The leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein called on the invasion and occupation of the neighboring Kuwait in august of 1990. Surprised with these actions, Arab powers such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt called on United States and other western countries to help. Hussein did not follow the united nations Security Council demands to withdraw from Kuwait in January 1991 and a Persian gulf war began with a massive united state air force known as operation desert storm. After 42 days of relentless fire power president bush called a ceasefire on February 28th and by this time most of the opposing forces have fled or giving up. Even though the gulf war was considered a success, rising conflict led to the second gulf war or known as the Iraq war. Knowing the leader of Iraq is a good way to understand the situation. Saddam was born into a financially struggling family in Tirkit, about a hundred miles outside his later acclaimed country. He moved to Baghdad as a teenager and joined a group that he later became the leader of. Trying to several violent attempts to get to power, he finally got his cousins to become the dictator. After his cousins 11 long year rule, Saddam finally got to power. obsessed with security and his rule he terrorized his citizens, making secret police to secure his position and ignoring the human rights of his citizens. The leader of Iraq, Saddam Hussein has been in power for at least two decades, has an interesting description to him. Most of the world would call him the most hated Arab leader (Gerald Butts article Saddam Hussein- his rise to power). Saddam wasnt feared by any other country but only by his own people. People that have been exiled from that country summed up Husseins strategy of rule by sacrificing his own country just to stay on his throne in Baghdad. Nobody in Iraq would dare say that publicly however in fear of the consequences. The Iraqi people are forced to be brainwashed by triumphalism slogans and unbelievable praise to their president. He is also looked at as a knight leading the Arabs into battle against the infidel (Gerald Butts article Saddam Hussein- his rise to power) or the founders of Baghdad. Basically ruining the reputation of Iraq, Saddam said he was leading the country into a new found glory but in reality has done nothing of the sorts. The country is bankrupt and the economy and infrastructure of Iraq is a disaster do to the seven years of United Nation sanctions. All of this is before the first Iraq war so you could say Saddam has no sympathy for his people or his country. After the eight year Iran-Iraq which ended in 1988, Iran wasnt only attacking Iraq but also the oil tanker in Kuwait. To help Iraq at the end of the war Kuwait lends Iraq fourteen billion dollars but Iraq couldnt pay it back so they asked Kuwait to abolish the debt but they declined. This caused tension between two the countries and for a year the Iraqis tried to resolve the conflict to no success. Iraq asked the OPEC to reduce the oil production so the value of oil would increase, this would benefit Iraq's revenues so they could pay back their debt. Others disagreed with what was happening and said Kuwait asked to increase its quota by fifty percent, much to the dissatisfaction of Iraq (causes of the gulf war by peter Fitzgerald). Iraq started accusing Kuwait of drilling diagonal into Iraqs oil field called Rumaila. This means Kuwait was taking Iraq's oil instead of their own. Saddam Hussein decided his only option was to go to war; he put 100,000 troops on the border of Kuwait and then invaded the country in August. In their journey of taking over the country they set fire to hundreds of oil fields, and then the UN declared Iraq's actions unjust and put in economic sanctions. In November, the Iraqis were still in charge of Kuwait so the UN drew up plans and called it resolution 678; this was a plan that said Iraq had until midnight to retreat back to its land before foreign military forces were granted to intervene. Iraq was still in Kuwait by January sixteenth so a force of 34 countries, lead by America, was making its way to Kuwait and the task was called operation desert storm. This was the start of the Gulf War. There is also a possibility that Iraq being part of the Soviet Union during the cold war got on Americas nerves and that's why they were eager to mobilize the troops. There were complication before America and the other countries went to war. This wasnt always a good source of defensive planning between America and Saudi Arabia. Also there were problems getting everything the army needed do to the efficiency of the transportation ships. over a hour of gunfights on the ground including the militaries 7th corps and the 18th, 410 miles across the Saudi, Iraq, and Kuwaiti desert was easy for the actual soldiers but was sometimes hard for the soldiers providing Intel and missile strikes. there was also a big problem with allied soldiers shooting each other, ignoring previous conflicts, 35 of 147 American troops killed in action was caused by friendly fire. 467 wounded, 72 was friendly fire. The Iraqi casualties were certainly more the Americans but they post war estimates predicted that 100,000 Iraqis would have been killed and 300,000 but there were actually 11,500 air casualties and only 10,000 ground casualties. The Iraqi government also said The Iraqi government says 2,300 civilians died during the air campaign. (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/gulf/appendix/death.html). There was incident that was the highlight of the whole war and this is how most of the Iraqis died. This was called a bulldozer assault, where two fleets of American first infantry divisions called the big one used mounted plows on tanks to bury Iraqi soldiers on the Saddam line. There was an estimated 2,000 troops that surrendered but a local newspaper recalled that an U.S commander estimated that more than a thousand Iraqis were buried alive in the two day assault. There was a lot of speculation in how many troops died in this strike, some said eight thousand, some said eighty to two fifty, but at the end of all of that the Iraqi government found forty four bodies. When the coalition of forces going to the gulf, America anticipated the casualties to reach the hundred thousands of killed and wounded soldiers. The casualties never reached that height but there was still a good amount of troops hurt, you estimate that ten percent of the troops were either killed or injured. There was still a big possibility that the war would still be a bloody mess, even if half of the Iraqi troops were killed by air superiority before the ground troops were dropped. In December 1990, a general was given orders to be prepared for deaths but none greater than the equivalent of three companies per coalition brigade (Pentagon Report on Persian Gulf War: A Few Surprises and Some Silences by John H. Cushman Jr). This was later translated into what president Bush said the casualties might reach. General Schwarzkopf, the general leading the attack was ordered to crush the Iraqi Republican guard; this was some of Baghdads most experienced and trained units. When the first war ended the calculated casualties were not that many, there was 148 troops killed in combat, including 35 of which were killed by friendly fire, 467 wounded by friendly fire. These casualties stayed within Presidents bushes liking. Spending nine months running Saddam Hussein was captured on December 13, 2003. Saddam's downfall was the moment America led an invasion operation to destroy Husseins rule in Iraq for 20 years. Although the gulf war was a recognized victory for the coalition, Kuwait and Iraq suffered more than anybody else. The ideal post war effects would be to have none but instead it would have effects for a number of years, both in the gulf and around the world. There were uprisings in the north and the south of Iraq, there was a group in the south called Shiites and the group in the north was called the Kurds. The United States failed to help the uprising in fear that Iraq might get dissolved if they succeeded. In the years to come, Britain and America would patrol parts of Iraq. Iraq was being difficult when it came to the peace terms and the weapon inspections made up by the UN; this grew into hostility between the two powers in 1998. Later on, Iraq refused to let inspectors to the weapons they were making and the fire fights taking place in the no fly zone America and Britain were occupying. In 2002 the President at that time, President Bush, sponsored a new UN resolution to the problems in Iraq, calling back all the inspectors but then sending them back in November. There were obviously differences between Security Councils on how good Iraq followed those expectations. The United States and Britain started mobilizing troops along Iraq's border. Without the consent of the UN president bush gave Iraq two options on March 17, 2003: Saddam Hussein steps down from his power in Iraq within 48 hours or be forced to go to war. Saddam refused that option like he always does and the second Persian Gulf War began or better known was the Iraq war three days later.