Of all the wars out there, one that gets very little attention has been Desert Storm. This is due to the rapid way it was over and one with. It also has to do with the very low numbers of casualties for the United States and the troops that joined the efforts under the support of the United Nations. Yet there was plenty going on behind the scenes that led to the Desert Storm War.
The main reason why the United States and other countries were nervous about Iraq taking over Kuwait was due to the oil. They feared it would prevent them from being able to get the amount of oil they needed from Saudi Arabia. Many people don’t realize that in early 1990 Iraq and Kuwait were fighting over the issue of oil production. It was obvious that Iraq wanted to have complete control of it and planned to take it with force.
By August of 1990 Iraq had gone ahead with their plans even though they had been told by the United Nations that such efforts would be countered. They were given until November 30th to remove all of their troops or force would be used in order to make it happen. Iraq greatly underestimated the power of the United Nations and there was no way they could stand up to their numbers of troops or their advanced weapons.
In January of 1991 Iraq was still determined to take control though. They released a missile that was intercepted by the United States military teams. It was then that President Bush decided this was going to be an all out effort to stop them before they were able to use such weapons of mass destruction. All the stops were pulled out and Iraq was attacked by troops coming from land, the sea, and the air.
Economically the Desert Storm war really hurt Iraq. The people of the area suffered from not enough electricity, lack of food, and even illnesses due to poor waste treatment procedures. They were to comply with a complete disposition of all of their weapons. This continues to be a controversial point as some believe they did. Others believe they didn’t and that lead to future invasions of Iraq by United States military troops.