Aftermath of the Gulf War
The aftermath of Gulf War saw drastic and profoundly significant political, cultural, and social change across the Middle East and even in areas outside those that were directly involved.
Palestinian community in Kuwait
Significant demographic changes occurred in Kuwait as a result of the Gulf War. There were 400,000 Palestinians in Kuwait before the Gulf War. During the
Kuwait's lack of support for Palestinians after the Gulf War was a response to the alignment of Palestinian leader
The Palestinians who fled Kuwait were mostly
Gulf War syndrome
Many returning Coalition soldiers reported illnesses following their action in the war, a phenomenon known as Gulf War syndrome or Gulf War illness. Common symptoms that were reported are chronic fatigue, Fibromyalgia, and Gastrointestinal disorder.
Effects of depleted uranium
Depleted uranium was used in the war in tank kinetic energy penetrators and 20–30 mm cannon
Some say[who?] that depleted uranium is not a significant health hazard unless it is taken into the body. External exposure to radiation from depleted uranium is generally not a major concern because the alpha particles emitted by its isotopes travel only a few centimeters in air or can be stopped by a sheet of paper. Also, the uranium-235 that remains in depleted uranium emits only a small amount of low-energy gamma radiation. However, if allowed to enter the body, depleted uranium, like natural uranium, has the potential for both chemical and radiological toxicity with the two important target organs being the kidneys and the lungs[14]
Highway of Death
On the night of 26–27 February 1991, some Iraqi forces began leaving Kuwait on the main highway north of Al Jahra in a column of some 1,400 vehicles. A patrolling E-8 Joint STARS aircraft observed the retreating forces and relayed the information to the DDM-8 air operations center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.[15][self-published source?] These vehicles and the retreating soldiers were subsequently attacked, resulting in a 60 km stretch of highway strewn with debris—the Highway of Death. New York Times reporter Maureen Dowd wrote, "With the Iraqi leader facing military defeat, Mr. Bush decided that he would rather gamble on a violent and potentially unpopular ground war than risk the alternative: an imperfect settlement hammered out by the Soviets and Iraqis that world opinion might accept as tolerable."[16]
Chuck Horner, Commander of U.S. and allied air operations has written:
[By February 26], the Iraqis totally lost heart and started to evacuate occupied Kuwait, but airpower halted the caravan of Iraqi Army and plunderers fleeing toward Basra. This event was later called by the media "The Highway of Death." There were certainly a lot of dead vehicles, but not so many dead Iraqis. They'd already learned to scamper off into the desert when our aircraft started to attack. Nevertheless, some people back home wrongly chose to believe we were cruelly and unusually punishing our already whipped foes.
...
By February 27, talk had turned toward terminating the hostilities. Kuwait was free. We were not interested in governing Iraq. So the question became "How do we stop the killing."[17]
Bulldozer assault
Another incident during the war highlighted the question of large-scale Iraqi combat deaths. This was the "
Coalition bombing of Iraq's civilian infrastructure
In the 23 June 1991 edition of The Washington Post, reporter Bart Gellman wrote: "Many of the targets were chosen only secondarily to contribute to the military defeat of [Iraq] ... Military planners hoped the bombing would amplify the economic and psychological impact of international sanctions on Iraqi society ... They deliberately did great harm to Iraq's ability to support itself as an industrial society ..."[22] In the Jan/Feb 1995 edition of Foreign Affairs, French diplomat Eric Rouleau wrote: "[T]he Iraqi people, who were not consulted about the invasion, have paid the price for their government's madness ... Iraqis understood the legitimacy of a military action to drive their army from Kuwait, but they have had difficulty comprehending the Allied rationale for using air power to systematically destroy or cripple Iraqi infrastructure and industry: electric power stations (92 percent of installed capacity destroyed), refineries (80 percent of production capacity), petrochemical complexes, telecommunications centers (including 135 telephone networks), bridges (more than 100), roads, highways, railroads, hundreds of locomotives and boxcars full of goods, radio and television broadcasting stations, cement plants, and factories producing aluminum, textiles, electric cables, and medical supplies."[23] However, the U.N. subsequently spent billions rebuilding hospitals, schools, and water purification facilities throughout the country.[24]
Abuse of Coalition POWs
During the conflict, Coalition aircrew shot down over Iraq were displayed as
Operation Southern Watch
Since the war, the U.S. has had a continued presence of 5,000 troops stationed in Saudi Arabia – a figure that rose to 10,000 during the
Since Saudi Arabia houses Mecca and Medina, Islam's holiest sites, many Muslims were upset at the permanent military presence. The continued presence of U.S. troops in Saudi Arabia after the war was one of the stated motivations behind the 11 September terrorist attacks,[31] the Khobar Towers bombing, and the date chosen for the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings (7 August), which was eight years to the day that U.S. troops were sent to Saudi Arabia.[32] Osama bin Laden interpreted the Islamic prophet Muhammad as banning the "permanent presence of infidels in Arabia".[33] In 1996, bin Laden issued a fatwa, calling for U.S. troops to leave Saudi Arabia. In a December 1999 interview with Rahimullah Yusufzai, bin Laden said he felt that Americans were "too near to Mecca" and considered this a provocation to the entire Islamic world.[34]
Sanctions
On 6 August 1990, after
During the late 1990s, the U.N. considered relaxing the sanctions imposed because of the hardships suffered by ordinary Iraqis. Studies dispute the number of people who died in south and central Iraq during the years of the sanctions.[35][36][37]
Draining of the Qurna Marshes
The draining of the Qurna Marshes was an irrigation project in Iraq during and immediately after the war, to drain a large area of
The draining of the Qurna Marshes also called The Draining of the Mesopotamian Marshes occurred in Iraq and to a smaller degree in Iran between the 1950s and 1990s to clear large areas of the marshes in the Tigris-Euphrates river system. Formerly covering an area of around 20,000 km2 (7,700 sq mi), the large complex of wetlands was 90% drained prior to the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. The marshes are typically divided into three main sub-marshes, the Hawizeh, Central, and Hammar Marshes and all three were drained at different times for different reasons. Initial draining of the Central Marshes was intended to reclaim land for agriculture but later all three marshes would become a tool of war and revenge.[38]
Many international organizations such as the U.N. Human Rights Commission, the Islamic Supreme Council of Iraq, the Wetlands International, and Middle East Watch have described the project as a political attempt to force the Marsh Arabs out of the area through water diversion tactics.[38]
Oil spill
On 23 January, Iraq dumped 400 million US gallons (1,500,000 m3) of
Kuwaiti oil fires
The Kuwaiti oil fires were caused by the
The resulting fires burned out of control because of the dangers of sending in firefighting crews.
Environmental impact
Immediately following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, predictions were made of an environmental disaster stemming from Iraqi threats to blow up captured Kuwaiti oil wells. Speculation ranging from a
On 10 January 1991, a paper appearing in the Journal Nature, stated
Later when
He reported on initial modeling estimates that forecast impacts extending to south Asia, and perhaps to the northern hemisphere as well. Singer, on the other hand, said that calculations showed that the smoke would go to an altitude of about 3,000 feet (910 m) and then be rained out after about three to five days and thus the lifetime of the smoke would be limited. Both height estimates made by Singer and Sagan turned out to be wrong, albeit with Singer's narrative being closer to what transpired, with the comparatively minimal atmospheric effects remaining limited to the Persian Gulf region, with smoke plumes, in general, lofting to about 10,000 feet (3,000 m) and a few times as high as 20,000 feet (6,100 m).[49][50]
Along with Singer's televised critique, Richard D. Small criticized the initial Nature paper in a reply on 7 March 1991 arguing along similar lines as Singer.[51]
Sagan later conceded in his book The Demon-Haunted World that his prediction did not turn out to be correct: "it was pitch black at noon and temperatures dropped 4–6 °C over the Persian Gulf, but not much smoke reached stratospheric altitudes and Asia was spared."[52]
At the peak of the fires, the smoke absorbed 75 to 80% of the sun's radiation. The particles rose to a maximum of 20,000 feet (6,100 m), but were scavenged by cloud condensation nuclei from the atmosphere relatively quickly.[48]
Sagan and his colleagues expected that a "self-lofting" of the sooty smoke would occur when it absorbed the sun's heat radiation, with little to no scavenging occurring, whereby the black particles of soot would be heated by the sun and lifted/lofted higher and higher into the air, thereby injecting the soot into the stratosphere where it would take years for the sun blocking effect of this aerosol of soot to fall out of the air, and with that, catastrophic ground level cooling and agricultural impacts in Asia and possibly the Northern Hemisphere as a whole.[53]
In retrospect, it is now known that smoke from the Kuwait oil fires only affected the weather pattern throughout the Persian Gulf and surrounding region during the periods that the fires were burning in 1991, with lower atmospheric winds blowing the smoke along the eastern half of the Arabian Peninsula, and cities such as Dhahran and Riyadh, and countries such as Bahrain experienced days with smoke filled skies and carbon soot rainout/fallout.[54]
Thus the immediate consequence of the arson sabotage was a dramatic regional decrease in
According to the 1992 study from Peter Hobbs and Lawrence Radke daily emissions of sulfur dioxide (which can generate acid rain) were 57% of that from electric utilities in the United States, emissions of carbon dioxide were 2% of global emissions and emissions of soot were 3400 metric tons per day.[48]
In a paper in the
Peter V. Hobbs also narrated a short amateur documentary titled Kuwait Oil Fires that followed the
See also
- Iraq War (2003–2011)
- War on Terror
- War in Afghanistan (2001–2021)
- United Nations Iraq-Kuwait Observation Mission (April 1991 – October 2003)
- Kuwait–Iraq barrier
Notes
- ^ ISBN 9781134496686.
During autumn 1990 more than half of the Palestinians in Kuwait fled as a result of fear or persecution.
- ^ "The PLO in Kuwait". May 8, 1991.
But in September and October 1990, large numbers of Palestinians began to leave. In addition to the fear of arrest, and their mistreatment at roadblocks by Iraqis, food shortages were becoming serious and medical care difficult. Kuwaitis and Palestinians alike were penniless - they were forced to sell their cars and electrical appliances at improvised markets to anyone who had cash, even to Iraqi civilians coming from Iraq to buy on the cheap. Thus, by December 1990, Kuwait's Palestinian population had dwindled from a pre-invasion strength of 350,000 to approximately 150,000.
- ^ Islamkotob. "History of Palestine". p. 100.
- ISBN 9780816069866.
- ISBN 9781134496686.
Regulations on residence were considerably tightened and the general environment of insecurity triggered a continuous Palestinian exodus.
- ISBN 9780934143493.
There was a great exodus of Palestinians from Kuwait during July and August, partly attributable to fear of abusive actions by the Kuwaiti security forces, but also brought about by economic necessity.
- ^ a b c Ibrahim, Youssef M.; Times, Special To the New York (March 14, 1991). "AFTER THE WAR: Kuwait; Palestinians in Kuwait Face Suspicion and Probable Exile". The New York Times.
- JSTOR 2538306.
- ^ a b "Palestinians Open Kuwaiti Embassy". Al Monitor. 23 May 2013. Archived from the original on 2013-05-22. Retrieved 2013-05-25.
- ^ "Gulf War Veterans' Medically Unexplained Illnesses". U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. Retrieved 25 February 2014.
- ProQuest 211397084.
- PMID 16124873.
- ^ Marshall, AC (2005). "An Analysis of Uranium Dispersal and Health Effects Using a Gulf War Case Study" (PDF). Sandia National Laboratories. Retrieved 16 July 2012.
- ^ Depleted Uranium Health Effects Archived 2013-04-06 at the Wayback Machine. Web.ead.anl.gov. Retrieved on 2014-05-24.
- ^ Pike, John. "E-8 Joint STARS - Background". Globalsecurity.org. Archived from the original on 19 January 2004.
- ^ Dowd, Maureen (23 February 1991). "WAR IN THE GULF: White House Memo; Bush Moves to Control War's Endgame". The New York Times.
- ISBN 978-0-399-14493-6.
- ^ a b c d Sloyan, Patrick J. (12 September 1991). "Iraqis Buried Alive -- U.S. Attacked With Bulldozers During Gulf War Ground Attack". The Seattle Times. Newsday.
- ^ a b Sloyan, Patrick J. (12 September 1991). "U.S. Tank-Plows Said to Bury Thousands of Iraqis". Los Angeles Times.
- ^ "The gulf war: appendix: Iraqi death toll". Frontline. Retrieved 4 December 2005.
- ^ Simpson, John (2003). The Wars Against Saddam. Basingstoke: MacMillan.[page needed]
- ^ Gellman, Barton (23 June 1991). "ALLIED AIR WAR STRUCK BROADLY IN IRAQ". Washington Post.
- ProQuest 214226378.
- ^ Rubin, Michael (December 2001). "Sanctions on Iraq: A Valid Anti-American Grievance?" (PDF). 5 (4). Middle East Review of International Affairs: 100–115. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2006-09-07.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ "Frontline: War Stories". Pbs.org. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
- ^ Patrice O'Shaughness. "Gulf War POW denounces abuse of Iraqi detainees". New York Daily News. Lexis Nexis Academic. 12 May. 2004. Web. 15 April. 2014
- ^ "The Flight That Changed My Life". Johnnichol.com. Archived from the original on 29 April 2011. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
- ^ "War Story:John Peters". Pbs.org. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
- ^ The One that Got Away by Chris Ryan & Bravo Two Zero by Andy McNab
- ^ "A Woman's Burden". Time magazine. 28 March 2003. Archived from the original on April 4, 2003.
- ^ a b "US pulls out of Saudi Arabia". BBC News. 29 April 2003. Retrieved 29 November 2009.
- ^ Plotz, David (2001) What Does Osama Bin Laden Want? Archived 2011-08-10 at the Wayback Machine, Slate
- ^ Bergen, Peter L. (2001). Holy War Inc. Simon & Schuster. p. 3.
- ^ Yusufzai, Rahimullah (26 September 2001). "Face to face with Osama". The Guardian. London. Archived from the original on 19 January 2008. Retrieved 30 June 2010.
- ^ "Iraq surveys show 'humanitarian emergency'". 12 August 1999. Archived from the original on 6 August 2009. Retrieved 29 November 2009.
- Significance. Archived from the original(PDF) on 2018-07-11. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
- ^ Rubin, Michael (December 2001). "Sanctions on Iraq: A Valid Anti-American Grievance?". 5 (4). Middle East Review of International Affairs: 100–115. Archived from the original on 2012-10-28.
{{cite journal}}
: Cite journal requires|journal=
(help) - ^ a b "Marsh Arabs". Archived from the original on 27 June 2010. Retrieved 1 August 2010.
- ^ a b Jeffrey Pollack (Mar–Apr 2003). "Duke Magazine-Oil Spill-After the Deluge". Duke Magazine. Archived from the original on 2010-06-13. Retrieved 1 February 2011.
- ^ Note: The cited supporting source[39] uses the term Arabian Gulf to name this body of water. This article uses the proper name Persian Gulf. For more information, see the Persian Gulf naming dispute article.
- ^ "V: "Thunder And Lightning"- The War With Iraq (Subsection:The War At Sea)". The United States Navy in "Desert Shield" / "Desert Storm". United States Navy. Archived from the original on 5 December 2006. Retrieved 26 November 2006.
- ISBN 9780785809142.
- ^ Wellman, Robert Campbell (14 February 1999). ""Iraq and Kuwait: 1972, 1990, 1991, 1997." Earthshots: Satellite Images of Environmental Change". earthshots.usgs.gov. U.S. Geological Survey. Archived from the original on 2002-10-28. Retrieved 27 July 2010.
- ^ Husain, T. (1995). Kuwaiti Oil Fires: Regional Environmental Perspectives. Oxford: BPC Wheatons Ltd. p. 68.
- ^ "KUWAITI OIL FIRES - MODELING REVISITED" (PDF).
- ^ a b Wilmington morning Star January 21'st, 1991
- S2CID 4271854.
- ^ S2CID 43394877.
- ^ Hirschmann, Kris. "The Kuwaiti Oil Fires". Facts on File. Archived from the original on 2014-01-02. Retrieved 2017-09-08.
- Nightline. 1991-01-22. ABC. yes.
- S2CID 4261036.
- ISBN 978-0-394-53512-8.
- ^ "PAGE 2 of 2: Burning oil wells could be disaster, Sagan says January 23, 1991". Archived from the original on 2014-10-06. Retrieved 2016-05-07.
- ^ Patrick K. Dowling. "The Meteorological Effects of the Kuwait Oil Fires" (PDF).
- ^ "Photo Search Results". Retrieved 24 March 2015.
- ^ Kuwait Oil Fires. YouTube. 23 January 2012. Archived from the original on 2021-12-22. Retrieved 24 March 2015.