Why Did Iraq Invade Kuwait?

[CapelDodger]

from JustGeoff:

Of course it was about oil. Kuwait sits on top of the most concentrated oil deposit in the world. Iraq invaded Kuwait in order to control the oil supplies.

There's a more generic strategic importance to Kuwait. It can be used as a base to choke-off Iraqi access to the Gulf. For Iraq, of course, it has the same significance. Control of Kuwait will always be a strategic goal of Iraqi policy, and the Kuwaitis will always be very aware of that. They can never hope to be able to defend themselves so they are dependent on a foreign guarantor - first Britain, now the US. As such they provide a safe entry-point for foreign forces - assuming prompt action. If the US had put a few troops into Kuwait before the invasion - on "routine, long-planned joint exercises with a valued ally" - Saddam wouldn't have been able to miscalculate.

 

[CapelDodger]

I haven't noticed any mention of Iraq's debts to the Gulf States, which sustained Iraq financially during the Iran-Iraq war. The Iraqis wanted the loans to be regarded as a contribution to the defence of Arab civilisation from Shi'ite fanaticism, the Gulf States wanted repayment. The US was vocally sympathetic to Iraq's case, but that cut no ice since there was a great deal of money involved. The poaching of oil across a very ill-defined border was used to justify intimidation and subsequent invasion of Kuwait - which was meant to be a lesson to everybody. The real reasons were money and Saddam's desire to boost his own standing in the Arab world.

 

[CapelDodger]

from demon:

It can also be argued that the US gave the "green light" to Saddam in his intentions towards Kuwait who the Iraqi`s maintained were cross drilling into Iraqi territory.

I suspect that the "green light" was given to an occupation of the disputed oil-fields, which would encourage some people to think again on the debt question. The US was happy enough with that since the tension would push up oil-prices (which were disastrously low for Texas at the time). It would also have led to invitations to put troops on the ground, and of course it boosted their good friend Saddam's position. There was either a misunderstanding or a deliberate misinterpretation by Saddam, and the rest is history. I don't know of anything that makes the theory untenable. A blend of cock-up and conspiracy.

 

[shanek]

I suspect that the "green light" was given to an occupation of the disputed oil-fields, which would encourage some people to think again on the debt question. The US was happy enough with that since the tension would push up oil-prices (which were disastrously low for Texas at the time). It would also have led to invitations to put troops on the ground, and of course it boosted their good friend Saddam's position.

Reasonable.

There was either a misunderstanding or a deliberate misinterpretation by Saddam, and the rest is history.

On what do you base this? Almost immediately after the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, not anywhere near enough time to tell what Saddam's intentions were, Bush I started harping on and on about how it was an unprovoked act of aggression and indicated that Saddam wanted to take over the world and must be stopped, and the rest is history. We DON'T KNOW what Saddam would have done with Kuwait, what he would have done with the oil fields, etc., because there just wasn't enough time to gather that information before we came in and interfered, and at that point Saddam never had any chance of doing anything.