what were the causes of the persian gulf war?
375246
This region of the world has had conflict since records were kept.  It is religion that is the central cause at this time.  Whenever a large group of people, usually led by one extremely charismic individual, decide that their way is the only way and anybody who disagrees will loose their head, then turmoil breaks out.  Tyrants existed throughout this region and have for a very long time.  Mohamed could be argued as one of the worst.  When whole tribes disappear and a few siblings survive, there tends to be paybacks a few generations later.  Some very early wars were retributions for the occurrences in Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, poems about Troy, love and war.  Therefore, it seams to have all started with a fight over a very beautiful woman, Helen of Troy, now it is over religious overtones.
427796
OIL and IRAN are the cuz of these war
1172773
Good Point, but we went to war because Iraq violated specific portions of the treaty ending the gulf war (one of the things they did was kick out inspectors) \n\nThe treaty merely paused the hostility's from the last war, they violated it so as far as I am concerned it does not matter if their were WMDs or not, they didn't let us look therefor, resume hostility's.
642289
you need to become better informed, what war in iran are you talking about?
289543
1- I think that the troops went to Iraq because of Israel A fared from Iraq so they Order USA government to do the job on their behave so the did 9&#92;11 (in that day no jaw get killed)\n2- The oil\n3- the weapons co. which owns by the  government ministers and etc. must get profit\n4- seller get killed who care
447450
Depending on who you listen to, there are several reasons. I shall attempt to run them down & provide a brief explanation of each, and state my own opinion at the end.\n\n1. Oil. The US needs a source of oil, so we invaded Iraq to get it.\n2. Big Business - The US needed a way to boost the profit lines of big business, and war is the best way to do it.\n3. Freedom - We needed to free the Iraqi's from Saddam's thumb.\n4. WMD's - Saddam had WMD's, he refused to let the UN make inspections, and it's too risky to let Saddam have WMD's.\n5. New Base Location - Iraq makes a great place to project power from in terms of the US military, it is adjacent to the Gulf, and provides ways to reinforce Turkey, as well as keep Iran in check.\n6. Violation of Gulf War cease-fire agreement - Iraq violated the cease-fire agreement of the 1st gulf war, so this war is simply a conclusion of the last war.\n7. Bush's daddy - Saddam tried to kill Bush Sr., so Bush Jr is seeking revenge.\n8. Terrorism - Saddam was conspiring with Osama, so the US had to intervene.\n\nAnd my opinion:\nBush Jr. was obsessed with Iraq, and decided long ago that he was going to end Saddam's rule. He found a reason, Saddam didn't back down, and now we're in Iraq.\n\nHope this helps as a general overview.
556952
Kuwait - and they had their eye on Saudi Arabia which would have been next.  We stormed over there practically overnight to oppose it.
1033765
I believe that Persian Gulf was the original historical term.  With the rise of Arab Nationalist thinking in the 1960s, the Arabs used the term Arabian Gulf... al-Khaleej al-Arabee\n\nThe United Nations takes the view that Persian Gulf is the appropriate terminology to use
548705
go to the bookstore and check out "Boomerang". it explains all about this issue. Another book called "Confessions of an economic Hit-man" explains how greed for oil causes wars like Iraq and Desert Storm. better yet, just check out Idiot's Guide to Iraq.  This book could be called "How people kill each other in the middle east over oil". all these are good.\n\na crazy guy from Ecuador once told me "wars are always about economics"  the more i read about the subject the more i realize he was dead on. since economies fuel every aspect of politics, it only makes sense that economics would be THE deciding factor when any government decides to invade. Saddam did it to Kuwait when he was in debt to them, we did it to Iraq when we decided we needed a more "friendly" leadership in a country that could provide us with oil and natural gas contracts, and just look at Britain..holy chit. the examples are infinite. it happens all the time, and the oldest joke in the book is that the nationalists of the invading country ALWAYS provide or support an alternative justification for the aggression. people are so stupid...
1020105
Some people did ask why. One of the responses was that the Middle East was tired of all the damage being done to it and all the interference by the U.S. government not to mention all the deaths caused by U.S. behind the scenes.
369362
A higher probabilty.\n\nBecause in the 91 war, the war plans were drawn up properly with a complete set of goals in mind. IE- Push Iraq out of Kuwait. \n\nWith the war in Iraq now, the US government really messed up but won't admit it of course.
866402
Yes it was just. Saddam Hussein illegally invaded another country with the intent of stealing their oil and land.\nThe world united against him for this unjust act he committed.\n\n    This is in no way relevant to todays war.
686149
There was "Desert Shield" from August 1990 to Jan. 1991 when "Desert Storm" kicked in.  Shield gave us time to build up the defense of Saudi Arabia and perfect the liberation of Kuwait.  The Storm let us use the technology that we had developed in the late 70's and 80's.  The Storm lasted just like the previous person mentioned.  Some mistakes were made though, like not finishing off the Republican Guard when we had the chance which would have led to Saddams downfall a lot sooner.
273188
When the Middle East was originally divided into its present form, it was done so unfairly.  Because of that, we saw Saddam Hussein go into Kuwait.  He actually cited that as one of his reasons (he had many others...of course some were much more irrational).  Iraq barely touches the Persian Gulf at all.  This makes trading and developing a Navy next to impossible for the current Iraq.\n\nIf Iraq was divided into three countries, who would get the border with the Persian Gulf?  Who would get the oil reserves?  Also, Iraq has many different ethnic groups besides just Sunni, Shi'ite, and Kurds.  What about the rest of them?  What message would we be sending if this happened?  I could see people going as far to say that the US should divide in that same way.\n\nIt's a nice thought, but I hope you understand why it just cannot work.
1062595
Wow... You need to chill out a little.\n\nThe oil was in Iraq so George Bush invaded Iraq.
614984
Saddam Hussein was a young man who was angry at the Iraqi monarchy (installed by the british).  He hooked up with the socialist Ba'ath party based in syria.  The Ba'athists were devout anti imperial and anti-communist.  The USA, fearing communist influence in iraqi politics after the toppling of iraq by general Qassim, trained and funded a group of Ba'athist members including Saddam, and helped them execute a bloody coup that killed Qassim.  They were chased out of Iraq by an angry populace in 1963 and regrouped later in 1968 and finally managed to take power during iraq's turbulent years.  Saddam was only VP at the time but was the main power base of iraq.  In 1973 Saddam angered the USA by participating in the oil embargo after the yom kippur war, but quickly became friends again after the Iranian Revolution toppled the Pro-USA Shah Pahlavi.  Saddam Hussein saw the disorganization of the Iranian Revolutionary Government and saw it as an opportunity to defeat Iran, which was the biggest military power in the middle east at the time, even bigger than israel.   Saddam Hussein had taken power as president in 1979 and went on an internal purge of suspected anti-baath elements.  Dozens of iraqi lawmakers were killed or jailed.  The Iran-Iraq war went on for nearly a decade from 1980-1988.  The United States had a hand in making sure neither side won because of concerns about a power vacuum.  Early in the war the USA helped iraq with intelligence and shipments of chemical weapons precursors.  later on the USA began selling spare parts and advanced missiles to Iran.  This was called the "Reagan Iran-Contra Scandal" where the president sold advanced american missiles to iran, took the profits and illegally funnelled them to the contra terrorists in central america.  Both sides used chemical weapons, and both regularly attacked each others cities with ballistic missiles.  After the end of the war, iraq was a broken, debt riddled nation.  Iraq's reason for invading kuwait in 1990 was complaints of kuwait overselling oil and slant-drilling into iraqi oil fields (both true).  The USA tricked saddam into attacking kuwait by proclaiming they had no special defence agreemnent with kuwait.  The USA went to war with iraq in hopes of toppling saddam and restoring the kuwaiti dictatorship.  12 years of postwar UN sanctions followed, and in 2003 George W. Bush decided to attack iraq without provocation, giving false justification of WMD as a reason.  The war continues to this day and the insurgency grows.  American soldiers are dying at a rate of 2 to 3 per day and the country is riddled with ethnic divisions and a looming civil war.   Saddam was captured but it has had no effect on the growing rebellion.
692263
Alot of things.  Defense has been a big reason for about 500 years.  (Hitler justified taking over Europe by saying it was in defense of the German people.)  Human rights has been batted around, but in practice nobody ever does it.  Even when he talked up Saddam's inhumanity, Bush still needed WMD's to justify the invasion.\n\nWhich leaves us with one culprit: money.  If a will increase a country's economic prospects at the expense of another's and they think they can win, then that country will "defend" its economic "rights".