Persian Gulf War Research Paper

The Persian Gulf War played an important role in the war on terror in the United States. The Persian Gulf War began when Saddam Hussein ordered the invasion on the neighbouring Kuwait in 1990, defying the United Nations Security Council. After the constant demands from the UNCS to withdraw from Kuwait, Hussein didn't leave. In addition to that United Nations Security Council feared that Saddam Hussein was going to target to be Saudi Arabia the largest oil producer and exporter. That prompted the United States to fight and other NATO allies such as many of the arab nation leading a anti Iraq coalition.The U.S-led a massive air offensive known as operation Desert Storm on the troops in Kuwait. The war ended in 1991 with the withdrawal of Iraq from kuwait over 8,000 to 100,000 Iraqi soldiers died in comparison to the coalition which lost about 300 soldiers.

The terrorist attacks on 9-11 dramatically influenced the way of life in the United States, but terrorism was taking place prior to what happened on 9-11.

Terrorism was taking place long before the Twin Towers went down in 9-1, it had been attacked once but it failed leading to the death of 6 people in a driving bombing. The driver wanted to blow the basement in order to bring down the towers. In addition to that al-Qaeda suicide bombers also drove into US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania . More than two hundred people were killed in these attacks. Many people saw what these terrorist were capable of doing, striking fear in the hearts of many. The foreign policy changed the way of life by making airplane flights more strict with security which still is in effect such as taking off your shoe and limiting what you can and cannot carry. Also many allies were in questions because they might have been harboring these

terrorist.

After 9-11 the United States got involved in the War in Afghanistan as well as the Iraq War. On September 11, 2001, nineteen men hijacked four airplanes and used them to murder nearly 3,000 people. They struck at our military and economic nerve centers.Also in Yemen, Al Qaeda operatives sent a suicide bomber aboard a small ship near the USS Cole and detonated its bomb, blowing a large hole in the US Navy ship. 17 sailors killed. Because of these attacks we looked to Afghanistan who refused to give the commander and founder osama bin laden. The United States wanted to have retaliation for 9-11. They felt that Afghanistan was harboring al Qaeda members and sent troops in to weaken the group. The Taliban led country weren’t fans of the bush administration, leading to the U.S to send small troops to take out the government and destroy al Qaeda. The U.S was also dealing with Iraq a armed conflict that began with the 2003 invasion of Iraq led by the United States. The United States thought Iraq had weapons of mass destruction which the U.S. wanted to stop so they wouldn’t use it against other nations. The invasion toppled the government of Saddam Hussein. The war ended in 2011.
There are many terrorist attacks that have occurred recently in United States history. One of the most recent terrorist attack was in New York when Sayfullo Saipov, 29, from Uzbekistan, allegedly drove a rented truck into a crowd of pedestrians and cyclists on a bike path near the World Trade Center in Manhattan.The attack killed 8 people and injured at least 12 others. The N.Y.P. later confirmed that attacks was carried out by ISIS. Another recent attack was the occurred in Paris with suicide bombings and mass shootings at cafés, restaurants and a music venue in Paris on November 13, 2015. The attackers killed 130 people with 368 injuries. The Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attacks, saying that it was retaliation for the French airstrikes on ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq. The U.N. have implemented a ban from people entering their states and have started to increase the security in place with a lot people or possible targets. The U.S. also have made pillars on the streets of New York to prevent an incident like the one with the ISIS driver who ran over a lot of people with a rented truck. I think that to combat Terrorism the U.S. has to make deeper background checks when purchasing weapons and when people are entering the country.
The topic that interests me was the Iraq war. The Iraq war lasted from 2003 to 2011, during this time the U.S. and allied forces came together topple Saddam Hussein and to get rid of their weapons of mass destructions. What’s interesting to me is that this war carried on from what president George H. W. Bush was trying to do during the Gulf war to his son George W. Bush. Also this war cost American a lot of money about 2.4 trillion dollars.