Operation Desert Storm
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The Gulf War occurred when Iraq invaded nearby Kuwait and proceeded to try to destroy the infrastructure of the country, even to setting fire to the oil fields and dumping oil into the Gulf, endangering the ecology of the region. There was no moral justification for the original invasion, and repelling this invasion was seen as a just cause. The world community agreed that this was so. Operation Desert Storm was viewed as one of the signal successes of the Bush Administration. The war had its critics, but in general it was seen as (and touted as by the Bush Administration) a necessary action, a well-coordinated military operation, and an instance of American success after many years of failures, or at best inaction. The war produced an environmental nightmare as the Iraqi forces tried to destroy the Kuwaiti oil fields by setting them on fire and by spilling some of the oil reserves into the waters of the Gulf. While it was acknowledged that environmental economic issues were involved at the end of the war, it was not always acknowledged that they were essential in bringing about the American response in the first place. President Bush promoted the war as a necessary action to curb Iraqi aggression and to protect the integrity of Kuwait, but this underplayed the real role of the Kuwaiti oil fields and the American need for a continuation of delivery of that oil.In the fall of 1990 the United States, in conjunction with a number of other nations, including several Midd
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ecessary to do so (Amin 14-15).
Tanzer agrees with part of this assessment, also finding that the U.S. foreign policy with reference to oil has always been geared to maintaining as much U.S. control as possible over non-renewable resources, especially oil. Tanzer also notes that for most of the history of oil production, this has been accomplished by a combination of high domestic production and the ownership of foreign crude oil by U.S. companies. However, over the last two decades there has been a serious fragmentation in the industry and a decline in U.S. hegemony, and a variety of factors have been involved in this and responsible for this. Tanzer concludes: "Turning now to the Persian Gulf crisis, it seems clear that oil politics was the key factor which precipitated the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait" (Tanzer 264). More than this, oil politics played a role in the Western response, and this is likely to continue in the future in spite of the "new world order":
Since the region is likely to be in turmoil for a long time to come, there will tend to be a continuing impulse by oil imperialists to play the role of local policeman. For those who will oppose such a role, it is important to keep in mind that the politically powe
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Approximate Word count = 1664
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)
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