Why The Persian Gulf War Was Not Iraqs Fault
Essay by 24 • August 21, 2010 • 2,025 Words (9 Pages) • 2,160 Views
At 2:00 A.M. (local time) on August second 1990, Saddam
Hussein sent the Iraqi military across the border into Kuwait,
and sparked a war whose repercussions are still being felt.
Today what eventually became known as the Persian Gulf
War, featured the largest air operation in history; and a
senseless destruction paralleled only to Danzig or Hiroshima.
Even though Saddam was the one who physically invaded
Kuwait, is balking at United Nations resolutions, and is
generally known as a tyrant. He should not be destroyed .
The Gulf War was nothing more than the United States
attempting to establish, as former President Bush so aptly
termed, the "New Order". The United States supported
Saddam Hussein and the Ba'ath regime prior to the Kuwaiti
invasion. They even gave Saddam a "Green Light" to go ahead
and invade. If Saddam were to leave power Iraq would either
be plunged into a Lebanon style civil war or face another ruler
no better than Saddam himself. The United States is
contemplating another invasion of Iraq, however it is having a
difficult time of gaining support of the Arab countries. While
many people in this country believe Saddam Hussein should
be destroyed, that he is a totalitarian dictator and gross
human rights violator. He is, in fact, a stabilizing force in his
country and the Middle-East, standing up to the only
remaining superpower.
The consensus currently prevalent in this country is that
Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq, is a totalitarian dictator,
thirsty for blood and prestige, who seems dedicated to
disobeying the United States. It would seem Iraq is intent on
keeping United Nation inspectors out of its own country,
although technically "Iraq barred only American members of
the inspection teams from carrying on their work"(Nelan 54).
The Iraqi "Dictator" seems to have decided he would rather be
bombed than inspected. He apparently has no regard for the
international community, and yet still wants them to lift
sanctions. Also the Iraqi:
"government stopped Ritter from investigating sensitive sites,
calling him a spy and complaining that his team was too
'Anglo-American'... the Iraqis also revealed Ritter was looking
for evidence Iraq tested chemical and biological weapons on
humans - charge Baghdad called 'a shear lie'" (Watson 34).
Those reports of human testing are obviously false. "[E]ven
Saddams strongest foes, including the C.I.A. seems to doubt
them(Watson 34)". In fact, the only testing done by Iraq was
on dogs. There were no inspectors around when the U.S.
committed the crimes at Tuskegee, or when hundreds of
servicemen were exposed to radiation during the atomic tests
in the sixties. The Iraqi "dictator" has stayed in power for
some 6 years since sanctions were imposed. The sanctions
were imposed supposedly to punish and weaken Saddams
power, freeing the people to take up arms and oust him.
However, the sanctions have hurt only the people of Iraq, and
if anything have strengthened Saddams position. If Saddam is
a human rights abuser as many maintain then, the U.S. is a
human rights abuser as well.
When the Soviet Union fell, the United States became the
sole superpower, thus, many countries no longer fearing the
U.S.S.R. began to loosen their ties with the U.S. The U.S.
soon found itself in a precarious position. It needed to a
reason for other countries to appease the U.S.; the country
also needed to demonstrate "the 'New World Order' in which
a post-Cold War United States could operate without the
bothersome constraints of another world superpower"(Simons
3). The United States found itself in a unique position
immediately following the collapse of Communist Russia; it
was now the only superpower, with the most powerful military,
economic, and political might. It now needed to demonstrate
how the U.S. would behave without the check of another
equal power. An opportunity soon arose however; Iraq, whom
we supported the previous decade during the Iran-Iraq War,
began sending out hints that it might invade Kuwait. We
Essentially told Saddam go ahead (see below). When Iraq did
take over Kuwait the then President Bush decided to disprove
his alleged stereotype of being a
...
...