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Recommended: Iran - Iraq war
This conflict was something that had been brewing for centuries. Modern day Iraq and Iran have conflicting interests and disputes over borders and control dating back to the Ottoman Turkish Empire as well as the Persian empire under the Safavids (Hiro, 1991). The majority of this war was fought by Saddam Hussein's Iraq and Ayatollah Khomeini's Iran. Both political leaders fighting to protect what they thought was theirs and what they wanted to take from the other side.
Iran's main arguments for conflict were to either capture Iraqi oilfields thereby giving them bartering chips to secure the heavy firepower that Iraq had and Iran desperately needed, or to attack the Iraqi artillery that had laid a continuous barrage onto the Iranian civilian area since the commencement of the war (Hiro, 1991). Option two became the primary strategy due to the high amount of emotion from the Iranian leaders, the worrying that national unity would disintegrate if a ceasefire was to be enacted, and the fact that oil was now a commodity and the revenue was beginning to rise promptly. Iran showed it's true colors displaying disdain for the request of the international community to hold a ceasefire, and at the beginning of Ramadan, initiated their offensive on the southern border changing their status from invaded to invader (Hiro, 1991).
Saddam Hussein chose the war strategy that the German's made famous, the blitzkrieg. The Iraqi army laid waste to the areas of Iran that they conquered. They left a wake of destruction behind them an example is the 356 Arab-inhabited villages in Khuzestan province turned into piles of ash completely eviscerated from the map (McCuen, 1987). Despite all of the efforts the Iraqi army put forth, the Iranian military ...
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...feed themselves or their family. The resources used could have helped gain political allies, stop the war assuming that people could actually talk their problems out, and even possibly stop Iran and Iraq from tearing each other to shreds and leaving nothing left on either side of the fence.
Works Cited
El-Shazly, N. E. (1998). The Gulf tanker war: Iran and Iraq's maritime swordplay. New York: St. Martin's Press.
Hiro, D. (2002). Iraq: In the eye of the storm. New York, NY: Thunder's Mouth Press.
Hiro, D. (1991). The longest war: The Iran-Iraq military conflict. Routledge.
Hunt, C. (2005). The history of Iraq. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
McCuen, G. E. (1987). Iran Iraq war. Hudson, WI: Gary E. McCuen.
Reuters. (2003). Saddams Iraq. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education.
Roskin, M. G. (2010). Political science: an introduction (11th ed.). Pearson Education.
The first is the sectarian conflict. The sectarian conflict was a conflict dealing with the race and religion of the sects. The two sects are Islam and Muslim. The conflict went nowhere because it is self perpetuating. The rate of casualties is too high, making it hard to tell how many people have been killed. This is partly caused by the death of civilians, which is 30% of the casualties. Also, there are people that are being forced to leave from their homes because of their government and just war in their area. The Sunni are dominating the other force, but are also hurting civilians, and the alawite heavy regime are holding up to them, but they are getting hurt
In August 1988, the war between Iran and Iraq ended, but they still had to negotiate a permanent peace treaty. When their foreign ministers met in Geneva, July 1990, it looked like they finally would come to an agreement. It also looked like Saddam Hussein were ready to dissolve the conflict and return Iranian territory they had occupied.
The course of the Iraq War has been shaped immensely by the geography of the region for nearly 40 years. The movement of Iraq forces throughout the region, for better or worse, has had many effects on the way in which the way has gone. For instance, these forces often threatened certain resources needed by many countries and regions. The result of this was often war or conflict, concluding in a devastating amount of casualties. This also left Iraq with debt as well as very low resources such as food and water. The basis of the whole entire war has been on certain aspects of the geography, which has had a result of creating many small wars throughout this whole ordeal as well as many other consequential occurrences.
Fitzgerald continues to explain how the relationship between Kuwait was finally stained when Iraq found out they were drilling their oil. Tensions between the two b...
The Iraq war, also known as the second Gulf War, is a five-year, ongoing military campaign which started on March 20, 2003 with the invasion of Iraq by U.S. troops. One of the most controversial events in the history of the western world, the war has caused an unimaginable number of deaths, and spending of ridiculous amounts of money. The reason for invasion war Iraq’s alleged possession of weapons of mass destruction, which eventually was disproved by weapons inspectors. Many people question George W. Bush’s decision to engage a war in Iraq, but there might be greater reason why the decision was made. The ideas of George W. Bush might have been sculpted by one of the greatest works of all time, "The Prince."
Bourque, S.A. (1997). Correcting the Myths about the last Persian Gulf War: The last stand
Tatchell, Peter. "Iran's War on Sunni Muslims." Theguardian.com. Guardian News and Media, 16 Oct. 2008. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.
Iraq’s history is one of both prosperity and violence, and dates back to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia. While dominated by a variety of civilizations, the region enjoyed a relatively stable society. Since the birth of Islam, the religion has been the dominant cultural belief of the region, and has made its way into the laws and ruling of the region. (InDepth Info, 2010)
Griffith, William E. “The Revial of Islamic Fundamentalism: the Case of Iran.” International Security. Volume 4, Issue 1, 1979, 132-138.
Well before the war, in the 1970s and 1980s, Iraq was a wealthy nation despite their 8 year long war with Iran; however, a steady decline was recorded as this war began. But America reinforced the country with very public financial and political support which eventually led to a steady deterioration. The invasion of Iraq by American forces shortly after the 9/11 tragedy was an attempt to rid the country of their tyrannical leader, Saddam Hussein in an attempt to better the country. To address this next topic, I have a statement from Iraqi citizen, Wael Al-Sallami, who lived through both the Hussein tyranny and the American invasion to give his insight into what life was like in Iraq during these two reigns.
Maynes, Charles. "The Middle East in the Twenty-First Century." Middle East Journal 52.1 (1998): 9-16. JSTOR. Web. 6 June 2011.
The Iran – Iraq War started on September 22, 1980, when Iraq invaded Iran (Steele 14). Iraq had many reasons to invade Iran. A couple reasons were border territory issues between the nations, political issues, and the fear of the Islamic Revolution in Iran spreads into Iraq. The war continued on for eight years. In 1988, the United Nations stepped in and created a peace agreement for the two nations.
The Iraq War was a protracted armed conflict that began with the 2003 invasion of Iraq by a US-led coalition. The US wanted to destroy Saddam Hussein’s regime and bring democracy. To addition to that, US and its allies believed that Iraq had secret stocks of chemical and nuclear weapons, hence Iraq was a threat to the world (Axford 2010). In March 2003, US air bombed Baghdad and Saddam escaped Iraq. The invasion disarmed the government of Saddam Hussein. President Bush in March 2003 gave a premature speech, that tyrant of Iraq has fallen and US has freed its people. President Bush flew into Iraq to show the world that the war is over, even though nothing was accomplished (Kirk et al. 2014). Iraq was facing 13 years of scantions, therefore regime diverted its resources to flexible networks of patronage that kept it in power (Dodge 2007, 88). Iraq faced widespread of lawlessness and after the violent regime changed US could not control the situation. Iraqi civilians were looting, attacking ministries building and this resulted into a series of event (Kirk et al. 2014) . From a military perspective the regime was taken down, but they made no commitment to rebuild or secure the country.
Saddam Hussein Saddam Hussein, an Iraqi political leader, was born to a poor Arab family on April 28, 1937. Hussein studied law in Egypt after his attempt to assassinate the premier of Iraq, Abdul Karim Kassem, in 1959. In the summer of 1968, the Baath party returned to power and named Hussein as deputy chairman of the Revolutionary Command Council. Hussein has been described by many as the most powerful person in Iraq because of his intimidation of enemies, careful control of his political power, and his military purges. Saddam finally gained control of the Iraq presidency in 1979. His many goals as President included attempting to increase industrial production, reorganizing government policies in agriculture, and improving education and the status of women. Hussein first began a successful development program of Iraq’s huge petroleum resources. However, this development and economic and social advances were at risk when Iraq went to war with Iran from 1980 to 1988. Hussein started this war to control Arab-inhabited areas and especially for oil resources. Hussein is also known as a ruthless leader who used chemical weapons on Kurdish people seeking freedom in the 1980’s. In August, 1990, Hussein invaded and annexed Kuwait for violating oil production laws set by the Organization of Petroleum Exports Countries(OPEC). (Kuwait had lowered the price of oil.) The Iraqi forces killed many Kuwaiti people and stole or destroyed much property. Hussein apparently wanted to use Kuwait’s vast oil resources to help Iraq’s economy. Many people believed that Iraq would next invade neighboring countries such as Saudi Arabia. Some of the countries that opposed Iraq’s invasion and that sent forces to this region were the United States, Canada, and several Arab and Western European nations. These countries formed an allied military coalition that caused a worldwide embargo against Iraq. The United Nations Security Council condemned Iraq’s occupation and approved the use of military force on Iraq if their troops did not withdraw from Kuwait by January 15, 1991. Hussein ignored this demand and refused to withdraw. The consequence of this decision was to go to war. On January 16, 1991, the allies bombed military targets in Iraq and Kuwait. Iraq, in return, launched missiles against Saudi Arabia and Israel. The U.S.-led military coalition drove Iraq’s armies out of Kuwait. This war, called the Persian Gulf War, lasted only six weeks. On April 11, 1991, the U.N.
The discovery of oil in Middle East in the late nineteenth century added a critical dimension to the region as major outside state powers employed military force to protect their newly acquired interests in the Middle East. The United States efforts to secure the flow of oil have led to their ever-increasing involvement in the Middle East’s political affairs and ongoing power struggles. By the end of the twentieth century, safeguarding the flow of oil from the Persian Gulf had become one of the most important functions of the U.S. military. The close relationship between the United States and the Saudi royal family was formed in the final months of World War II, when U.S. leaders sought to ensure preferential access to Saudi’s petroleum. The U.S. link with Saudi Arabia and other countries in the region has demonstrated to be greatly beneficial to both parties, yet it has also led to ever deepening U.S. involvement in regional politics.