The War Against Terrorism

The War Against Terrorism

On August 2nd 1990, Iraq invaded the small oil rich country of Kuwait on its southeastern border. Iraq claimed that Kuwait was a long time province from the 1800’s and early 1900s’, whose lands belonged under control of Iraq, a so-called province. Saddam Hussein also argued that Kuwait was pumping oil from an oil field that was on the border of the two countries and belonged to Iraq. Upon gaining control of Kuwait, Hussein was able to eliminate his previous debt to Kuwait and gain it’s substantial oil wealth, roughly 10% of the worlds oil supply. Regardless of the motives behind Iraq’s invasion, under international law, none of Iraq’s claims against Kuwait justified its invasion of that country.

The world perception of Iraq was one of greed, where Hussein had taken the defenseless country of Kuwait for its oil wealth in order to secure his own power with OPEC and among his own people. The United Nations Security Council immediately placed a trade embargo on Iraq and demanded that they withdraw from Kuwait. When Hussein failed to comply, a world coalition of 39 countries, mainly led by the United States and the United Nations, was given the order to take action. Air strikes soon commenced followed by a full scale ground invasion, which lasted technically until late February of 1991, in which Hussein’s forces were totally removed from Kuwait.

Naturally, the world led by the United Nations and the United States, condemned the actions of Iraq. However the real truth behind the matter is economics. The U.S., along with other industrialized nations, had a substantial economic interest in Kuwait’s oil riches. Had Iraq acted more intelligently in its acquisition of Kuwait and not presented a ...

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...ed out slowly and effectively, the world will continue to back the cause and the Arab-Israeli conflict will have to settle under international pressure.

Terrorism has always been a problem, but until the September 11th attacks, the U.S. had never been affected on such a large scale. The world had also grown quite complacent in their understanding of what terrorists groups were capable of, and it gained the realization that everyone is susceptible to terrorist acts, even the mighty super power. When Iraq invaded Kuwait, the U.S. spearheaded the war to remove them because of it’s own interests, and now the U.S. has realized that it must take charge of the fight against terror and aggression worldwide because it is the only power capable of leading such a large cause. And, if it wants to retain world cooperation in matters of this nature it must not discriminate.