The gulf war occurred from August 1990 to February 1991 when the Iraq president Hussein decided to take over the Kuwait territory which had vast oil reserves located in the Persian fields. The war was marked by a coalition of many nations that joined the US in withdrawing the Iraq military from Kuwait and the neighboring countries like Saudi Arabia and Israel. Iraq war occurred between 2003 and 2011 with the attack of Iraq by the US through alliances of other nations like the UK. This paper will compare and contrast gulf and Iraq war to explain why the US won the gulf war and not Iraq war.
Similarities
Both gulf war and Iraq war were operated by a coalition of many nations including troops from United States, United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and many other countries against Iraq troops. The alliance provided a more substantial number of soldiers as compared to the Iraq troops which made it easy for the US to fight the massive soldiers from Iraq. The gulf war and invasion of Iraq had extreme effects not only to the nations directly involved in the war such as the US and Iraq but also to other countries like Saudi Arabia, Israel, Kuwait, and Egypt. Entirely some people lost their lives as a result of bombs and missile attacks, buildings, and the property was destroyed such as the oil firms in Kuwait during the wars. Other effects such as illness were also common in both the wars such as chronic fatigue, fibromyalgia, and gastrointestinal effects (Meisel et al. 661).
In the gulf war, the US won by managing to withdraw the Iran troops from the Kuwait territory and also the restoration of Kuwait monarchy. The achievement of withdrawing the Iraq troops from Kuwait territory was because of the significant support from other nations. The invasion of Kuwait region by Iran was comfortable since Iran was the fourth country with the highest military troops as compared to the 16 000 Kuwait troops. Many soldiers died during the war but the number of Iraq troops that died exceeded that of the coalition due to possession of secondary weapons and lack of experience. The start of gulf war marked the introduction of live news broadcasting called the CNN that was used both in the Gulf and Iraq war to feed information to the troops hence helping the coalitions to win against Iraq.
Differences
During the gulf war, the coalition military comprised of well trained and resourced soldiers as compared to the Iran soldiers who were young, less skilled and lacked enough resources enabling the coalition military to drive away the Iranians from the Kuwait oil territory. This is opposed to the Iraq war which was complex due to the massive use of Weapons of Massive Destruction (WMD) by the Iraq military. The gulf war came into completion with the Iraq military being withdrawn from the Kuwait nation and restoration of the Kuwait monarchy which were the main reasons for the start of the war. However, despite overthrowing the Ba’ath party and the execution of Saddam Hussain by the US coalition, Iran war never stopped until 2011. There was increased conflict such as sectarian violence between Shias and Sunnis attributed by mismanagement of occupations and the rise of insurgent teams that got support from Iran and Al Qaeda in Iraq (Hicks et al. 974).
In gulf war, both the coalition and Iraq had equal power based on the kind of the weapons they had which made the fight to end quickly without much loss. This is opposed to the Iraq war where the Iraq military had possession of the arms of destruction leading to high losses during the war and causing the US to lose the battle.
Yes, the comparison identified significant events that occur in both gulf and Iraq wars and their effects on either side of the conflicting parties. For example, it determines that both US coalition and Iraq in the gulf war had equal power regarding weapons hence defeating them through alliance was easy as compared to the use of weapons for mass destruction in Iraq making it difficult to beat them. Also, lack of skills among the Iraq troops in gulf war may have led to their defeat since they used young and unskilled soldiers in the war. Inclusively, the effects of diseases on the soldiers may have tampered with their ability to fight harder and the economic sanction policy imposed by the UN council which favored only the US coalition in the gulf war.
The paper discusses the various similarities in both gulf and Iraq wars such as participation by the same countries, that is, US through the coalition from other states and Iraq. It identifies the effects of the wars massive destruction of property, buildings, oil reserves I Kuwait and the death of both troops and civilians. Both wars have been identified to use live news broadcasting system that helped to acquire information. The differences in the battles have been found to include the increased use of weapons of mass destruction by Iranians in the Iraq war and rise of violent insurgent teams that got assistance from Iranians and al Qaeda.
Works Cited
Hicks, Madelyn Hsiao-Rei, et al. "Violent deaths of Iraqi civilians, 2003–2008: analysis by perpetrator, weapon, time, and location." PLoS medicine 8.2 (2011): e1000415.
Meisel, Simcha R., et al. "Effect of Iraqi missile war on incidence of acute myocardial infarction and sudden death in Israeli civilians." The Lancet 338.8768 (1991): 660-661.
