arabian government .However, the coalition troops were not experienced in the field of war.
On realization of the escalating conflicts, the United Nations decided to put an end to this by setting a deadline for the Iraq nation to command their troops to withdraw from invading Kuwait. They therefore set a deadline date to be 15th January 1991.Saddam Hussein despite being given a deadline failed to comply and therefore forcing the United States to launch an operation desert storm in 18th January 1991 with General Norman being the leader of the launching operation. The weapons used in this operation were the smart bombs, daisy cutters, cluster bombs and cruise missiles.
The coalition of the United States with the launch of the operation desert storm resulted in the air war with the objective to totally destroy and weaken the forces from the Iraq together with their military and also the modern infrastructure .The coalition achieved their objective at the end. The air war reached a stalemate and it is explained by the Iraq refusal to withdraw and initiated a terrorist attacks at Israel and Saudi Arabia by launching scud missiles with the main objective to attack and drive away merged countries led by the United States.
On 23rd January, the Iraq force, on the realization of the defeat, began to dump an estimated of a million tons of the crude oil to gulf ocean. This recorded the largest amount of oil ever spilled. The war became intensive and forced the coalition to send their main forces to invade Kuwait and the south of Iraq on 24th February. The coalition launched another tactic which aimed at depriving the Iraq force their ability to command and control.
On 26th February Iraq soldiers sensed a defeat and began to retreat and moved out of Kuwait, they left while setting fire on the oil fields of Kuwait. As those troops were retreating they formed a convoy along the highway that joined Iraq to Kuwait together with civilians from Palestinian. Sadly the convoy was bombed by the coalition troops resulting in massive death of Iraq troops and the highway was later named the highway of death. On 28th February , united states president George .W. bush declared that a cease-fire to be executed, the Iraq forces situated in Kuwait surrendered and others fled and this contributed to the conquer. The struggle lasted for four days when Iraq forces were defeated and Kuwait became liberated.
The nations of Kuwait and Iraq suffered a great loss and massive destruction of property as a consequence of the war. Even after being conquered, Saddam Hussein remained the man in power, he therefore turned his attention and began to suppress the Shiite and Kurd who were revolts but were not supported by the coalition. The coalition formulated peace terms and was accepted by the Iraq, although every time implementation was carried out, Iraqis made an effort to provoke the activity.
The provocations by Iraq for the implementation of the peace terms and the allegation to assassinate the United States president irritated the coalition and forced them to launch air and cruise-missile strikes. This operation was carried out in 1993 by the main forces of the coalition, France, Britain and United States. The Iraq nation continued resisting the inspection of their weapons and therefore intensifying the bombing attacks by the coalition. This stagnated the trade terms that were imposed on the Iraq nation.
The first gulf war was ranked the first war that utilized the air power in determining the results of the war, this has never happened in the history. The use of air power in this case implies the means of defeating or conquering the enemies through the use of missile bombs. This demonstrated a large-scale use of technologically advanced means of weapons; missiles, munitions, infrared sensors, cruise missiles, night –vision equipment, rockets enhanced with warheads and advanced means of data communication. All these weapons played a significant role that led to the conquer of Kuwait by the coalition .It therefore made history in the world since it was the first time to use such technologically advanced weapons. Up to date, the gulf war is said to have established a background on the use of such weapons for war, it influenced most countries worldwide to struggle to own such modernized weapons.
During the time of the air war, activities undertaken in the invaded country were destructed and, therefore, leading to a slowdown in the economy growth. People were scared of the missile attacks, and, hence forcing them to find a place of rescue by fleeing away. Others were killed while massive destruction took place. All this was accomplished through the trained and experienced forces from the coalition and the Iraqis troops.
The end of the war influenced most of the countries, worldwide, to undertake training responsibilities with their soldiers and also ensuring experience when it comes to battlefield. The significance of the gulf war influenced countries to establish ready-for-war initiatives. The killing of soldiers also led to a great loss and enabled the affected countries to always get prepared for war in order to avoid such loss.
The gulf war led to a diplomatic way of solving conflict. This is explained by the United Nations attempt to sign peace agreements with the Iraq government; it was done by commanding the Iraq to withdraw the invasions. Their refusal to withdraw intensified the war and therefore leading to a massive loss property and human being as well. For the most countries in the 20thn century, methods of solving conflicts by use of peace treaties were enhanced in order to prevent a crisis that was witnessed during the gulf war. Many countries would rather go for the peace treaties than to experience a downfall in their governments and economy as well.
Another significance of the desert storm is about the benefits of coalition. Take a look at the United States led coalition for example, they were able to conquer Iraq and take over Kuwait due to the combined forces. Had Iraq succeeded in taking over Kuwait, they would be leading in supply of oil worldwide. They would therefore supply oil with high prices which could be a threat to world countries. The coalition of governments was a lesson on the ability to combine forces and work together to remove a threat. Iraq governments were taught a lesson on the importance of combining efforts since they faced the war themselves without joining with other countries. The end results portrayed itself after Iraq troops killed and lose the battle over Kuwait.
The gulf war indeed set a background for the present warfare. The tactics used during the war are used at the present battles. They include attacks without any warning, the use of weapons of mass destruction and missiles and use of technology. It also helped to build confidence in many countries when it comes to training their soldiers.
References
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