Argumentative Essay: The First Gulf War

The Gulf War was a violent, yet necessary war that did not end the way it should have. The US’ reaction to Saddam Hussein’s invasion and annexation of Kuwait was very effective, but not complete. When Hussein conducted his invasion, it was for malicious and imperialistic reason and for this fact, it shows that the world is not safe if he remains in power of any country. This is where Operation Desert Storm, the US conducted operation to liberate kuwait, falters. After the U.S. was able to free Kuwait from the oppressive Iranian forces, an opportunity to remove Hussein from power arose, one that the U.S. did not take. Although Iraq suffered enormous damages and UN sanctions for their international misdeeds, the U.S. did not believe it was necessary

The first time invading Iraq’s territory was for what was collectively agreed upon by both world leaders and the American people as a just cause which was to remove a dangerous power from the world. Not only was this power invading weaker, foreign nations, they were also bombing other nations such as Israel and Saudi Arabia. This country was causing Chaos in the Middle East and had to be stopped at all costs. However, when the US invaded Iraq semi-arbitrarily based on faulty/dubious intelligence on WMDs, it was seen as much less of a just reason than last time. Then-Vice-President Dick Cheney stated in 2002, “there is no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.” This is a false statement and even furthers illegitimizes the U.S.’ invasion of Iraq the second time around. On top of these facts, simply put, the U.S. had already invaded decades prior and pulled out without removing Saddam Hussein even though more than enough reason was had. The American government had less of a just cause when they finally removed him as the main reason for the invasion of Iraq was to remove non-existent WMDs. This was further exacerbated by the fact that the terror attacks of 9/11 happened two years prior, and this made America very over-active on taking down anything remotely related to terrorism. Since the U.S. believed that Hussein supported terrorism and the groups that harmed the U.S., coupled with the fact that there was a false belief that Iraq had WMDs, this led to a hasty action on the U.S.’ part that was way less justifiable than the first