On 2 August 1990, the people of Kuwait City awoke at 5am to the sound of Iraqi tanks rolling down their streets. Iraqi President Saddam Hussein intended to annex the small Sheikhdom of Kuwait, Iraq’s “19th province,” and tap its massive oil reserves. The invasion did not come entirely out of nowhere. Iraqi troops were massed at the border as the result of an oil dispute with its tiny neighbor, and the United States tried to persuade Iraq to solve its problems with Kuwait peacefully. This action was the first time one sovereign state had invaded and annexed another since Indonesia annexed East Timor in 1975; and it was the first major challenge to world order since the 1989 fall of the Berlin Wall. This chapter examines key events in US foreign policy in the Middle East from Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Iraq in 1990 to Donald Trump’s announcement of US withdrawal from the Iran nuclear deal in 2018. It shows how America’s strong position at the end of the Cold War and the end of Operation Desert Storm in 1991 led to a period of American hyper-involvement in Middle Eastern politics that ultimately weakened its regional standing.
The global reaction to Saddam Hussein’s invasion and annexation of Kuwait was virtually universally negative. The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) issued Resolution 660, demanding that “Iraq withdraw immediately and unconditionally all its forces to the positions in which they were located on 1 August 1990.” Saddam Hussein’s blatant act of aggression and territorial aggrandizement put an end to decades of stalemate in the Security Council when the USSR and the US voted together on UNSCR 660.
It was not immediately obvious how the United States would react to Saddam’s aggression; and it was by no means certain that the US had any interest in fighting a war to restore Kuwait’s sovereignty. Congress was divided. The Senate approved the use of force against Iraq by a vote of just 52–47, significantly closer than the 77–23 approval of the 2003 Iraq War. President George H.W. Bush saw an opportunity to establish a “new world order” in which territorial aggrandizement was a product of the past, and adherence to global norms was the wave of the future. He supported a war and it was his decision to make.
Bush wanted a grand coalition operating with UN approval, not a purely American intervention. UNSCR 678 passed on 29 November 1990. It gave Saddam Hussein “one final opportunity” to withdraw from Kuwait. If he did not, the resolution, “Authorize[d] Member States… to use all necessary means” to compel him. “Operation Desert Storm” began on 17 January 1991. Nearly every country in the world joined the coalition – Yemen backed Iraq and Jordan remained neutral. Americans fought alongside 31 diverse countries’ armed forces. Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Japan, South Korea, and Germany were the major funders of the war effort. In the end, the US Congress’s General Accountability Office found that Desert Shield and Desert Storm were, “fully financed from allied contributions without using US taxpayer funds” (Conahan 1991, 12). The Warsaw Pact did not provide support, but it did not interfere. The zero-sum world had ended, and the Warsaw Pact dissolved itself on 1 July 1991.
Desert Storm ended on 28 February 1991. Saddam Hussein was still president on 1 March. President Bush and Brent Scowcroft, Bush’s national security advisor, said of the decision not to remove Saddam Hussein from power, “Trying to eliminate Saddam, extending the ground war into an occupation of Iraq, would have violated our guideline about not changing objectives in midstream… and would have incurred incalculable human and political costs…. We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq…. Had we gone the invasion route, the US could conceivably still be an occupying power in a bitterly hostile land” (“Bush on Iraq” 1998, par. 3). The world would later learn just how accurate that assessment was.
The defeat of Saddam Hussein is often described as the peak of American power and global influence. One headline called it, “the pinnacle of American military supremacy” (Blair 2016). It resulted in the establishment of new American bases in Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and Saudi Arabia (bases that were soon used to establish “no fly” zones to protect Iraq’s Kurdish and Shia populations), and record personal popularity for President Bush. Bush decided to use the high standing of the United States, and his personal popularity, to bring an end to the Israeli/Arab conflict.
United States support for Israel has been a consistent feature of US foreign policy in the Middle East for more than 40 years. The US/Israel relationship is often portrayed as unwavering, but there are periods of tension and stark disagreements.
How did congress change the boundaries of Washington territory in 1863? 1) Congress expanded the territory to include more land to the east. 2) Congress explained it is the water boundary to include several islands. 3) congress made the 49th panel of the northern boundary. 4) Congress reduced its land area by dividing it into two territories. (Hope this helps)
With the conquests of the Caliphates, the Muslims managed to take control over multiple regions. One of those regions was North Africa, where in Egypt, in the city of Alexandria there were millions of books with scientific and philosophical themes. It was the center of knowledge of the world in that time.
The Muslims unfortunately destroyed most of the books from the antiquity, and only few were preserved. Thus few though got into the hands of Muslim scholars that were interested in science and philosophy. They read them carefully and started to base their researches on them, making significant progress and discovering multiple things. By preserving these few books, and also upgrading on their basis, helped to preserve at least some part of the ancient knowledge, which later was reintroduced in its place of origin, Europe.
Nowadays, 193 nations are members of the United Nations. These states are sovereign and they have equal representation in the UN General Assembly. Since it was created in 1945 up to the present, many nations have been incorporated; some of the original members are France, the UK, The USA, Argentina, Canada, Brazil, etc
Issued by President Franklin Roosevelt on February 19, 1942, this order authorized the evacuation of all persons deemed a threat to national security from the West Coast to relocation centers further inland.
1- The last two Confederation cities to be taken by the Unionists were Petersburg and Richmond, on April 1865.
Robert Lee didn't want to surrender but after the loss of this two cities the Confederate Army, thinned by desertion and casualties, wasn't able to continue the war.
2- The day after Petersburg fall President Lincoln (who had been visiting Grant) was able to tour the city. He stated to Admiral David Porter: "Thank God I have lived to see this. It seems to me that I have been dreaming a horrid dream for four years, and now the nightmare is gone, I want to see Richmond".
3- Finally on the morning of April 9th Lee and his hungry men found themselves surrounded by five times the number of Union soldiers. Lee had no choice. At a ceremony at Appomattox Court House he surrendered the army of Northern Virginia, thus effectively bringing to an end the most horrible war in American history.
4- After visiting Petersburg, Lincoln was taken to Richmond by Admiral Porter. Once he reached the city it was thronged by Blacks. One old lady is said to have shouted: "I know I am alive for I have seen Father Abraham and felt him."
5- President Abraham Lincoln was a man whose principles were inspiring for the Union's cause. He had the good fortune of seeing the end of the Civil War, as he told Admiral Porter, but he was unjustly murdered a few days later by a follower of the Southern cause. He must be remembered as a great patriot and one of the best presidents in American history.
