War was inevitable in the Gulf and it was a war in which Iraq was There were several reasons why this was and became areality. How, when, where did this process of self destruction begin? Itwas quite evident that Saddam Hussein. the president of Iraq, was becominga military giant in the Middle East and therefore a threat to the stabilityof the entire region. His war with Iran was proof of this. The U.S. andother industrialized Western nations could not risk the loss of oil fromthe area. Kuwait is the second largest source of petroleum in the MiddleEast and so Iraqi invasion of Kuwait sent the world oil market into afrenzy. Iraqi forces then gathered their forces on the border with SaudiArabia, the second largest supplier of oil in the world. This in turnbrought the military might of the United States into the conflict. There are several reasons why Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. "Afterthe 8 year war with Iran over territorial disputes and religious rivalriesbetween the Iranian Shiites and Iraqi Sunni factions, Iraq had a massivedebt to many Arab nations including Kuwait."2 The rulers of these nationswanted some of their money back but Iraq thought they were ingrates andwere ungrateful for defending the Arab emirs from the Iranian Islamicfundamentalism. The Arab emirs were afraid that the Islamic fundamentalistswould rise against the government and eventually take over the governmentas they had Iran against the Shah. Kuwait was also afraid of this and sothey supported the Iraqi Arabs against the Iranian Persians. 2"Iraq",World Book (New York, World Book, 1990), Vol 10, p. 260 The funds that Gulf countries lent to Iraq were used to buy high techweapons, high tech weapons that made Iraq one of the largest armies in theworld and a force to contend with. "Ironically much of the money andweapons came from the countries that united to fight against him."1 TheGulf countries bankrolled him while the Western nations, who had man...
