Introduction
The war in Iraq has been seen to have been there for a long time. The wars have been speculated to have been caused by the strife to have oil in the two countries. This has been seen to have effects on the relations of Iraq in the UAE. This paper will focus on the history of the wars in Iraq.
Persian Gulf Wars
The first episode of the Gulf War was in the year 1991. This took place between January and February that year. This was a conflict of the armed forces between Iraq and a coalition of 32 nations. The coalition included the United States, Britain, Egypt, France, and the Saudi Arabia. The reason for the coalition and invasion on Iraq is because of the invasion that Iraq did on Kuwait. This was on August 2, 1990. The result of this war against Iraq is that Iraq annexed Kuwait which had claimed for a long time. The explanation that was given by Saddam Hussein for this war is that there was overproduction of oil in Kuwait. This had cost Iraq approximately one billion dollars when there was the decrease in the prices of oil. Another reason for the war, according to Saddam Hussein, was the claim that Kuwait had pumped oil from Iraq’s Rumaila field. This had caused them to wage war against Kuwait.
The UN Security Council wanted Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. They went ahead to discontinue any kind of trade with Iraq. This was to force Iraq to withdraw their troops from Kuwait. The US troops moved to Saudi Arabia to keep custody of Saudi oil fields. This was on August 7. The UN Security Council had a deadline for Iraq to withdraw troops from Kuwait. The deadline was set to be January 15 1991. Iraq president, Saddam Hussein, did not agree this deadline and there was Operation Desert Storm. This operation was set on January 18 1991.
The operation was headed by US air navy and tried to destroy the forces of Iraq and the civil infrastructure of this country. In retaliation, Iraq referred to the attack as terrorist attacks. They went ahead and undertook Scud attacks at Israel in their quest to widen the attacks and have many nations involved in the attacks. This way, they hoped to break the coalition. This attempt was unsuccessful in the long run. The Scud attacks were also aimed at Saudi Arabia. The leading and strongest coalitions overcame Iraq movement by invading Kuwait and South Iraq. They surrounded Iraq and with these strategies, they were able to liberate Kuwait. This took place in four consecutive days. US then president, George H. W. Bush did declare a ceasefire on February 28. By this time, there were no more Iraq troops as most of them had surrendered or fled from their places.
The war was a sweet victory for the main coalitions. Although this was the case, there was enormous property damage felt by Iraq and Kuwait. In the end, Saddam Hussein was still in power as he was not removed. In fact, Saddam Hussein was now able to concentrate on the revolts that were internal in Iraq. The Shiite and Kurd revolts were not supported by United States because they believed that this would lead to the breakup of Iraq if these internal revolts were to be successful. Iraq agreed to the terms of peace that were set; the Iraqis were, however, reluctant in the implementation of the terms of agreement. The evident frustration that Iraq frustrated is the requirement that UN inspect weapons. They did not agree to this and they went ahead to frustrate this term and condition.
There were numerous air and cruse attacks that were started by US, France, and Britain. The reason for this is that Iraq showed open provocations to the coalition partners. One of the provocations that were evident in the attacks is that of the attempt and plan to assassinate the US president. In Kuwait, there was a buildup of troops belonging to Iraq. This led to the US sending troops to Kuwait and the neighboring areas. With the continued resistance for the inspection of weapons, there were attacks that were undertaken by the major coalitions. There were also trade sanctions that were imposed on Iraqi government. These sanctions included goods that were related to military weapons this went on until the second Gulf conflict.
Initially the US along with the western powers had unanimously supported Saddam Hussein in its 8 year war against Iran. This is after the Shi’a Muslims overthrow the American supported Shah in 1979. During the Iraq-Ira n war, Iraq had benefited from al-Sabah families $17 billion which saw Iranian revolution as a threat to itself. Al-Sabah family considered Iranian revolution as a threat to its farms and settlements in the Iraqi border. The family was also involved in oil drilling in the Rumailah fields which was 95% on the Iraqi border. Using sophisticated technology from the US, they conducted slant drilling in its 5% of the field towards the Iraqi side. The Iraqi’s themselves were unable to drill because of the war between them and Iran. Therefore al-Sabah family drilled the oil and sold it below the OPEC recommended prices to US and Japan. This made the al-Sabah family unimaginably rich with estimated value of over 90billion dollars.
Immediately after the Iran war, Saddam Hussein was increasingly politically and economically isolated and was indebted more than 60 million dollars. In addition, most OPEC countries including Kuwait and United Arab Emirates were unwilling to abide by the oil quota system. Iraq’s advancements to admit strict rules to regulate the quota system and stabilize oil prices were not fruitful. In order to reduce uncertainties in the oil prices which were their sole provider of revenue, it wished to maintain high unit cost. This could also lessen their debts since the west had cut off their credits after Hussein has a British reporter executed as a spy. The world army rankings of Iraq had improved only second to Israel in the Middle East and this became a major concern for the West.
The price of crude oil is globally determined by balance between the import demand and the export supply of oil. These dynamics are particularly important for price determination. There is wide reduction in the production and reserve levels of oil in countries outside the Gulf. Therefore Middle East plays a fundamental role in the world supply of crude oil. An instability or stability in any of the producing countries triggers pro or anti responses from the major world powers as per their interests. On the supply side, the reserve base and production horizon of the producer’s countries as well as the geographical concentration of the resources and domestic and foreign politics played the major role in the Gulf war. Other factors include the need for revenue by some countries and geographical concentration of the resources (Iraq at the time). On the demand side, economic growth, market operations, demand and supply elasticity’s and lack or existence of substitutes played a major role in the Gulf war since the 1930s.
Technological developments by Iraq’s neighbors (tilt drilling) and the coordination of energy conservation and diversification mechanisms played a role in the relationship with Kuwait and finally the collapse. It is obvious that when prices of oil is founded on diverse qualitative factors, assumptions and measures such as the above, then it is notably true that the future prices tend to be tilted according to the player’s interests. The perfect case in point is the way Iraq opted for military invasion rather than diplomatic negotiations to resolve the impending problem. Likewise, the United States quick response desired more questions than just the American stand with their friends in times of the needs.
Initially the US along with the western powers had unanimously supported Saddam Hussein in its 8 year war against Iran. This is after the Shi’a Muslims overthrow the American supported Shah in 1979. During the Iraq-Ira n war, Iraq had benefited from al-Sabah families $17 billion which saw Iranian revolution as a threat to itself. Al-Sabah family considered Iranian revolution as a threat to its farms and settlements in the Iraqi border. The family was also involved in oil drilling in the Rumailah fields which was 95% on the Iraqi border. Using sophisticated technology from the US, they conducted slant drilling in its 5% of the field towards the Iraqi side. The Iraqi’s themselves were unable to drill because of the war between them and Iran. Therefore al-Sabah family drilled the oil and sold it below the OPEC recommended prices to US and Japan. This made the al-Sabah family unimaginably rich with estimated value of over 90billion dollars.
Immediately after the Iran war, Saddam Hussein was increasingly politically and economically isolated and was indebted more than 60 million dollars. In addition, most OPEC countries including Kuwait and United Arab Emirates were unwilling to abide by the oil quota system. Iraq’s advancements to admit strict rules to regulate the quota system and stabilize oil prices were not fruitful. In order to reduce uncertainties in the oil prices which were their sole provider of revenue, it wished to maintain high unit cost. This could also lessen their debts since the west had cut off their credits after Hussein has a British reporter executed as a spy. The world army rankings of Iraq had improved only second to Israel in the Middle East and this became a major concern for the West.
Second Gulf war
The Gulf war did not come to an end in the first attempt but the second one came about. This second Gulf War was commonly referred to as Iraq War and took place in the period between March and April 2003. This invasion was largely led by US and Britain. This conflict culminated from the refusal of Iraq to comply with the requirement to allow UN inspects their weapons. The Iraq government did not fully cooperate with the UN after the end of the First Gulf War where this agreement had been made. It was also as a result of the election of George W. Bush to the government. With this, there were many officials who served in the president father’s administration and were in support of Iraq War in 1991. These officials had supported the removal of Saddam Hussein from power in the reign of the president’s father. After the invasion of America on September 11 2001, there was a doctrine agreed to by America, there was a first-strike which was meant to eradicate threats in the United States and the whole world. The national security to the whole world had been a threat. It was in October 2001 that the then Defense Secretary, Rumsfeld stated that the war on Iraq was something that was possible. It took only one month after this statement by Rumsfeld for Bush to ask for a war plan that would help in undertaking the war. In January 2002, US accused Iran as being one of the axis that helped the enemy to undertake their activities. The US decided to expand this invasion so that they would include. After the Taliban being removed from power, the US had time to concentrate on the Iraq issue.
With the inclusion of Iraq in the invasion, the war on terrorism was expanded to include Iraq so that it could be more forceful in this quest. They had more strength in denouncing Iraq for their refusal to comply with the initial agreement regarding weapons and creation of weapons of mass destruction. They demanded that there be a regime change in Iraq and also leaked information about the plan by the military to start war. Bush also insisted to the UN Security Council to take actions against Iraq or they would be regarded irrelevant. With these moves, Iraq called for the return of UN but they were reluctant to comply with the inspection of weapons. In October, the Congress approved the need to use force in the fight against Iraq.
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