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On Aug. 2, 1990, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, facing an insurmountable
debt from their long war with Iran, ordered his troops to invade
and occupy the small country of Kuwait. The invasion force quickly
overwhelmed the small country to the south, thus allowing Iraq to
declare, in less that a week, that Kuwait had become its nineteenth
province. Kuwait is part of the Middle East and produces over ten
percent of the world's oil. The Persian Gulf War of 1991--from January
16 to February 28--was fought to expel Iraq and restore Kuwaiti
independence.
The United Nations responded, passing a series of resolutions
condemning the invasion, called for an immediate withdrawal of Iraqi
troops from Kuwait, imposed financial and trade embargo’s
and declared the annexation void. President George H. W. Bush, regarding
the actions as a threat to a vital U.S. interest, namely the oil
production capability of the Persian Gulf Region, immediately ordered
warplanes and ground forces to Saudi Arabia at the request of Saudi
Arabia’s King Fahd’s. Iraqi troops had begun to mass
along the Saudi Arabian border indicating the possibility of an attack
into the Saudi oil fields. The first course of action lasted for
five months, from August 1990 until January 1991. The diplomatic
community conducted furious and fast paced diplomatic activity aimed
at getting Iraq out of Kuwait, but to no avail.
President Bush reacted by creating Operation Desert Storm, the
largest land operation since World War II. Led by General H. Norman
Schwarzkopf, the coalition forces land operation made its way through
Iraqi forces and liberated Kuwait in 100 hours.
President Bush made it clear from the start that our objectives
in the Gulf were to remove Saddam's forces from Kuwait and restore
the lawful government. These same "objectives" were adopted
by the U.N. and accomplished with overwhelming success. The use
of force in the Gulf War was necessary, morally justified, and legal
under international law. The actions taken were proportional to
the threat and designed to accomplish the stated and limited objective
of removing a hostile invading force from a sovereign territory.
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