The US Involvement In The Iran-Iraq War

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Thesis: The US policy between 1947 and 2011 destabilized the Middle East by supporting both sides of the Iraq-Iran War and keeping Saddam Hussein in power when there was the perfect opportunity to get rid of him.

Events: Iran-Iraq war, Persian Gulf War, Iraq War

Iran-Iraq War: The US involvement in the Iran-Iraq War escalated the conflict by giving arms to both sides.

The Iran-Iraq War was fought between 1980 and 1988. It began by Iraq attacking Iran to gain control of oil and because Iraq was worried that the revolution might spread to their country. Iraq thought it would be a quick victory because of the turmoil within Iran, but the Iraqi invasion stalled and the war actually brought the Iranian people together for a common cause. The …show more content…

It started by Iraq attacking Kuwait because they believed Kuwait was taking their oil. As a result of Iraq taking over the oil fields, Iraq controlled a full quarter of the world’s oil resources. The US, European powers, and Arab states, and even Russia were not happy with Iraq controlling such a large portion of the worldwide oil supply so a national coalition, led by the US was formed. After the war between the coalition and Iraq started, it took just 100 hours for George Bush to stop the offensive. However, after the Iraqi military was defeated, the coalition decided to leave Saddam Hussein in power, which in hindsight was a horrible move because it would lead to another war. At the time it wasn’t terrible, the US thought that a bad leader that was unknown would be worse than a bad leader that was known, but they didn’t realize how bad Hussein was

In conclusion, the Persian Gulf War was the most successful war involving Iraq in terms of the US stabilizing the Middle East, but still wasn’t a complete success because Hussein was allowed to stay in power.

Iraq War: The Iraq War war decreased stability in the Middle East by causing worldwide unrest for nothing and fostering anti-westernism in the Middle