In August 1990 Iraq under the leadership of former Dictator Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait under the ruse of settling a border dispute. Saddam Hussein believed that the world would just except its annexation of the small gulf state. That was a huge miscalculation as the world colelest around the leadership of American President George H. W. Bush. In January of 1991 air campaign began and would last for a month followed by the 100 hour ground war.
Kuwait is not place where free and fair elections take place as its ruled by a single family the Al-Sabah's . George H. W. Bush and other world leaders gave the impression that once the Iraqi army was forced back across the border Kuwait would once again be free. What and who would be free? The Al-Sabah family to continue its autocratic rule of Kuwait? Kuwaiti citizens would they be given the right to participate in government? Nothing really changed in Kuwait but its free.
After the Iraqi army retreated back across the border following its overwhelming defeat George H. W. Bush issued a statement urging Iraqi citizens to rise up and overthrow Saddam Hussein.
Kuwait is not place where free and fair elections take place as its ruled by a single family the Al-Sabah's . George H. W. Bush and other world leaders gave the impression that once the Iraqi army was forced back across the border Kuwait would once again be free. What and who would be free? The Al-Sabah family to continue its autocratic rule of Kuwait? Kuwaiti citizens would they be given the right to participate in government? Nothing really changed in Kuwait but its free.
After the Iraqi army retreated back across the border following its overwhelming defeat George H. W. Bush issued a statement urging Iraqi citizens to rise up and overthrow Saddam Hussein.
Uprising begins
The revolts in southern Iraq consisted of demoralized Iraqi Army troops and anti-regime groups, in particular the Islamic Dawa Party and Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq (SCIRI). Another wave of insurgency broke out shortly afterwards in the Kurdish populated northern Iraq. Unlike the spontaneous rebellion in the South, the uprising in the North was organized by two rival Kurdish party-based militias: the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) and the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK). Iraqi armed forces contained substantial anti-regime elements, composed largely of Shia conscripts, and the uprisings gathered momentum as many of the government's troops switched sides, defecting to the rebels. In the north, the defection of the government-recruited Kurdish home guard militias, known as jash, gave a considerable force to the rebellion.
The turmoil first began in the towns of Abu Al-Khaseeb and Az Zubayr, south of Basra, at the end of February. On March 1, 1991, one day after the Gulf War ceasefire, a T-72 tank gunner, returning home after Iraq's defeat in Kuwait, fired a shell into a gigantic portrait of Saddam Hussein hanging over Basra's main square and onlooking soldiers applauded.
Once the fighting began the Bush administration change tact almost immediately and withdrew all support for the Shia uprising.
Soon after the uprisings began, fears of a disintegrating Iraq led the Bush Administration to distance itself from the rebels. American military officials downplayed the significance of the revolts and spelled out a policy of non-intervention in Iraq's internal affairs. U.S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney stated as the uprisings began: "I'm not sure whose side you'd want to be on."[9] On March 5, Rear Admiral John Michael McConnell, Director of Intelligence for the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged "chaotic and spontaneous" uprisings were under way in 13 cities of Iraq, but stated the Pentagon's view that Saddam would prevail because of the rebels' "lack of organization and leadership." On the same day, Cheney said "it would be very difficult for us to hold the coalition together for any particular course of action dealing with internal Iraqi politics, and I don't think, at this point, our writ extends to trying to move inside Iraq."[41] The U.S. Department of State spokesman Richard Boucher said on March 6, "We don't think that outside powers should be interfering in the internal affairs of Iraq."[42] On April 2, in a carefully crafted statement, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said: "We never, ever, stated as either a military or a political goal of the coalition or the international community the removal of Saddam Hussein."[43] President George H. W. Bush himself insisted three days later, just as the Iraqi loyalist forces were putting down the last resistance in the cities:
Throughout the build-up to the first gulf war governments in the coalition stressed that freeing those living under oppression would have it lifted from their shoulders. Reality had a different take on the outcome: restoring the status-quo. Keeping the world's appetite for Middle East oil satisfied.
In the 1990's the United Nations food for oil program began along with the imposition of no fly zones in the north and south of Iraq.
The UN Oil for Food program began in 1995 as an offset to the sanctions imposed on Iraq following the first Gulf War. Western governments believed that the sanctions were adversely effecting the population even though they were meant to affect Iraq's political and military elite.
September 2001 would be a watershed moment in the history of Iraq though no one knew at the time. Those attacks in Washington D.C. and New York would be seen as a green light by what in America are known as Neo-Con's to push for the invasion of Iraq thus bringing democracy to the Middle East via military incursion. Those ideas came from The Project for a New American Century. Its a policy which would be proven to be a complete disaster.
That will be the focus of part two: What happened after their so called glorious invasion.
In the 1990's the United Nations food for oil program began along with the imposition of no fly zones in the north and south of Iraq.
The UN Oil for Food program began in 1995 as an offset to the sanctions imposed on Iraq following the first Gulf War. Western governments believed that the sanctions were adversely effecting the population even though they were meant to affect Iraq's political and military elite.
The Oil-for-Food Programme was instituted to relieve the extended suffering of civilians as the result of the comprehensive sanctions on Iraq from the UN, following Iraq's invasion ofKuwait in August 1990.
Security Council Resolution 706 of 15 August 1991 was introduced to allow the sale of Iraqi oil in exchange for food.[4]Security Council Resolution 712 of 19 September 1991 confirmed that Iraq could sell up to $1.6 billion in oil to fund an Oil-For-Food Programme.[5]After an initial refusal, Iraq signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) in May 1996 for arrangements to be taken for the implementation of that resolution.
The Oil-for-Food Programme started in December 1996, and the first shipments of food arrived in March 1997. Sixty percent of Iraq's twenty-six million people were solely dependent on rations from the oil-for-food plan.
The programme used an escrow system. Oil exported from Iraq was paid for by the recipient into an escrow account possessed until 2001 by BNP Paribas bank, rather than to the Iraqi government. The money was then apportioned to pay for war reparations to Kuwait, ongoing coalition and United Nations operations within Iraq. The remainder, the majority of the revenue, was available to the Iraqi government to purchase regulated items.
The Iraqi government was permitted to purchase only items that were not embargoed under the economic sanctions. Certain items, such as raw foodstuffs, were expedited for immediate shipment, but requests for most items, including such simple things as pencils and folic acid, were reviewed in a process that typically took about six months before shipment was authorized. Items deemed to have any potential application in chemical, biological or nuclear weapons systems development were not available to the regime, regardless of stated purpose.
September 2001 would be a watershed moment in the history of Iraq though no one knew at the time. Those attacks in Washington D.C. and New York would be seen as a green light by what in America are known as Neo-Con's to push for the invasion of Iraq thus bringing democracy to the Middle East via military incursion. Those ideas came from The Project for a New American Century. Its a policy which would be proven to be a complete disaster.
That will be the focus of part two: What happened after their so called glorious invasion.
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