The term “Al-Anfal” means “spoils of war.” It is also the name of the eighth chapter in the Quran, and in that chapter is a story depicting the glory of destroying an enemy’s land. The Iraqi regime referenced this story, and even gave the name to the series of attacks, to justify the genocide that took place against the Kurdish people. During the 1980s, Iraq and Iran had constant tension between them, due to territorial and governmental disputes. The leader of the Iraqi government, Saddam Hussein, who was president of Iraq from 1979 to 2003, led an invasion that triggered a war between the two counties. Hussein was a man of hate, and was never hesitant about using violence as a problem solver. During this war, in an attempt to break free of …show more content…
Hussein claimed his invasion of Iran was because of a territorial dispute over the waterway called “Shatt al-Arab,” which forms the border between the two countries, but there was more to the story than just that. The invasion was inspired by the fact that Hussein felt threatened by the Islamic Revolution, which had led Ayatollah Khomeini to take power in Iran only a year before. Khomeini was an Iranian-Muslim politician who played a role in the Iranian government, and desired to see Hussein fail. The invasion, and war, all happened only for one reason, and that was to overthrow Khomeini before Khomeini could overthrow Hussein. Hussein believed Iran was weak, and that he could quickly overtake them and achieve victory, which was why he did not hesitate to invade Iran. Although, Iran was stronger than Hussein had anticipated, and within two years into the war, Iran had taken back much of the land they had lost to Iraq, and pushed across the Iraqi border. In 1983, in the middle of the war, the Iraqi Kurds decided to rebel against Hussein, in order to try and form their own independent country. Iran aided the Kurds in their rebellion by providing them with weapons, in order to strengthen Kurdish troops (called the Peshmerga) for the inevitable fight between them and the Iraqi troops for their independence. The Kurds were warned by the Iraqi government …show more content…
Hussein’s cousin, Ali Hassan al-Majid, (also known as “Chemical Ali,”) the leader of the genocide campaign, carried out the ideas of killing the Kurds, after Huessein and the Iraqi government approved them. Hussein wanted to punish the Kurds for their attempt to rebel, and for accepting help from Iran, by completely annihilating them. The entire genocide happened in a total of eight stages. During the first stage, the Kurdish people were separated from the Arabs who also lived in Iraq, and were drove out of their homes. During the second and third stages, the Kurdish people were deemed as “insurgents,” and seen by the rest of Iraq as nothing more than insects. In the fourth stage, Kurdish people were captured and sent to detention centers. Any Kurdish male who was thought to be an “insurgent” was taken and immediately killed. During the fifth stage, Saddam spoke out and claimed that the Kurds betrayed their government, and were in for a very cruel punishment. In the sixth stage, death camps were built, and Kurdish homes and villages were demolished. During the seventh stage, arguably the most intense and impactful stage, the Iraqi government flew over and bombed many Kurdish villages with mustard gas and a nerve agent called “GB.” The most well-known attack during this stage was the chemical attack on
Throughout history, tyranny was seen demonstrated on many occasions, when rulers wanted to have an absolute power over all the aspects of the country they are ruling. One of the famous tyrants in the history of the middle east countries or may be the history of the world is Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq for more than 23 years, he tortured, arrested and killed many people during the time of his reign. In the article of Tales of Tyrants, Mark Bowden is trying to show that Saddam Hussein was a brutal and cruel leader who used violence and ferocity in order to control the Iraqis and plant his fear in them to hide his weakness and insecurity. Bowden uses the repetition of the words “dangerous, intimidate, fear and brutal” to prove that
Iraq and Saddam Hussein were trying to take over Kuwait, which was a major oil supplier to the world. If Iraq got Kuwait than Saudi Arabia would be right next to them. So then Iraq would pose an Immediate threat to take over Saudi Arabia, which was also a major oil supplier.
Kinzer tells us that the Iranians celebrated their nationalism in taking control of their oil, but their success was a shock to the British multinational companies in Iran. They did not like the idea of Iran nationalization, so they plan a coup to overthrow the Prime Minister Mossadegh. But this plan failed and the British were disarmed and sent back to their country closing down their embassy in Iran. The British tried to present their case to the United State in a way that the United State would intervene. So they presented a case that Mossaghe is not only nationalizing the Iranians oil, he is also leading Iran into communism. This case stirred the American action and they feared if they assassinate Mossaghe, his seat will be open and communist ...
Saddam Hussein’s main purpose of sending troops to take over Kuwait was to take control of their oil fields, which Hussein believed would be an easy task; however, he failed to understand that the United States and United Nations were keeping a very close watch on the Iraqi’s actions. Hussein also had other motives, such as freeing himself from the debt he was drowning in from the Iran-Iraq War just two years earlier. He set the pretense for war with Kuwait by defining their refusal to give land to Iraq as an act of military belligerence. President Bush ordered the United States to respond just five days after Iraq had invaded Kuwait. If the United States had not taken action, Hussein would have possibly continued to invade other oil producing countries and take control of the United States main sources of oil as well as threaten a number of innocent people’s lives.
Most of the people killed were Iranian, however, some Kurdish people were also killed. Iraq started using chemical weapons from the beginning of the war though they started excessively using them near the end of the war, even on their own people.
In September 1980, a very destructive war with Iran was started by Saddam Hussein. This was a result of an invasion in Iran. This invasion spurred an eight year war. Saddam used c...
The group of students claim that attack was carried out because of all of the prior years of US attempt of reform on Iran (Bryne). However, others claim that the attack was motivated by the US treatment of the Shah. These two motives were enough for the students to take their anger out on the people occupying the US Embassy. The government was not aware of the attack beforehand, however they did side with conspirators for political reasons, along with the people of Iran (Bryne). President Jimmy Carter did not let the Shah in because for political reasons, but for humanitarian reasons (Iran Crisis). Although President Carter had good intentions by doing this it unleashed a dislike toward Americans in the minds of of almost every Iranian (Iran Crisis). Underlying the attack on the United States Embassy were anti-American and anti-Carter
Conflict has also been a significant part of Iraqi history since the Akkadian wars of 2340 BC. The rise of the Babylonian dynasty in 1700 BC gave way to the Assyrian dynasty in 1340 BC. The Assyrians were eventually overthrown in the seventh century BC by the Persian Empire of Alexander the Great. (2) The Arabs conquered the region in the early expansion of Islam in the eighth century AD, followed by the Mongol invasion in 1258. The last of the great dynasties to rule th...
There are many ideas of what genocide is, but, according to Webster’s Dictionary, the official definition of genocide is “The deliberate and systematic extermination of a national, racial, political, or cultural group”. However, the more realistic and practical definition is “The unnecessary and unjustified killings of tens of thousands of innocent people all because of hate”. This was most defiantly the case in the Kurdish Genocide, which took place between 1986 and 1989. The result of this mass murdering left thousands of people without loved ones, and even more wondering why it had to happen.
Chemical weapons (CW) are one of the major threats of WMD. Past CW attacks, including the 1995 Aum Shinrikyo sarin attacks, have taken place, illustrating just how catastrophic a CW attack can be. The CBRN threat posed by the group in the video “Japanese Sarin Cult” is that of a chemical attack. The chemical agent utilized in the attack was sarin nerve gas. Sarin, not only has been used in the past, but is currently being used in attacks in the Middle East; sarin nerve gas also has the potential to threaten the United States today.
In his time as vice president of Iraq, Hussein silently conducted his iron-fisted takeover of Iraq. He had developed a larger military, strengthened Iraq’s economy and started Iraq’s first chemical weapons program (Saddam Hussein: Biography). Hussein had a secret police that took control of the dirtiest deeds that Hussein wanted done, like manning his political prisons, carrying out public executions and kidnappings. Hussein’s prisons were riddled with death, torture, disease and starvation. Hussein had no regard for the people he kept in his detention centers.
...most distressed by outcome of a war, could exercise only inadequate control on the issue of armed action against Iraq. Most of the regional actors discarded the U.S. policy towards Iraq with varying intensity as they feared insecurity after Iraq’s disintegration (Reuters, 2003) whereas; Jordan decided not to endanger its rewarding ties with Washington. Another key actor at this level is the Baathi party in Iraq which was based on tribal division, domestic oppression and economic enticement. Under Baathi regime military, bureaucracy and security services was divided into several competing institutions which reinforced Hussein’s dictatorship in Iraq. In the post war Iraq, the USA in collaboration with the Iraq National Congress and the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution started to make Iraq a democracy that is similar to the American political culture and values.
Woods and Stout found that Saddam worked to project a well-defined, if multi-headed, public persona: the object of a cult of personality at home, modern deliverer of the ‘Arab Nation’ to the region, and regional hegemonic to the international community. As a result, many Western observers often saw him as the ‘Madman of the Middle East (Wood and Stout 2010). The American-Japanese crisis in 1940 gives an illustration of this also. For instance, national leaders may not have choices because of structural or systemic constraints, or because of their own cognitive processes. But if they see themselves as having only a single course of action, then their assessment...
The Iran – Iraq War started on September 22, 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran (Steele 14). Iraq had many reasons to invade Iran. A couple reasons were border territory issues between the nations, political issues, and the fear of the Islamic Revolution in Iran spreads into Iraq. The war continued on for eight years. In 1988, the United Nations stepped in and created a peace agreement for the two nations. The United Nations Security Council Resolution 598 was the official document that ended the Iran – Iraq War in July 1988. At that point, both nations were drained by the war. Both nations faced a drop in their economy, high death tolls, and other issues (Steele 17), but what was the main reason Iran accepted the peace agreement proposed by the
The abrupt end of decade long dominating regime in three weeks had created a political vacuum, that is evident in shifting coalitions and divisions among religious groups, ethnic groups, regional groups and even classes (Barnett et al. 2003, 25). US did not realize, moreover, the depth of the hostility between Kurds and Arabs, Sunnis and Shiites, and the members of different tribes and local religious groups. Furthermore, to deal with destruction in Iraq new plan was decided by the US. The plan was to pull out all troops and hand over the responsi...