Gulf War Research Paper

Decisive action by the Coalition made the Gulf War short lived. The use of new equipment by U.S. and Coalition forces had such an overwhelming advantage against the Iraqi military that it forced them to cover their retreat with measures causing extreme environmental and economic damage. British forces occupied Iraq during WWI. In 1920, Iraq was declared a League of Nations mandate under British administration. Iraq attained independence as a Kingdom in 1932. In 1958, Iraq proclaimed itself a Republic. Kuwait became a British protectorate in 1889. Kuwait was a part of Iraq until 1923 when borders were drawn producing a new nation. Iraq had strong objections to this partitioning and continued to claim Kuwait as part of their territory.

During the war, there was a massive build-up of solid waste, which could cause future groundwater contamination within the area. Other affected areas include things such as the vegetation uprooted, run over and destroyed by personnel and equipment. Destruction of the land and environment was detrimental to the population within the conflict area; they have highly limited resources to use, as their land was damaged by activities of the Gulf

Estimates are 11 million barrels of oil were intentionally released into the Arabian Gulf from January to May 1991 The release of this much oil was described as being twenty times larger than the Exxon Valdez spill. The Saudi Arabian and Kuwaiti beaches were contaminated with oil for at least 800 miles. The oil devastated the marine and avian wildlife within the area. The birds were the group of wildlife that was most affected by the spills. During the war, there were at least 80 ships carrying oil and ammunition destroyed contributing to contamination of the Gulf (“ICE Case