Professor's Classroom
Hi class.
OK , today we are gonna take a trip in the Professor's time machine, the Way Back Machine. We set the selector switch to 1990. August 2 to be exact. Swoosh! Crackle! here we are on the border between Iraq and Kuwait. At this moment the Iraqi Army is rolling across the border headed for Kuwait City--the invasion has begun.
Now, what was Saddam's justification for the invasion?
(Waiting!) ( Waiting!) (Tapping fingers on desk!)
Time is up! The news said he was reclaiming a provence of Iraq. Well, not historically. Iraq did not exist until 1917. However the area in conflict was part of the area to be known as Iraq. It was decided by the Brits to give the al-Sabah family their own country, so they drew the lines and Kuwait was born.
Saddam's excuse for the invasion was that the kuwaitis were horizontally drilling and tapping into Iraqi oil reserves. His reason was probably correct, but only the sands of the Iraqi desert know for sure.
Did either justify the invasion by Iraq? Defend your answer.
2 comments:
Just a quick comment to note how the Brits screwed up so many areas with their partitioning as colonial rule ended. You gave one good exampple, but Israel and Kashmir come to mind. I know there are others...
However, if the Brits has gotten the boundaries right, then Saddam would have just owned more territory. I wonder if Saddam had Kuwait as part of Iraq, would he have invaded Iran?
Yes he would have invaded. Iran was a major supporter of the Kurds at that time and they were a pain in the butt to Saddam.
Just one of the reason and Khuzestan was another pretense for invasion.
Thanx for the return visit.
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