Iraq Invasion of Kuwait vs US Iraq War

BBC, n.d. Web. 13 Feb. 2014. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/shared/spl/hi/middle_east/02/iraq_events/html/kuwait_invasion.stm Piro, George L. "Saddam States Reasons for Kuwait Invasion." Newsletter. Gulf News, 21 July 2009.

British Broadcasting Corporation, 16 Sept. 2004. Web. 15 Oct. 2013. . Scherrer, Christian P. Invasion of Iraq, the U.N., U.S. Unilateralism and Crimes against Humanity. Hamburg: n.p., 2003.

Iraq-iran war. Retrieved from http://www.history.com/topics/iran-iraq-war Iran-Iraq War. (2013). Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th Edition, 1. Perrimond, G. (1999, April 14).

The Bush Administration's relations with Iraq prior to its invasion of Kuwait were cloudy to begin with anyways. When Iraq invaded Kuwait it gave George Bush Sr. The perfect reason to go to war and get some oil while he was at it. Although completely unreported by the U.S. media and government, the reason why I think the United States went to war, was because of the oil currency war. One of the main reasons for this war we are in right now is to prevent further Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) momentum towards the euro as an oil selling currency standard.

Wired.com. http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/10/wikileaks-show-wmd-hunt-continued-in-iraq-with-surprising- results/ (accessed October 24, 2013). Kaplan, Dan. "US did find Iraq WMD." New York Post US did find IraqWMD Comments.

Iran's main arguments for conflict were to either capture Iraqi oilfields thereby giving them bartering chips to secure the heavy firepower that Iraq had and Iran desperately needed, or to attack the Iraqi artillery that had laid a continuous barrage onto the Iranian civilian area since the commencement of the war (Hiro, 1991). Option two became the primary strategy due to the high amount of emotion from the Iranian leaders, the worrying that national unity would disintegrate if a ceasefire was to be enacted, and the fact that oil was now a commodity and the revenue was beginning to rise promptly. Iran showed it's true colors displaying disdain for the request of the international community to hold a ceasefire, and at the beginning of Ramadan, initiated their offensive on the southern border changing their status from invaded to invader (Hiro, 1991). Saddam Hussein chose the war strategy that the German's made famous, the blitzkrieg. The Iraqi army laid waste to the areas of Iran that they conquered.

APS Diplomat Recorder.? 9 August 2003. [xliii]? Berenson, Alex.? ?The Struggle for Iraq.??

“If Hussein's brutal dictatorship warranted war, then we might also need to invade Zaire, Zimbabwe, Syria, Libya, China, and a host of other countries” (Babka) . This is a common argument that has been brought up by others who believe the invasion of Iraq was illegal. However, the failed diplomatic policies of the United States are what led to the failed invasion of Iraq. George W. Bush sent an invasion to Iraq with only Congress approving his “Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq Resolution of 2002”. However, he did not have the authorization he needed from the United Nations, therefore, the invasion of Iraq was illegal.

(2003, March 20). CNN.com. Retrieved February 18, 2010, from http://www.cnn.com/2003/WORLD/meast/03/19/sprj.irq.main/ UN Headquarters Bombing, Baghdad, Iraq. (n.d.). GlobalSecurity.org - Reliable Security Information.

This would kick off a war that would last until 1988 and would become the deadliest war since World War II (Fredman, 2012). This war would shape the future relations in the Middle East and the world due to its economic impacts, the use of chemical weapons, and its political ramifications. Iraq utilized a territorial dispute over Shatt al Arab, an area that Iran had gained control over with the treaty of 1975 to justify their invasion of Iran (Chubin & Tripp, 1991). Saddam Hussein regained this area from a weakened Iran following the Iranian revolution. Shatt al Arab is located at the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers this key piece of terrain is important for two reasons (Chubin & Tripp, 1991).