Cause And Effect Of The Iraq War

The 1991 Gulf War between Iraq and the United Nations coalition had many causes. Some of these causes were from recent events while other causes were from centuries ago. The war included many countries from the Middle East region. It also included many countries from all around the world who helped join the coalition to fight against the Iraqi military. The large victory by the coalition which was led by the United States, over the Iraqi military had many far-reaching effects. The Iraqi Army was effectively destroyed. The United States gained a long-term defense partnership with Kuwait along with long-term military bases. Also, the United States gained serious credibility with Arab nations after successfully building an international coalition

Iran was a predominantly Shiite Muslim country with a population of 38.7 million people at the end of 1979. Roger Hardy, a Middle East analyst for the BBC stated, “Saddam Hussein felt directly threatened by the Islamic revolution which had brought Ayatollah Khomeini to power in Iran the year before” (Roger Hardy). Saddam Hussein was so worried about being overthrown by the Khomeini regime that he attacked Iran on September 22, 1980. As later emphasized by Roger Hardy “Thus, for Saddam Hussein, the war's purpose was pre-emptive: to overthrow the Khomeini regime before that regime could overthrow him”. In spite of the September 22nd attack, the battlefront never really changed. The Iraqi army was never able to defeat Iran. However, in order to finance this huge war, Iraq had to borrow huge amounts of money from their Sunni neighboring countries of Kuwait & Saudi Arabia. Iran. Kuwait had a population of 2.1 million people who were mostly Sunni. Kuwait had a huge impact in the Iraq and Iran war, they provided the money to Iraq to fight against Iran. Saudi Arabia, on the other hand, is one of the largest oil producing country in the region with a population of 16.3. They also lent billions of dollars to Iraq to help fund their war against Iran. The U.S had given some weapons to Iraq when they were at war with Iran. with a population of 249.6, the United States was the largest oil importer in the world at the time. It was also the only superpower of the world at the time as the Soviet Union was in the midst of disintegrating. The United States was the one country who led the effort at the United Nations and got the U.N permission to fight the Iraqi army. Before discussing the Persian Gulf War of 1990, it is important to understand the background to how the war