Iraq
The Persian Gulf War
On August 2, 1990, Iraqi military forces invaded Kuwait, and Saddam Hussein then declared Kuwait as Iraq's nineteenth province. To justify the invasion, Hussein claimed that Kuwait actually belonged to Iraq. While it was true that Kuwait belonged to the Ottoman province of Basra until the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in 1918, the borders of Iraq were not formed until after World War I. In addition, Iraq's government had officially recognized Kuwait's independence in 1963. Hussein also alleged that Kuwait was illegally siphoning oil from Iraqi oil fields, but this was never proven.
The U.N. Security Council passed 12 resolutions that condemned Iraq's invasion and agreed that force could be used if Iraqi troops did not withdraw peacefully from Kuwait by January 15, 1991. Following Iraq's refusal to withdraw, the Persian Gulf War officially began on January 16, 1991.
The U.S.-led military coalition formed to drive Iraq from Kuwait consisted of different nations from all over the world. The United States contributed the largest force, sending 500,000 troops, 1,800 aircraft, and 100 ships into the area. The U.S. landed in Saudi Arabia to begin a mission called Operation Desert Shield to protect Saudi Arabia and its neighbors from Iraqi invasions. In November 1990, when the coalition's forces started to use force to drive the Iraqis from Kuwait, they renamed the mission Operation Desert Storm.
To minimize the number of causalities, American coalition commander General Norman Schwarzkopf conducted the attack mainly by air, dropping guided missiles on Iraqi military targets. Schwarzkopf, however, knew that they would eventually have to fight a more dangerous war on the ground.
The ground war, which started on February 23, lasted only 100 hours. Schwarzkopf deployed a huge number of forces to southwestern Iraq, from where the troops moved to surround Iraqi forces in Kuwait and southern Iraq. The Iraqi forces, who had been greatly weakened after five weeks of air raids, were quickly overpowered. At midnight on February 28, following the Iraqi troops retreat from Kuwait, U.S. president George H.W. Bush declared the end of the ground war.
Though the Persian Gulf War only lasted a short time, it has had a big impact on Iraq. After the war, the country's economy collapsed as a result of the U.N.-imposed economic sanctions that brought a stop to Iraq's trade with other nations.