Power Of Oil

The Power of Oil

With the conflict that is going on in Iraq currently, also known as the second Persian Gulf War, it is important to know the background of what is going on. The media that most people see in magazines and television today is usually filtered and presented from a strong one sided point of view, therefore leading to false or corrupt information. The world is currently dependent on oil and the majority of oil found today comes from the Middle East, which leads into much controversy. Through the creation of Iraq, the uprising of Saddam Hussein, conflicts in the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf War, many dots can be connected on why the conflicts continue to get worse.

Before World War I, the Turkish Ottoman Empire had complete control of the Middle East and it was a whole, with no separate nations. After losing World War I, the Ottoman Empire was dismantled and the majority of the land was claimed Great Britain and several other victors of the war such as France. What was not claimed, still remains today as Turkey. In the year 1921, Great Britain combined several parts of the land to create the nation of Iraq, as agreed in the Sykes-Picot Agreement. The creation of this nation would soon cause many drastic problems in the East due to three major ethnic and religious groups being forced to share the same land: Shi'ah (Shiite) Muslims, Sunni Muslims, and Kurds. Soon after, Britain instated King Faisal I to be the Iraqi leader, but he was a weak leader and the Iraqis were livid at the fact that Britain had not kept their agreement that Iraq would have full independence for the help in overthrowing the Turks. Britain had some reasons to hold control of the land, with the discovery of oil in the area and Iraq being a land route to the Persian Gulf (Jason). With the strong British military control, the Iraqis had very little say at this time in the future of their new nation. Eventually, Iraq gained its full independence in the year 1932 as the British mandate finally came to an end (Congressional Digest ).

Saddam Hussein became the president and dictator of Iraq in the year 1979, but had a very powerful status before becoming the ruthless leader that caused so much disaster within his country. Throughout all of his life, Saddam had been known for his extreme desire for power, striving to be the most feared man in Iraq. His way of reaching supremacy was violence, killing or harming the lives of anyone who got in his way or had opposing opinions. After becoming the leader of the nation, Saddam made many improvements in reform and modernization. The greatest improvement was the nationalization of Iraqi oil, which brought him vast power, wealth, and international status (Johnathan). With massive amount of oil being produced, Iraq's military budget increased ten times between 1970 and 1975 and Saddam was able to purchase large amounts weapons and military supplies from the Soviet Union and France, but he did not want to stop there. The ruthless leader soon began producing biological and chemical agents that he could use as weapons of mass destruction, believing that he could dominate the Arab world and destroy the newly created nation of Israel. Saddam began to invest billions of dollars into the production of nuclear weapons, and began to trade cheap oil to France and Russia for assistance in producing plutonium and training nuclear physicists. Saddam Hussein was holding a ticking time bomb that could cause an outbreak of violence and destruction worldwide (Jason).

In 1979, pro-American Iranian leader Muhammad Reza Shah Pahlevi was overthrown and replaced by a Shi'ah religious leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini who established a fundamentalist Islamic republic. Because Iran had been pro-American for the previous 30 years, the U.S. had supplied them with modern military weapons and technology. Now Iran was a threat to the United States, and to make the situation worse Iran was very prosperous in oil and Saddam wanted control (Congressional Digest) . In July of 1980, top officials of the U.S. and Iraq met and discussed ways to stop Iran from advancing. This was one area that the U.S. and Iraq could agree on, but America was reluctant due to Iraq's support of terrorism against Israel whose existence is guaranteed by America. Despite the aspect of Israel, the United States proceeded in supporting Saddam with military supplies, critical information, and even the production of the banned weapons of mass destruction. Saddam used his chemical weapons, bombs, and missiles to wipe troops and entire cities in Iran and at one point used gas to kill 5,000 Iraqi Kurds who had allied themselves with Iran. The casualties of the Iran-Iraq War are estimated to be around one million people. Saddam's thirst for blood and power had subsequently led to major Iraqi debt. Iraq owed tens of billions of dollars to Arab and Western countries and hundreds of billions of dollars in repairs were needed for the damage done to Iraq. With oil being the only main source of income for most Middle Eastern nations, Saddam knew that lots of oil was necessary to get him out of his financial hole. Over 9% of the world's oil can be found in Kuwait, and that's right where Saddam had his eyes set (Jason).

When satellite photos showed hundreds of Iraqi tanks lining up near the Kuwaiti border on July 17, 1990, General Colin Powell called it off as a bluff. With so many crucial aspects missing such as artillery, fuel trucks, and troops, it was very unlikely that Saddam would try to take Iraq, let alone do it successfully. On top of that, Saddam had recently been urging Kuwait to lower their oil production in order to raise prices. Although it appeared to be a bluff, there were several pieces of land that Saddam was serious about acquiring. One was to take control of two islands that both Kuwait and Iraq claimed, but it was rightfully Kuwait's. Possession of this land would allow Iraq access to the Persian Gulf and a place to store oil during transport. The other was the dispute over the extremely prosperous oil field, Rumaila, which lay near the Iraq-Kuwait border. Saddam claimed the oil field

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