Wars in the Persian Gulf: causes and consequences

In modern historiography, two wars in the Persian Gulf are singled out. The first was in 1990-1991. The conflict over oil led to the invasion of the Iraqi army in Kuwait and the occupation of this small emirate. In response to the actions of Saddam Hussein, the UN initiated the invasion of the international coalition in his country. Then the status quo was restored. In another 12 years, there was a repeated invasion of Iraq, initiated by the United States. This war is sometimes called the second war in the Persian Gulf. As a result, Saddam Hussein's power was overthrown, and he himself was executed by the decision of the Baghdad court.

Causes of conflict

Famous wars in the Persian Gulf began on August 2, 1990, when Iraqi troops invaded neighboring Kuwait. The basis of the economy of this small state was oil production. It is because of this resource and the conflict began.

In July, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein publicly accused the Kuwaiti authorities of having carried out illegal oil production from a field located in Iraq for several years. In Baghdad they demanded to pay a multi-billion dollar fine. Emir of Kuwait Jaber III refused to go on about Hussein.

Invasion of Kuwait

After that, the Iraqi army invaded a neighboring small country. Most of the Kuwaiti forces managed to relocate to Saudi Arabia. The same thing was done by the emir, who led the government in exile in the city of Dhahran. The invaders did not encounter any serious resistance. Already two days later, on August 4, the Iraqi army took control of the entire Kuwait territory. Saddam Hussein's forces lost nearly 300 people dead. In the Kuwaiti armed forces, this figure reached 4,000.

So the wars in the Persian Gulf began. In the occupied country, the puppet and dependent on the Baghdad Republic of Kuwait was proclaimed. At the head of this quasi-state stood officers who agreed to become collaborators in relation to Hussein. A week later they asked the neighboring country about the merger, which was done. On August 28, Kuwait became one of the provinces of Iraq.

The reaction of the international community

On the first day of the war, the UN Security Council was urgently convened in the Persian Gulf . At its meeting, a resolution was adopted in which the organization demanded that the Iraqi authorities withdraw troops from a neighboring country. Simultaneously, the Western powers arrested all bank accounts of the Baghdad leadership on their territory and imposed an arms embargo.

After the occupation of Kuwait on the border of Iraq and Saudi Arabia, shootings began. The leaders of both countries began to draw their divisions and regiments to their lines. The Middle East has always been a boiling cauldron. Now this region could finally turn into a sea of blood.

In the meantime, arrests began in Iraq itself of citizens of Western countries who declared sanctions against its authorities. Until the end of the war in the Persian Gulf, these people actually remained hostages. The main initiator of the struggle against Iraq was the United States. By 1990 , the Cold War was actually over. The Soviet Union was on the verge of an economic crisis, and the entire communist world system was going through its agony. In these conditions, the US became the only state that could speak from a position of strength with Saddam Hussein. It was around the American army that a coalition (mainly from NATO member countries) began to form, which will later be transferred to Iraq. It should be noted that the USSR supported the actions of the multinational forces (MNF).

"Shield of the Desert"

From August 1990 to January 1991, the armies of the international coalition concentrated their air and ground forces on the territory of Saudi Arabia in order to prepare for an invasion of Iraq and prevent Hussein from attacking Saudi Arabia itself. There were no intensive battles during this period, so we can say that it was an organizational pause, which the war in the Persian Gulf took. The participants called the events for the transfer of forces to Saudi Arabia by Operation Shield of the Desert.

Not only equipment was delivered to the Middle East, but also food, fuel, medicines and much more. All this was done on the basis that the war could be extremely protracted. By the beginning of 1991, the coalition managed to concentrate considerable forces near the Iraqi border, surpassing in terms of power and capabilities the enemy's equipment.

"Desert Storm"

On January 17, 1991, the aviation of the international coalition began the bombing of Iraq. The blows were applied mainly at night. Their main goal was the important military and economic infrastructure of the country. For two days a record number of departures (almost five thousand) was made. The first war in the Persian Gulf came to its decisive stage. Coalition immediately managed to gain an advantage in the air and destroy important manufacturing enterprises. At the same time, Iraqi ground artillery began bombing neighboring Saudi Arabia (where the enemy flights originated) and Israel. In February, attacks by the Allies affected communications, ammunition depots, positions on which stood launchers, industrial facilities, etc. All this was done in order to facilitate the future ground operation. The first war in the Persian Gulf was a unique event for its contemporaries precisely because of the importance that aviation received.

On the night of February 24, 1991, the ground operation of the coalition began. On the coast of the Persian Gulf (on the territory of occupied Kuwait) was involved American landing. The offensive was rapid on all sectors of the front. Parts that crossed the border of Iraq in the western and central direction easily crossed the border fortifications and over the night advanced 30 kilometers.

By the evening of February 26, the capital of Kuwait, Kuwait, was liberated from the forces of Saddam Hussein . Two days later, the Iraqi army stopped resisting on all sectors of the front. Her technique was largely destroyed, and people are demoralized. The supremacy of the coalition in power and technology has come down. In fact, isolated Iraq fought against the entire civilized world that condemned the illegal annexation of Kuwait.

Results

With the onset of peace, all participants in the conflict began to analyze the consequences of the war in the Persian Gulf. In the coalition, the largest losses fell on the US Army. 298 people were killed, 40 aircraft, 33 tanks, etc. were lost, etc. The losses of the rest of the countries were insignificant because of the small share of the contingent in comparison with the American units.

More inconsistent data on the deaths from Iraq. After the war, the Western mass media featured a variety of assessments. The figures were from 25 to 100 thousand dead soldiers. According to official statistics provided by the Government of Iraq, because of the air strikes, more than two thousand civilians were killed. Data on losses in the army in Baghdad were not published and not publicized, which makes it very difficult to judge them. In any case, Western studies could not be based on proven and verified information. In technology, Iraq lost more than 300 aircraft, 19 ships, about 3,000 tanks. It is interesting that a large part of them were Soviet-made. The government of Saddam Hussein massively purchased the equipment of the USSR since the 70s. By 1990, all these tanks, infantry fighting vehicles, etc. were already visibly obsolete compared to the new models of Americans and Europeans.

Films about the war in the Persian Gulf ("Marines", "Courage in battle") show another unique phenomenon associated with this conflict. Many American soldiers who visited Iraq, returning home, began to experience great stress. In some ways this mass illness was similar to what veterans of Vietnam in the United States and Afghanistan in the USSR experienced before. In mass culture, the phenomenon was called the "syndrome of war in the Persian Gulf".

Environmental effects

Before leaving Kuwait, Iraqi troops began to drop oil into the Persian Gulf. Later, these actions were called environmental terrorism. Although Allied aviation tried to paralyze the oil industry of occupied Kuwait with the help of precision bombing, more than 8 million barrels of harmful substances were found in the sea.

The consequences were terrible - thousands of birds died, many fish and other fauna. In the Middle East, for some time after that, there were so-called black rains. The actions of the fleeing Iraqi army led to the largest environmental disaster of its time.

The isolation of Iraq

What were the political consequences of the war in the Persian Gulf? In short, the status quo has been restored in the region. Kuwait was liberated, the legitimate government returned. Saddam Hussein in 2002 brought his official apologies to this country, which, however, were not accepted. For Iraq, after the Storm in the Desert, a period of isolation began. Western sanctions have been preserved.

After the defeat in the war in the north of the country, the uprisings of Kurds and Shiites began. Speeches of ethnic and religious minorities were brutally suppressed by the Iraqi army. Punitive operations led to a humanitarian catastrophe in the region. Because of this, troops of the international coalition were brought into the northern regions. This decision was motivated by the security of the Kurds. In addition, to stop the bombing of civilians, no-flight zones were introduced, where the Iraqi aircraft could not fly.

The war in the Persian Gulf, the causes of which lay in the adventurous decisions of Saddam Hussein, led to an escalation of tension throughout the Middle East. Although with its end the situation has relatively stabilized, there are many unresolved contradictions and conflicts in the region. Because of them, after more than ten years, the second war in the Persian Gulf began.

Prerequisites for a new war

After the end of the war in 1991, the UN demanded that Iraq get rid of the already existing weapons of mass destruction (chemical, bacteriological) and stop the development of a new one. For this purpose, an international commission was sent to the country. She successfully monitored the implementation of the UN decision until the end of the 1990s, when the Iraqi authorities refused to cooperate with this structure. The problem of Hussein's possession of banned weapons became one of the reasons for the next war in the Persian Gulf. There were no other reasons for the invasion of the US forces and their allies until 2001. Then on Sept. 11 in New York there were terrorist attacks, organized by the al-Qaeda group. Later, the American leadership accused Hussein of having links with these Islamists.

Claims to the United States have been questioned from many different angles. Until now, the view is widespread that the American invasion was not only erroneous, but illegal. The United States and its coalition allies (primarily Great Britain) attacked Iraq without the permission of the United Nations, thus violating the organization's Charter.

Second invasion of Iraq

On March 20, 2003, a new invasion of the international coalition began in Iraq. The union, in addition to the United States, included another 35 countries. This time, unlike the First War in the Persian Gulf, there was no such thorough aerial bombardment. The emphasis was on a land invasion, the base for which was all the same Kuwait. The active phase of the operation in March-May 2003 is today known as the Iraq War, or the Second Gulf War (although in fact the fighting was going on across the country, not just on the coast).

Over three weeks, the coalition managed to capture all of the country's largest cities. The battle for Baghdad was from 3 to 12 April. International troops almost did not meet resistance. The Iraqi army was demoralized. In addition, a significant part of the local population was dissatisfied with the dictatorial power of Saddam Hussein and was therefore only happy to meet foreigners. The president himself fled the capital, and for a long time was on the run. He was discovered only on December 13, 2003 in the basement of an unremarkable house in the small village of Ed Daur. Hussein was arrested and tried. He was accused of genocide of Kurds and numerous war crimes (including during the war in Kuwait in 1990-1991). On December 30, 2006, the former dictator was executed by hanging.

Results of the next war

The overthrow of the former Baath party in Iraq was the main outcome of the second Gulf War. Pictures of the arrested and convicted Saddam Hussein flew around the world. After the territory of Iraq was occupied by the troops of the international coalition, democratic elections were held in the country, following which a new government was elected.

American troops remained in Iraq until 2011. This was due to the fact that, despite the fall of Hussein's regime, the situation in the region became worse. Documentary films about the war in the Persian Gulf, who criticized the American invasion, clearly showed how the Islamist movements in Iraq intensified. The radicals declared jihad to the interventionists. In Baghdad, terrorist acts began to occur regularly (mostly suicide bombings or mined vehicles).

Now in Iraq there is a civil war, which took the form of single attacks by radicals against civilians. Such acts of intimidation are the main instrument of pressure on the pro-American government, which the Islamists disliked. In 2011, the general "Arab Spring" began in the Middle East. Because of a similar civil war in Syria , the quasi-state of Islamists and jihadists - IGIL - appeared in the border areas of these two countries. Today, this organization is considered the vanguard of world terrorism (it managed to outshine even Al Qaeda).

The US leadership is often accused that due to the US invasion the situation in the region was shaken up, which led to the emergence of numerous extremist groups fighting not only in their homeland, but also arranging attacks on civilians in countries of Europe and the rest of the world . On the other hand, after the war in 2003, the issue of the Kurds fighting for their independence in the north of Iraq remains unresolved.