On August 2nd, 1990 Iraqi military forces invaded and occupied
the small Arab state of Kuwait. The order was given by Iraqi dictatorial president Saddam Hussein. His
aim was apparently to take control Kuwait's oil reserves (despite its small size Kuwait is a huge oil
producer; it has about 10 per cent of the world's oil reserves ). Iraq accused Kuwait, and also the United
Arab Emirates, of breaking agreements that limit oil production in the Middle East. Accordingto
Saddam Hussein, this brought down world oil prices severely and caused financial loss of billions of
dollars in Iraq's annual revenue. Saddam Hussein had the nearly hopeless task of justifying the invasion.
He plead the fact that Kuwait had been part of the Ottoman province of Basra, a city in the south of
Iraq. However, the Ottoman province collapsed after World War I and today's Iraqi borders were not
created until then. There was also a further and more obvious blunder in a bid to justify this illegal
invasion. Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, had namely recognized Kuwaiti independence in 1963.
Furthermore, Hussein claimed that Kuwait had illegally pumped oil from the Iraqi oil field of Rumaila
and otherwise conspired to reduce Iraq's essential oil income.
By invading Kuwait, Iraq succeeded in surprising the entire
world. The USA ended her policy of accommodating Saddam Hussein, which had existed since the
Iran-Iraq war. Negative attitude toward Iraq was soon a worldwide phenomenon. The United Nations
Security Council passed 12 resolutions condemning the invasion. The ultimate decision was to use
military force if Iraq did not withdraw unconditionally by January 15, 1991. Then, when the deadline
was set, it was time to start preparing for the worst-the war. President George Bush confronted little
difficulty in winning Americans' support for the potential war against Iraq. However, the government
found...