The Strategic Causes of Conflict - What caused the 1991 Gulf War Essay - 1

The Strategic Causes of Conflict - What caused the 1991 Gulf War - Essay Example Up today, the access of a country to chemical and nuclear weapons has caused severe oppositions and conflicts. There are those who support that all countries would have such right while others claim that only certain countries should be authorized to obtain such weapons. Current paper focuses on the identification and the analysis of the reasons that have led to the development of the 1991 Gulf war. The specific war, which was developed by US against Iraq seemed to be related to the latter’s efforts to develop chemical and nuclear weapons. However, other views have also appeared. For example, it has been noted that Iraq paid a high price for its efforts to become the region’s leader, a plan that would threaten the interests of other region’s countries, especially of Kuwait. There is also the view that the practice of Iraq to ignore the guidelines of international community in regard to the trade of the oil could not be tolerated. The views that have been develope d in regard to the causes of the 1991 Gulf war are analytically presented below using relevant literature. It is proved that the specific war was rather unavoidable since its causes were many and their elimination was not feasible, as explained below. In any case, the 1991 Gulf war revealed a series of problems and revealed the ineffectiveness of international community to resolve critical disputes by avoiding the use of military forces. 2. Gulf War of 1991 – Causes 2.1 1991 Gulf War – a brief overview of critical events In order to identify the causes of the 1991 Gulf war it is necessary to refer to a series of events that took place before the development of the war. In August of 1990 Iraqi troops entered in Kuwait; the specific initiative surprised international community and led to the immediate reaction of USA and UN.1 UN ‘warned Iraq to withdraw’.2 Severe sanctions were introduced, as a threat, so that Iraqi government is persuaded to change its plan s and to withdraw its troops from Kuwait; the sanctions were mostly economic while air force was involved for securing the inability of Iraq to seek for support by other countries.3 In addition, US troops were sent to the Gulf so that to secure that there would be no risk for the development of the crisis to the other countries of the region.4 Shortly, the US government developed a coalition, at international level, for deciding on the measures that should be taken against Iraq: Egypt and Saudi Arabia were among the Arab states that stated their willing to participate in such coalition since their security seemed to be threatened by Iraq.5 In addition, the Security Council of UN was asked to give its authorization for the use of military forces, an initiative that was developed in November 1990 and since Iraqi government refused to withdraw its troops from Kuwait.6 The Security Council set a deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait: it was the 15th of January 1991; af ter that date the international community would have the right to use ‘any means for securing the withdrawal of Iraq from Kuwait’.7 In 16th January and since no response existed from Iraqi government President Bush ordered the beginning of ‘aerial bombardment’.8 These bombardments were continued for about 5 weeks with no success since Iraqi troops refused to leave Kuwait; a ground military operation was ordered, an initiative that finally led to the release of Kuwait from the Iraqi troops.9 The ground operation was terminated in February the 27th