Kuwait-Iraq War: Looms of Conflict After Iraq-Iran War - Essay Sample

Introduction

Over the years, there have been many gulf wars that have taken place. The first one, however, was one between Kuwait and Iraq. It happened just after the end of the conflict between Iraq and Iran. The Iraq-Iran war had taken over eight consecutive years with Kuwait funding the war. After it ended, Iraq had a considerable sum of money in terms of loans belonging to Kuwait. This amount of cash was noted in the article written by Michael Gordon "Kuwait had been a source of soft loans throughout the Iran-Iraq War, and Iraq, $80 billion in debt from the war, was thinking about robbing the bank," (Gordon & Trainor, 1995). Following the massive amount of money, the Iraq government became adamant to comply with repaying. They believed to have had a strong army that would conquer and aid in rebuilding the country after the war. They went to the extent of forcing their neighbors and mostly Kuwait to help rebuild their broken empire; they even grabbed their possession. The US government led by the former president George bush saw and proved the probability of another war between Iraq and Kuwait but stayed quiet about the matter. In both wars, politics played the most significant role in how the wars started. In the first Gulf War, it is the Iraqi president who made the first move to Kuwait and in the second Balkans war, it started due to differences triggered by politically oriented minds of Milosevic.

Is your time best spent reading someone else’s essay? Get a 100% original essay FROM A CERTIFIED WRITER!

Save 25%

The Balkans war occurred after the end of the Second World War. It resulted due to the presence of conflicting political parties. It happened in Yugoslavia after their president had passed on. Different politically opposing parties arose, each to secure the government control. The entire occurrence of the conditions during the war was noted down by a French document. The country was in crisis until the first multiparty elections were conducted in the year 1990. The results turned out the opposite of expectation as the winners were autonomists. The people who won wanted their country to be free and independent as it mostly relied on views from other countries such as Croatia and Serbia. Although Croatia supported the multipart, they wanted the Yugoslavia's government to partake in devolution. The Serbian government encouraged the Serbian citizens to live in Yugoslavia to participate in strikes, rallies, and ask for a federal government. This article aims to give details of both types of war and compare how they happened.

Background of The Gulf War

As observed above, the war between Iraq and Iran lasted for eight consecutive years. It had begun in 1980 and ended in 1988 (Estes, 2011). The cause of the war was that the Iraqi government wanted to secure some of the Iranian territories such as Khuzestan. The Iraqi targeted these territories due to the availability of minerals in them. The Khuzestan region was targeted due to the availability of oil. The Iranian government, which was led by Saddam Hussein, also wanted some of the territories owned by the Iraqi government. It targeted the Shatt Al-Arab River, which was the original border between the two conflicting countries (Estes, 2011).

The duo, however, came into an understanding in 1988, and then the war was ended, only for Iraq to start a new one with Kuwait in 1990. The Iraq-Iran war ended because of the probability that they were both loosing and becoming more destitute. This could be proved by the assumption that Iraq did not have much to repay their funding partners, Kuwait, and the only solution left was to trigger a war between them. Iraq had an outstanding debt belonging to Kuwait that ranged between $80 to 112 billion dollars. In the book entitled general war written by Gordon and General Trainor, they noted the high unemployment rates in Iraq and the beginning of the economic downfall of the country (Gordon & Trainor, 1995). They said, "unemployment was high, and Iraq's economy could not easily accommodate the strains of large-scale military demobilization, which also threatened social unrest" (Gordon & Trainor, 1995).

The Iraqi government, therefore, saw the option of starting a war with Kuwait as the only option. They firmly blamed the government of Kuwait for what was happening at the moment and economy downfall. They were swift to say so due to the vast amount of capital; they used to start repaying the debt. The Kuwait government was also using their oil wells, and the Iraqi government gained nothing resulting in the spectated economy deflation. The US government spectated all these events, but it did not intervene because it was not involved by either of the different countries to settle the dispute, not even the United Arab Emirates.

The Beginning Gulf War

The government of Iraq made the first move on Kuwait as it deployed more than eighty thousand soldiers to Kuwait. They continued using the soldiers until word reached the US government, who cursed the act. Britain and the Soviet Union were also at the forefront to condemn the act. After discussing the matter and being involved by the Kuwait government, they ordered the Iraqi government to withdraw their soldiers. Failure to the Iraqi government listening to the US government led to the initiation and mobilization of the soldiers to Kuwait for assistance (Estes, 2011). The operation was named "Operation Desert Storm".

Saddam Hussein requested the Muslim world and Taliban to assist him in the war while US soldiers were being backed up by other countries. The United Nations organization mobilized more than 28 countries to help the USA troops in the fight. The operation desert storm employed the latest form of war technology from various militaries after they had joined forces. The operation was a success as their troops were over witted and defeated. They drove home, and the recognition agreed with them, and Kuwait is an independent country (Estes, 2011).

Background of The Balkans War

As observed above, the Yugoslavian war originated swiftly after the end of the Second World War. It was a Bosnian war because its states had agreed to an everyday thing by the formation of the People's Republic of Yugoslavia. The Bosnian rules had led to the creation of Yugoslavia, and Josip Broz Tito controlled it. He acted as the president of Yugoslavia and was able to accomplish development despite its citizens being members of three conflicting groups (Lampe, 2014). The conflicting parties resulted from differences aligned to ethnicity. After the death of the Yugoslavian president, the ethnic conflicts arose in 1980 after Slobodan Milosevic took over as the new leader. Milosevic was able to brew tension and restart old differences between Serbians, Croatians, alongside Bosnians. He was a Serbian, and he advocated for power by asking fellow Serbian citizens found within Yugoslavia to riot and conduct strikes. He advocated for the greatness of Serbia to be uplifted by entirely using rallies.

The War

Bosnia had many states whose citizens had diversities. The people, despite having their differences, wanted a more secure government, which would be independent and explore devolution. However, most of the citizens wanted such a government; opposition to such would never miss existing. The US government offered support against the debate that had come to live. Most support of such a democratic government came from Yugoslavia, and the later led to attack being focused on them from the opposing side. The attack originated from a republican party, and it hit Sarajevo city (Lampe, 2014). The entire action of the attack was named as ethnic cleansing. Following the attacks continuing to intensify, the total number of casualties from the states affected increased to more than 8000. The US government, together with the United Nations community, came to the rescue and ordered a stop to the conflicts and violence. The US governments took the frontline by organizing conflict resolution methods, for example, employing peace talks between the different ethnic communities (Lampe, 2014).

Conclusion

Many people have talked about war and its effects. One of them is Clausewitz, who explained that war is mostly oriented on the margins of politics. In both wars, politics played the most significant role in how the wars started. In the first Gulf War, it is the Iraqi president who made the first move to Kuwait.

In contrast, in the second Balkans war, it started due to differences triggered by politically oriented minds of Milosevic. In both types of conflict, the US government has also played a significant role and proved leadership concerns. It participated in ending the two kinds of wars; it assisted in completing the gulf war by providing Kuwait with its soldiers. In the Balkans war, it acted as the middle man and negotiator in solving the ethnic conflicts. From the two types of battles, it is evident that war is inevitable yet can be evaded for the good and well-being of masses of people that could be affected negatively.

References

Estes, K. W. (2011). Gulf Wars (1990-1991, 2003-present). The Encyclopedia of War. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444338232.wbeow263

Gordon, M. R., & Trainor, B. E. (1995). The generals' war: the inside story of the conflict in the Gulf (Vol. 144). Boston: Little, Brown.

Lampe, J. R. (2014). Balkan Wars, First World War, Postwar Settlements, 1912-1922. Balkans into Southeastern Europe, 1914-2014, 30-62. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-05777-8_3