How Did The Gulf War End?

The Gulf War was possibly the most cost-effective warfare in the American chronicles in terms of loss of American lives. It demonstrated that U.S. technology and U.S. armed policy are a decisive influence when utilized on the world scenario. The Gulf War (also referred to as the First Gulf War, Operation Desert Storm, the Iraq War,the Persian Gulf War) (August 2, 1990 – February 28, 1991), was a conflict initiated by a UN-authorized coalition force from thirty-nine nations led by the United States, with the aim of driving out the Iraqi army from Kuwait , after the Iraqis had captured the country on 2 August 1990. Iraq had conquered its tiny neighbor Kuwait, after discussions failed over oil production and liability settlements. Iraqi president Saddam Hussein afterward seized Kuwait and declared it the 19th province of Iraq.

The invasion of Kuwait by Iraqi forces provoked global criticism, and invited abrupt monetary sanctions against Iraq by members of the UN Security Council. U.S. President George H. W. Bush positioned additional American military forces in Saudi Arabia and appealed other countries to send their own army to the area. A group of nations entered the alliance of the Gulf War. The majority of the armed forces in the coalition were from the United States, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, France, Great Britain, Syria and Egypt as leading contributors.

The allied forces started the war with a large number of air strikes on Iraqi targets. The war lasted for 44 days, beginning on 16 January 1991 and ending on 28 February, 1991. The war was fought on two fronts—on the battlefields and the international media. Kuwait and the US employed the finest media experts to project the allied point of view in the international fora so as to garner international backing from countries across the world.

On the battleground itself, the war was a very unequal one. The allied forces suffered barely a few hundred casualties, while the Iraqi forces lost around 60,000 men.

Iraq had a number of motives to attack Kuwait. Firstly, Iraq had never recognized Kuwait as a separate state. There were disputes over the claims of underground oil reserves along the border, regarding which Iraq alleged that Kuwait was exploiting resources that territorially were on the Iraqi side of the border. Iraq had often charged Kuwait for causing a sharp fall in the international oil prices, which caused heavy financial losses to Iraq. Iraq demanded of Kuwait to reimburse these losses, to which Kuwait refused. Iraq also claimed some of Kuwait’s territory and wanted Kuwait to lease it the main island for setting up improved transportation facilities. The rationale behind the US-led attack for liberating Kuwait must also be elucidated. The major single reason was that Iraq’s neighboring oil producing countries were terrified that Saddam’s Iraq would attack them too if Iraq wasn’t stopped in Kuwait. Saddam was seen as a fearsome ambitious dictator that had forcibly occupied a nonviolent and militarily weak neighbor. This fear was overplayed in media campaigns, and the war was projected as a war between good and evil. On the allied side, 700,000 soldiers were involved, of which 540,000 were from the U.S. forces. The battle also resulted in heavy man-made destruction in the Persian Gulf. A large number of oil wells were set on fire. A civil war broke out in Iraq. Iraq’s finances nose dived and living conditions became appalling. After 2002, new media coverage against Saddam was initiated, predominantly, by the president of USA and the prime minister of Britain. Stories were spread about Saddam supporting international terrorism and his possession of banned weapons of mass destruction. But no real evidence was ever found. However, the West-led campaign was concluded with the 2003 US/British-Iraq War leading to the fall of Saddam Hussein and his regime.

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