Paul Mason - The Iraq War

E-book published in 2012 by Encyclopdia Britannica, Inc., in association with Arcturus Publishing Limited, 26/27 Bickels Yard, 151-153 Bermondsey Street, London SE1 3HA. Britannica, Encyclopdia Britannica, and the Thistle logo are registered trademarks of Encyclopdia Britannica.

ISBN 978-1-61535-641-6 (e-book)

This edition first published in 2010 by Arcturus Publishing

Distributed by Black Rabbit Books

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Copyright 2010 Arcturus Publishing Limited

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Mason, Paul.

The Iraq War / Paul Mason.

p. cm. -- (Timelines)

Summary: Discusses events in Iraq that lead up to the current war in Iraq, beginning with the end of the Persian Gulf War and continuing through the planned withdrawal for all coalition forces from the country--Provided by publisher.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

1. Iraq War, 2003---Juvenile literature. 2. Iraq--Politics and government--2003---Juvenile literature. I. Title.

DS79.763.M38 2011

956.70443--dc22

2009051266

The right of Paul Mason to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved.

Series concept: Alex Woolf

Editor and picture researcher: Nicola Barber

Consultant: James Vaughan

Designer: Ariadne Ward

Illustrator: Stefan Chabluk

Picture credits:

AP: cover (Fadhil Maliki).

Corbis: 4 (Peter Turnley), 5 (Peter Turnley), 6 (Ed Kashi), 8 (Rick Maiman/Sygma), 9 (Samara Boustani/Sygma), 10 (Leonhard Foeger/Reuters), 11 (Faleh Kheiber/Reuters), 12 (Bob E. Daemmrich/Sygma), 13 (Faleh Kheiber/Reuters), 14 (Najlah Feanny), 15 (Rune Hellestad), 16 (Olivier Coret), 17 (Oleg Popov/Reuters), 19 (Jerome Sessini), 20 (Larry Downing/Reuters), 21 (Thorne Anderson), 22 (Michael Appleton), 23 (Ali Jasim/Reuters), 25 (handout/Reuters), 26 (Scott Nelson/epa), 27 (Ali Abbas/epa), 29 (Paul Buck/epa), 30 (Ceerwan Aziz/Reuters), 31 (Chris Helgren/Reuters), 32 (Johancharles Van Boers/US Army/ZUMA), 33 (Namir Noor-Eldeen/Reuters), 34 (Zohra Bensemra/Reuters), 35 (Ali Haider/Pool/Reuters), 37 (Wael Al-Samarraie/epa), 38 (Steven Clevenger), 39 (Ali Abbas/epa), 40 (epa), 41 (Larry Downing/Reuters), 43 (Azad Lashkari/Reuters), 44 (Nawras al-TaEl/epa). Rex Features: 18, 24 (Sipa Press), 28 (Sabah Arar), 36, 42 (Sipa Press), 45.

Cover picture: Standing atop a wall that separates a Shia neighborhood from a Sunni one in west Baghdad, demonstrators protest the establishment of such walls as well as the US presence in Iraq.

Every attempt has been made to clear copyright. Should there be any inadvertent omission, please apply to the copyright holder for rectification.

ISBN: 978-1-84837-639-7

SL001323US

Supplier 03, Date 0210

M ARCH 3, 1991

Bombed vehicles litter the highway of death in March 1991. Many Iraqi soldiers died on this road, which leads from Kuwait to Iraq, as they tried to retreat.

On March 3, 1991, the worlds eyes were fixed on Safwan Airfielda small, dusty air base north of the Iraq-Kuwait border. But what was it about this tiny place that was so important? The answer is that it was where Iraqs attempt to occupy its southern neighbor, Kuwait, finally failed. Here, Iraqs army surrendered to US general Storming Norman Schwarzkopf.

Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, and they quickly took control of the whole country. For many years Iraq had been claiming that Kuwait was really part of its territory. This claim was based on the fact that before either country existed, Kuwait had once been part of the province of Basra, which was now part of Iraq. Also, Iraq owed Kuwait over $8 billion it had borrowed during an earlier war, against Iran, between 1980 and 1988. Taking over Kuwait, and gaining control of Kuwaits valuable oil reserves, meant these debts would disappear.

Four days after Iraqs invasion began, the United Nations (UN) imposed sanctions on Iraq and demanded that Iraqi forces leave Kuwait. The UN began to gather together an international coalitionarmed forces that would be able to drive the Iraqis from Kuwait. Iraqs leader, Saddam Hussein, refused to withdraw his army, so on January 16, 1991, the UN coalition attacked, starting the Persian Gulf War. By the end of February, Iraqs troops had been defeated. Kuwait had been freed, and Saddam no longer controlled roughly a quarter of the worlds reserves of oil, a crucial resource.

Vital oil supplies

I will not allow this little dictator to control 25 percent of the worlds oil. President George H. W. Bush speaking about Saddam Hussein after Iraqs invasion of Kuwait.

After defeating Iraq, the UN wanted to make sure that Saddam Hussein would not be able to threaten his neighbors again. In particular, the UN was worried about Iraqs attempts to manufacture weapons of mass destruction (WMDs). These are weapons such as nuclear bombs, chemical weapons, or biological weapons that can kill large numbers of people. The Iraqi army had already used chemical weapons during the war with Iran, as well as against its own people, as a way of keeping control of the country. Resolution 687, passed by the UN in April 1991, called on Iraq to surrender its WMDs and to destroy any facilities capable of making such weapons. Saddam was also forced to agree that UN officials, known as weapons inspectors, would be allowed to come into Iraq to monitor the ban.

C ROSS-REFERENCE
K URDISH AND S HIA REBELLIONS : PAGES 7

As the Iraqis left Kuwait, they set the countrys oil wells alight. Many of the wells burned for weeks.

A PRIL 5, 1991

On April 5, 1991, the UN Security Council called on Iraq to end its attacks on the Kurdish people who live in northern Iraq. (Kurds also live in other countries, including Turkey and Iran.) During the Persian Gulf War, the Kurds had taken the side of the UN coalition, and as the war drew to an end, they had rebelled against Saddams rule. Many Kurds did not want to be part of Iraq and hoped that they would one day have their own country, Kurdistan.