Why did a coalition of over 30 nations find it was necessary to go to war to help Kuwait after it was invaded by Iraq? How did the Coalition defeat the Iraqis'? And why did they leave thousands of Kurds and Iraqi Shi'ites to face Saddam Hussein? The Gulf War was sparked by Saddam's violent tendencies, the dispute over borders, and finally most importantly oil. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait in 1990 the world had seen enough, the NATO nations formed a coalition with other countries and declared war on Iraq. One key piece of this collation was Iraqi Shi'ites and Kurds who had been fighting Saddam's oppressive reign for years, however when the war ended they were left to face Saddam alone without the promised US help. Together these groups fought in the Middle East until 1991 trying to liberate the nation of Kuwait and rid the region of Saddam's terror.

Since the invasion of Kuwait caught the world by surprise, the question in everybody's mind was - What were the reasons for the invasion? The first reason was Saddam Hussein, Saddam had

A large majority of the U.S. population opposed military action, many were concerned the military forces would suffer large amounts of casualties and said that the only reason for the invasion was a cheap oil supply. President George Bush argued that the UN gave him the authority to use military forces but many Americans also argued that Congress did not give the President a declaration of war. Then, On January 12, 1991, the U.S. Congress authorized the President to use force, on January 17, 1991; Coalition forces began a massive air attack on Iraqi targets. The air assaults three main goals were to attack Iraqi air defenses, disrupt communication and control, and to weaken ground forces in and around Kuwait (Grossman 1995). Disrupting communication and control would be tough. To defeat the task they would have to attack Iraqi electrical system, communication centers, roads, bridges, and other targets. The problem with these areas was that they were in civilian areas and both civilians and military used them. Although the Coalition used very precise weapons there were many civilian casualties and the attacks disrupted Iraqi civilian life. The Coalition also felt that weakening ground forces would also be difficult, they used less complicated weaponry and within five and a half weeks of intense bombing and over 100,000 flights the Iraqi forces were severely damaged (Grossman, 1995).

The American casualties were minimal; the U.S. suffered 148 killed in action, 407 wounded, and 121 killed in non-hostile actions. 15 of these casualties were women. The Iraqis suffered many more casualties. 100,000 soldiers died, 300,000 wounded, 150,000 deserted, and 60,000 were taken prisoner (Grossman 1995). However, many researchers claim that these numbers are an extreme underestimation.

The world had it victory and they left thousands of Kurds at the mercy of an embittered Saddam Hussein. Many people have since asked why the Americans and President Bush didn't remove Saddam and take Baghdad when they had the chance. There are only a couple reasons but each one is very valid. Firstly that the Americans and their allies weren't prepared to wage a full war on Iraq and if they had, many people believe that they would still be fighting that war today. The Iraqi situation could have turned into another Vietnam and public opinion was stoutly opposed to any action that would further endanger American lives. James Baker, the secretary of state during the first Bush Administration, stated, "that would have involved, first of all, changing our war aims and political aims. But more importantly, this would have involved going to Baghdad. There was no way to take out Saddam in the context of the Gulf War without occupying Iraq. We might still be there fighting a guerilla war. We'd promised the world we weren't gonna do it. Our military wanted no part of it." (PBS 2001) This shows how much maneuvering the Americans would have had to do both politically and militarily to takeover Iraq and remove Saddam. Another major problem that Mr. Baker points out is that going to Baghdad would have involved occupying Iraq for an indefinite amount of time, who knows how well a puppet government in the Middle East would have gone. Much of the peace progress that occurred in the Middle East during the 90's may have not occurred if the Americans had taken out Saddam as well as the fact t

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