In modern historiography, there are two wars in the Persian Gulf. The first was in 1990-1991. The conflict over oil led the Iraqi army to invade Kuwait and occupy the small emirate. In response to Saddam Hussein's actions, the UN initiated an international coalition invasion of his country. Then the status quo was restored. Another 12 years later, there was a re-invasion of Iraq, initiated by the United States. This war is sometimes referred to as the Second Gulf War. As a result, the power of Saddam Hussein was overthrown, and he himself was executed by the decision of the Baghdad court.
Causes of conflict
The famous Gulf Wars began on August 2, 1990, when Iraqi troops invaded neighboring Kuwait. The basis of the economy of this small state was oil production. It was because of this resource that the conflict began.
In July, the head of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, publicly accused the Kuwaiti authorities of having been illegally extracting oil from a field located in Iraq for several years. In Baghdad, they demanded a multi-billion dollar fine. Emir of Kuwait Jaber III refused to follow Hussein's lead.
Invasion of Kuwait
After that, the Iraqi army invaded a neighboring small country. Most of the Kuwaiti forces managed to relocate to Saudi Arabia. The same was done by the emir, who headed the government in exile in the city of Dhahran. The invaders did not meet any serious resistance. Two days later, on August 4, the Iraqi army took control of the entire territory of Kuwait. Saddam Hussein's troops lost nearly 300 dead. In the Kuwaiti armed forces, this figure has reached 4 thousand.
This is how the Gulf Wars began. In the occupied country, a puppet Republic of Kuwait, dependent on Baghdad, was proclaimed. This quasi-state was headed by officers who agreed to become collaborators with respect to Hussein. A week later, they asked the neighboring country for a merger, which was done. On August 28, Kuwait became one of the provinces of Iraq.
Reaction from the international community
On the very first day of the Gulf War, the UN Security Council was urgently convened. At its meeting, a resolution was adopted in which the organization demanded that the Iraqi authorities withdraw troops from the neighboring country. At the same time, the Western powers seized all the bank accounts of the Baghdad leadership on their territory and imposed an arms embargo.
After the occupation of Kuwait, skirmishes began on the border between Iraq and Saudi Arabia. The leaderships of both countries began to pull their divisions and regiments to their borders. The Middle East has always representeda boiling cauldron. Now this region could finally turn into a sea of blood.
Meanwhile, in Iraq itself, arrests began of citizens of Western countries who announced sanctions against its authorities. Until the end of the Gulf War, these people actually remained hostages. The USA became the main initiator of the struggle against Iraq. By 1990, the Cold War was effectively over. The Soviet Union was on the verge of an economic crisis, and the entire communist world system was in its throes. Under these conditions, the United States became the only state that could speak from a position of strength with Saddam Hussein. It was around the American army that a coalition began to form (mainly from NATO member countries), which would later be transferred to Iraq. It should be noted that the USSR supported the actions of the multinational forces (MNF).
Desert Shield
From August 1990 to January 1991, the armies of the international coalition concentrated their air and ground forces on the territory of Saudi Arabia in order to prepare for the invasion of Iraq and prevent Hussein from attacking Saudi Arabia itself. There were no intense battles during this period, so we can say that it was an organizational pause that the Gulf War took. Participants called the deployment of forces to Saudi Arabia Operation Desert Shield.
Not only equipment was delivered to the Middle East, but also food, fuel, medicines and much more. All this was done on the assumption that the war could be extremely dragged out. By the beginning of 1991, the coalition managed to concentrate near the borderIraq has significant forces, superior in power and capabilities to enemy equipment.
Desert Storm
On January 17, 1991, the aviation of the international coalition began bombing Iraq. The attacks were carried out mainly at night. Their main goal was the important military and economic infrastructure of the country. A record number of sorties (nearly five thousand) were made in two days. The first war in the Persian Gulf approached its decisive stage. The coalition immediately managed to gain air superiority and destroy important manufacturing plants. At the same time, Iraqi ground artillery began bombing neighboring Saudi Arabia (where the enemy sorties came from) and Israel. In February, Allied attacks affected communications, ammunition depots, positions on which launchers stood, industrial facilities, etc. All this was done in order to facilitate a future ground operation. The first Gulf War was a unique event for its contemporaries precisely because of the importance that aviation received.
On the night of February 24, 1991, the ground operation of the coalition began. On the coast of the Persian Gulf (on the territory of occupied Kuwait), an American landing force was involved. The offensive was swift on all sectors of the front. The units that crossed the Iraqi border in the western and central direction easily overcame the border fortifications and advanced 30 kilometers overnight.
By the evening of February 26, the capital was liberated from the troops of Saddam HusseinKuwait El-Kuwait. Two days later, the Iraqi army ceased resistance in all sectors of the front. Her equipment was largely destroyed, and people were demoralized. The superiority of the coalition in strength and technology had an effect. In fact, an isolated Iraq was at war with the entire civilized world, which condemned the illegal annexation of Kuwait.
Results
With the advent of peace, all parties to the conflict began to analyze the consequences of the war in the Persian Gulf. In the coalition, the biggest losses were in the US Army. 298 people were killed, 40 aircraft, 33 tanks, etc. were destroyed. The losses of the rest of the countries were insignificant due to the small proportion of the contingent compared to the American units.
More conflicting is the Iraqi death toll. After the war, a variety of assessments appeared in the Western media. Figures were cited from 25 to 100 thousand dead soldiers. More than 2,000 civilians have been killed in the airstrikes, according to official statistics provided by the Iraqi government. The data on losses in the army in Baghdad was not published or advertised, which makes it very difficult to judge them. Western research in any case could not be based on verified and confirmed information. In terms of technology, Iraq has lost more than 300 aircraft, 19 ships, about 3,000 tanks. Interestingly, a large part of them were Soviet-made. The government of Saddam Hussein has been massively purchasing equipment from the USSR since the 70s. By 1990, all these tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, etc. were already noticeably outdated in terms ofcompared with the new models of Americans and Europeans.
The films about the Gulf War (Marines, Courage in Battle) show another unique phenomenon associated with this conflict. Many American soldiers who have been in Iraq, returning home, began to experience severe stress. In some ways, this mass disease was similar to what the veterans of Vietnam in the USA and Afghanistan in the USSR had experienced before. In popular culture, the phenomenon has been dubbed the “Gulf War Syndrome.”
Environmental impacts
Before leaving Kuwait, Iraqi troops began dumping oil into the Persian Gulf. Later, these actions were called environmental terrorism. Although allied aircraft tried to paralyze the oil industry in occupied Kuwait with precision bombing, more than 8 million barrels of environmentally harmful substances ended up in the sea.
The consequences were terrible - thousands of birds died, many fish and other fauna. In the Middle East, the so-called black rains followed for some time. The actions of the fleeing Iraqi army led to the largest environmental disaster of its time.
Isolating Iraq
What were the political consequences of the Gulf War? In short, the status quo has been restored to the region. Kuwait was liberated, the legitimate government returned there. Saddam Hussein made an official apology to this country in 2002, which, however, was not accepted. ForIraq after "Desert Storm" began a period of isolation. Western sanctions remain.
After the defeat in the war, uprisings of Kurds and Shiites began in the north of the country. The performances of ethnic and religious minorities were brutally suppressed by the Iraqi army. Punitive operations have led to a humanitarian catastrophe in the region. Because of this, the troops of the international coalition were introduced into the northern regions. This decision was motivated by the security of the Kurds. In addition, no-fly zones were introduced to stop the bombing of civilians, where Iraqi aircraft could not fly.
The war in the Persian Gulf, the causes of which lay in the adventurous decisions of Saddam Hussein, led to an escalation of tension throughout the Middle East. Although the situation has relatively stabilized since its end, many unresolved contradictions and conflicts remain in the region. Because of them, more than ten years later, the second Gulf War began.
Prerequisites for a new war
After the end of the war in 1991, the UN demanded that Iraq get rid of its existing weapons of mass destruction (chemical, bacteriological) and suspend the development of new ones. For this, an international commission was sent to the country. She successfully monitored the implementation of the UN decision until the end of the 90s, when the Iraqi authorities refused to cooperate with this structure. The problem of Hussein having banned weapons has become one of the reasons for another war in the Persian Gulf. There were no other reasons for the invasion of the forces of the United States and its allies until 2001. Then 9/11 in New YorkThere have been terrorist attacks carried out by the al-Qaeda group. Later, the American leadership accused Hussein of links with these Islamists.
US claims have been questioned from many quarters. There is still a widespread view that the American invasion was not only wrong, but also illegal. The United States and allies in the coalition (primarily Great Britain) attacked Iraq without permission from the UN, thus violating the Charter of the organization.
Second invasion of Iraq
On March 20, 2003, a new invasion of the international coalition into Iraq began. The union, in addition to the United States, includes 35 more countries. This time, unlike in the First Gulf War, there was no such meticulous aerial bombardment. The emphasis was on a land invasion, the springboard for which was the very same Kuwait. The active phase of the operation in March-May 2003 is today known as the Iraq War, or the Second Gulf War (although in fact the fighting took place throughout the country, and not just on the coast).
In three weeks, the coalition managed to capture all the largest cities in the country. The battle for Baghdad lasted from 3 to 12 April. The international troops met almost no resistance. The Iraqi army was demoralized. In addition, a significant part of the local population was dissatisfied with the dictatorial power of Saddam Hussein and therefore only gladly met foreigners. The president of the country himself fled the capital, and was on the run for a long time. It was discovered only on December 13, 2003 in the basement of an unremarkable house in the small village of Ed-Daur. Hussein was arrested and put on trial. He was accused of the genocide of the Kurds and numerous war crimes (including during the war in Kuwait in 1990-1991). On December 30, 2006, the former dictator was executed by hanging.
Results of another war
The overthrow of the former power of the Baath Party in Iraq was the main result of the second war in the Persian Gulf. Photos of the arrested and tried Saddam Hussein spread all over the world. After the territory of Iraq was occupied by the troops of the international coalition, democratic elections were held in the country, as a result of which a new government was elected.
US troops remained in Iraq until 2011. This was due to the fact that, despite the fall of Hussein's regime, the situation in the region only got worse. Documentaries about the Gulf War that criticized the American invasion clearly showed how Islamist movements were activated in Iraq. The radicals declared jihad on the interventionists. Terrorist attacks (mainly suicide bombings or car bombs) began to occur regularly in Baghdad.
Now there is a civil war in Iraq, which has taken the form of single attacks by radicals against the civilian population. Such acts of intimidation are the main instrument of pressure on the pro-American government objectionable to the Islamists. In 2011, the general “Arab Spring” began in the Middle East. Due to a similar civil war in Syria, a quasi-state of Islamists and jihadists, ISIS, has emerged in the border areas of these two countries. Todaythis organization is considered the vanguard of world terrorism (it managed to outshine even Al-Qaeda).
The US leadership is often blamed for the fact that, due to the American invasion, the situation in the region was shattered, which led to the emergence of numerous extremist groups fighting not only at home, but also attacking civilians in countries Europe and the rest of the world. On the other hand, after the 2003 war, the issue of the Kurds fighting for their independence in northern Iraq is still unresolved.
