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The Gulf War - The Invasion of Kuwait 1990

Workers at the Rumaila oil field battling fires

The first question on most people’s lips when they think of the Gulf War in 1991 is – Why did Saddam Hussein invade Kuwait?

It’s a complex issue but in simple terms his country was almost bankrupt from its previous war with Iran during 1980-88, a bloody conflict in which both countries committed terrible atrocities against civilians, because Iraq needed wealth and oil. On the pretext of territorial disputes going back to the 1920’s Iraq invaded Kuwait in order to grab its oil.

Saddam Hussein seriously miscalculated – he thought the West would not intervene to support the Kuwaiti government, involved as it was in its own recession, The Cold War, and the rise of Global Terrorism
. But indeed, many western companies owned the oil refineries in Kuwait and had invested millions of dollars in its production and shipping to the west – it was not about to see that oil taken.

More than 600 Kuwaiti oil wells were destroyed by Iraq

Iraq invaded with over a 100,000 troops 2 August 1991. Hussein was concerned that Kuwait was flooding the market with low priced oil, driving down the global market prices and causing Iraq to lose profit on its own oil. In addition Iraq was defaulting on its loans to Kuwait which were paid to Iraq to fund its campaign against Iran.

In two days of intense combat, most of the Kuwaiti Armed Forces were either overrun by the Iraqi Republican Guard or fled into Saudi Arabia and Bahrain.

During the 7 month-long Iraqi occupation, Saddam Hussein’s military forces allegedly looted Kuwait and there were also allegations of human rights abuses. Some Kuwaitis taken prisoner during the invasion still haven’t been accounted for.

Needless to say there was international condemnation of the invasion and the UN security council subsequently forced economic sanctions upon Iraq and issued a deadline for withdrawal.

But they did not withdraw and Saddam mistakenly forced the hand of the international community.

Part 2 – Allied Invasion of Kuwait January 1991: The Air Raid
Part 3 – Allied Invasion of Kuwait January 1991: The Ground Assault

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