Hi Brandon
Quote:Saddam Hussein annexed Kuwait. When we restored Kuwait to the original owners
Most westerners don't know that what is now Kuwait has traditionally been ruled from Bagdad for the last 2000 years, and the current borders to most Middle Eastern countries were set up by the British and the French after WW1 (about/only 70 years prior to Iraq's invasion of what is now Kuwait).
Quote:
Hussein signed a treaty of surrender promising to do certain things. We used the sanctions to force him to do those things, as an alternative to the use of military force.
Yes, and the result? The sanctions, mostly aimed at disarmament were never going to happen, especially in a middle eastern country
that would ask for it to be invaded (and the likely toppling of Saddam if he dissarmed)....so the result was Saddam was forced to do nothing in relation to disarmament, and the US imposed sanctions lead to the deaths of approx 1,000,000 people.
The reason? Do you understand the history of the leadup to Kuwait?
The US sponsored the Iraq-Iran war, providing Iraq with military and political backing (the reason the US found it beneficial to have Iran attacked would go back to the overthrow by the CIA of the democratically elected Mossadegh, and the replacement of him with the tyrant, the Shah of Iran
who was supported militarily by the US
until the Shah's overthrow by the people of Iran, and the installation of a very anti-US Ayatollah). This Iraq-Iran war lead to deaths in the vicinity of 1,000,000 people
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_toll ).
One book I read stated the US told Saddam that could have Kuwait if he won, but the US is known to have played both sides (militarily - re : Iran contra scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran-Contra_Affair ), never thought that Saddam would ?'win'. This lead to Saddam having a meeting with an American ambassador
where the following conversation appears on a transcript of the meeting "We have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War#Eve_of_the_invasion
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The invasion of Kuwait? Wouldn't control of Kuwait would have given Iraq control of 2/5 (if I remember the stat right) of the worlds Oil?
Or perhaps it was that Saudi Arabia felt threatened (being the US' foremost ally after Israel in the M.E.).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War#Possibility_of_attack_on_Saudi_Arabia
Justification for the war, made by Bush Snr regarding a build-up towards Saudi Arabia was found to be not true
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gulf_War#Justifying_the_war , and the simple fact is, had Iraq wanted S.A. it could have had it, as the military build up took in the vicinity of 6 months, and Saddam
sitting with his tanks etc in Kuwait (but it appears, not building up on the Saudi border), did nothing towards Saudi Arabia, which he could have.
So the actual war itself looks dodgy from the US perspective (especially given the US penchant for invading countries itself, and overthrowing governments).
The end result is, the US never achieved what it wanted, but their sanctions did lead to that million deaths.
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(PS. I've used wikipedia simply because I found every internet link I needed there, but the majority of the original information I obtained on this issue came from other sources/books etc.)
In relation to depleted Uranium, I would refer you the same article as above as to it's effects, and just remember, the examples in the article refer to soldiers with relatively short term exposure (less than a year)
as DU takes thousands of years to break down
and is laying all around Iraq.
