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 Middle Eastern states, launched an offensive against Iraq and its leader, Saddam Hussein, in response to the Iraqi invasion of neighboring Kuwait. This offensive was the first direct involvement of American troops in the Middle East since World War II. At the outset, there were fears that this might become another Vietnam, a war on enemy territory which would drag the United States into an extended conflict and prove to be a drain on the economy and the national wi...