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In late 1990, Iraq invaded and annexed neighboring Kuwait. This was met with international condemnation with even the USA and USSR agreeing that Iraq needed to withdraw or face consequences. Over the next 5 months, Iraq faced diplomatic pressure, economic sanctions, and a major military buildup on its border by an international coalition. And during this period, at no point did Iraq or its leaders make any attempt to back down or diffuse the situation, which raises the obvious question, why not? Why didn't Iraq back down in the face of all of this? So in mid1990, Iraq Kuwait relations were terrible. Due to its previous war with Iran, Iraq was heavily in debt, much of which was owed to Kuwait. And to complicate things, the
price of oil was very low at this time, which was bad for the Iraqi economy. And furthermore, the Iraqi government accused the Kuwaitis of stealing oil from right underneath it. As such, Saddam Hussein, Iraq's leader, gave the order on August II to invade, and Kuwait was conquered in no time at all. Obviously, the international community condemned this. However, Saddam wasn't worried because he knew that it would be the United States leading the charge, meaning that the USSR could be relied upon to veto and block any action. But fun fact, no. You see, the Soviet Union was currently in the midst of falling apart, and Mikuel Gorbachov, its leader, wanted to keep relations good with the
West. In case he needed help with anything, like say any attempted coups or whatnot. With the Soviets refusing to help, there was always China. But China was still internationally isolated due to its Tanaman Square crackdown. Thus, aiding a country that it had little connection to when doing nothing could improve relations with everyone else was a no-brainer. Never mind, though, Saddam was still confident of overwhelming victory because of Iraq's recent war with Iran. For those of you that don't know, this war was a long and bloody stalemate. But given that Iraq was only a third of the size of its neighbor, Saddam saw this as a great victory. As such, he had a large army of veterans
who would inevitably destroy the invaders. Furthermore, the Iran Iraq war had done wonders for Iraq's image amongst its fellow Arab and Sunni nations. Saddam was able to position himself as the first and last line of defense against Shia Iran. And many of his neighbors agreed. In fact, this was one of the reasons that Saddam thought he could conquer Kuwait and get away with it. His reasoning being that the rest of the Arab world was so indebted to him that they'd be happy to not only allow Iraq one tiny annexation, but they'd also go to bat for him internationally. Instead, what happened was that Saudi Arabia figured out that they'd likely be next and so gave refuge to the Kuwaiti government and also try
to push for direct intervention. Okay, so the USSR, China, and the Arab world hadn't come through for Saddam. But his next plan was simple. Wait. He and his government thought that the longer his occupation of Kuwait went on, the less interested the rest of the world would be, and eventually they'd all move on. The only moving that actually happened, though, was the movement of coalition troops to Saudi Arabia in preparation for an invasion. As such, it was time for plan E. Win friends so that the pressure would die down, and Saddam had a brilliant idea on how to achieve this. Take hostages. Baghdad quickly banned foreigners from leaving Iraq and had hoped that their governments wouldn't
want to risk intervention in case something were to happen to them. It will shock you to learn that this didn't endear Salam to anyone, and so the intervention was now inevitable. With this in mind, surely it was time for Saddam to back down. Oh, ye of little faith. Saddam had many more foolproof plans for victory. The next one was simple. Just win the war. Not by destroying the invading armies and conquering Saudi Arabia. Even he knew that wasn't possible. But instead, his plan was to inflict such heavy casualties on the coalition that continuation was impossible. During Iraq's previous war with Iran, casualties on both sides numbered in the hundreds of thousands. and Saddam figured that Iraq or more accurately he could handle such casualties whereas the
coalition states would have to withdraw if that became clear. Saddam assumed that this would lead to a negotiated peace where he would graciously allow the return of South Kuwait the bit without oil. The coalition began its bombardment in January 1991 and whilst things looked bad, Saddam had yet another way to end the war on his terms by bombing Israel. The intent was to go Israel into retaliating which would allow him to frame the war as a religious one. This would inevitably lead to these nations also getting involved and fracturing the coalition's forces. The flaw with this plan was that the Israeli government saw through this and didn't respond. And so it was time for Desert Storm. 4 days later, Iraq had
been expelled from Kuwait and the coalition was moving up through the south of Iraq proper. The Iraqi army was essentially ruined and so the coalition stopped his advance and declared a ceasefire. At this point, Saddam was forced to negotiate and he agreed to respect Kuwaiti independence and pay for any damages caused. Saddam was allowed to stay in charge, but this was on the condition that he give up his chemical weapons. And I may be wrong about this, but I think this comes up again in the future. I hope you enjoyed this episode with a special thanks to my patrons James Bizernet, Sky Chappelle, Kitka, Anthony Beckett, Wyan Hockey, Udwan Wang, Alex Schwin, AF Firefly, The Flying Deutseland, Captain Sydog, Robert
C. Perkins, Spencer Lightoot, Shuenin, Michael Holbert, Castle Bravo, the Mcqua, Gustav Swan, Marvin Cassau, Spinning Three Plates, Andy McGee, Rod D. Martin, Arthur Hosie Jr., Kimun Yun, Copper Tone, Murza Armad, The Jim Stannon, Winston Kwood, Respectable Level of Chaos, Starry Knights, Kitro, Bonnie Bounds, Remco Hoistman, Jim Stunberg, Lord Beak, Charles I, and Bet Kabot.
