1991 Gulf War vs. Current Invasion of Iraq

Gulf War I (1991) vs. Gulf War II (2003)

The recent U.S. attack against Iraq reminds the world of a similar event not so long ago in the history of the world: in 1991, a U.S.-led attack against Iraq occurred, under the leadership of George H.W. Bush. More than a decade later, a U.S. president, son of G.H.W. Bush, led an offensive attack against Iraq on grounds of not following UN sanctions on the production of weapons of destruction. The war between the U.S. government and Saddam Hussein and his dictatorial government in Iraq has actually been going on for a decade now, although there are differences in the events that happened prior to each attack. This paper will analyze the differences and similarities that happened in the 1991 version of Gulf War with this year's declaration of U.S. attack against Iraq.

The Gulf War of 1991 occurred because of a series of events that led to an offensive action by Saddam Hussein and his military army, by which the allied nations of the U.S. took actions to prevent Hussein's attack on the Middle East nations. The first Gulf War happened because of a conflict between Iraq and Kuwait and United Arab Emirates (UAE). Hussein accused Kuwait and UAE of "flooding the oil market and costing Iraq billions in lost revenue" (Barber 2003). When talks about the issue failed on July 31, 1991, Iraq invaded Kuwait, resulting to Saddam's assault and seizure of power in Kuwait. Because of this course of action, U.S. And its allies planned a defensive action to free Kuwait from Saddam's rule and control. Four months after Iraq's continued invasion of Kuwait, the United Nations Security Council had authorized U.S. And its allies to remove and displace Iraq's power from Kuwait. Furthermore, the UNSC imposed a deadline that Iraq should be out of Kuwait on January 15, 1991. However, Iraq ignored the deadline, and even attacked neighboring nations like Israel with its Scud missiles (Frontline 2001). Thus, Saddam's resistance against UN sanctions resulted to the formulation of "Operation Desert Storm," which is the defense strategy of an UN-backed U.S. And its allies against Iraq and Saddam. Eleven days after the UN's deadline on Iraq and the U.S.-Allies defense, Saddam decided to liberate Kuwait on February 26. This decision began the victory for the U.S. And its allies in the First Gulf War.

However, despite the U.S. victory over Iraq in Gulf War I, the tension between the two countries have increased because of the said event. The United States government continues to be hostile towards Iraq, especially because of the knowledge that Iraq is capable of manufacturing and producing weapons of mass destruction. This fact continues to pose as a threat not only to the U.S., but to all the nations in the whole world. More importantly, the continued hostility between U.S. And Iraq will become the catalyst of what will be the Second Gulf War.

The U.S. continued to be staunch aggressor and opponent to Iraq for several reasons. These include three (3) main reasons why the U.S. is motivated to declare war against Iraq. The first aim of the U.S. government for planning the attack on Iraq is that it wants to prevent, and eradicate the threat that Iraq poses on the safety and security of the U.S. nation. Secondly, the threat of Iraq's use of deadly weapons against the U.S. (and possibly, on other nations) also poses another serious and more deadly threat, possibly threatening the security and stability of all nations in the world: the success of Iraq's attack against U.S. (if Iraq will be successful in destroying the freedom, stability, and security of the nation) will lead to the eventual spread of Saddam Hussein's (leader-dictator of Iraq) power not only over Iraq, but also possibly in the whole of the Middle Eastern region (McGeary p. 27-8). Lastly, and perhaps the reason that most concerns the Iraqis, the U.S. attack on Iraq will eventually result to a free Iraq, with no Saddam Hussein to dictate, abuse, and corrupt its people, ending years of helplessness and suffering of the civilians, the Iraqis, from Hussein's 'iron fist' dictatorship, and constant abuse and violence that he subjects to all people whop fail to subordinate himself to Hussein.

These are the general reasons that justify U.S. aggression towards Iraq; however, the primary reason why U.S. is still focusing on Iraq is that it is still suspected of harboring different kinds of weapons of mass destruction. Iraq is most feared by other nations because of its capability to produce weapons for war purposes, and these includes state-of-the-art war weapons, such as biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons. What makes the Iraqi government threatening is that for four years, Iraq had been free from any UN sanctions against the production of these deadly weapons, and in the span of four years, it is possible that the Iraqi government was able to produce numerous weapons that are harmful and deadly when used at war. The possibility of a nuclear weapon production in Iraq is still being questioned and investigated, although there have been satellite photos that shows evidence of "images of new buildings... At a former Iraqi weapons plant," that have plausible activities connected to the production of nuke weapons (Ratnesar p. 44). Thus, Iraq is a powerful nation to reckon with, and in the U.S. government's opinion, the danger of possessing these deadly, lethal weapons, and the desire to 'unleash' them to other nations in times of war, is what makes Iraq and Hussein an enemy of the U.S.

With this reason at hand, U.S. argued its way through the UNSC and its allies in order to propose and declare a war against Iraq under the U.S. government of George W. Bush. However, it is general knowledge among all people in the world that despite UNSC's and the U.S.'s allies' disagreement over an attack against Iraq, U.S. proceeded with the attack anyway, disregarding the power of the United Stations to impose whatever decision has been decided upon by its council. Thus, on March 21, 2003, U.S. led an offensive strike against Iraq, resulting to the total destruction of the country. The U.S. became 'victorious' since it was able to topple down the power of Saddam Hussein and his government, but this victory is not absolute, since Saddam is still alive and there is a possibility that he will conduct a defense attack on U.S.'s actions against his government (Elliott pp 45-52).