Saudi Arabia invited American troops onto Saudi soil. He had seen Kuwaits destiny; and therefore wanted protection. It was also the interest of the USA to stop any further advantage of the Iraqi army. The deployment was called Operation Desert Shield. These troops were armed with light, defensive weaponry. Soon after August 2nd, there were 50,000 US troops mobilized and 10,000 more getting ready to ship out (Scales).Then, in November, the United Nations gave Iraq an ultimatum, get out of Kuwait by January 15, 1991, or they will be removed by force. Margaret Thatcher put it best, saying,Time is running out for Saddam Hussein. Either he gets out of Kuwait soon or we and our allies will remove him by force and he will go down to defeat with all its consequences. He had been warned(Hutchinson).Clearly, the US was not about to put up with Saddam, and although they did not really want to fight, they would be left no choice. The United Nations had several reasons to so vehemently oppose Iraqs invasion of Kuwait. The 2 main reasons was the vast amounts of oil in the region which account for 53% of the world's known petroleum reserves The 2 biggest of which are Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and the stability of the nations that have the oil. Saudi Arabia was afraid that just as Iraq invaded Kuwait, they would invade Saudi Arabia as well. Any disruption of oil from this region would seriously affect the economies of the Western nations. The United States depends on Middle East petroleum for about 25% of its energy needs and other Western nations depend very heavily on the Middle East as well. On November 8, 1990 President Bush announced a military buildup to provide an offensive option, Operation Desert Storm, to force Iraq out of Kuwait. The preparation of the operation took two and a half months and it involved a massive air- and sea-lift. Finally, in January 1991, the U. S. Congress voted to support Security Council resolution 660. It authorized u...
