f Israel have further fanned the fires of Arab nationalism.
The fall of the Shah of Iran in 1979 brought to power in that country the Ayatollah Khomeini. The Ayatollah had a strong grudge against Saddam Hussein both because of the way Iraq had treated Khomeini during his period of exile, because of Saddam Hussein's suppression of the Shi'a segment of the Iraqi population, and because Saddam Hussein's government attempted to undermine the position of the Khomeini government in Iran. These several issues led to the eight-year war between Iran and Iraq that ended about two years before Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990.
Lastly, the world crude oil market crashed in the late-1980s. The ensuing drop in crude oil prices, together with the decrease in demand for the product, placed great financial pressures on producing countries such as Iraq. Iraq was among those member countries of OPEC (Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries) that wanted to control production to raise prices. Kuwait, for whatever reason, increased production and helped keep the price down. Saddam Hussein suspected that the United States persuaded Kuwait to take that action, although the Bush Administration in the United States denied the allegation.
Nevertheless, Iraqi actions and statements signaled that, if Kuwait did not reverse its position on crude oil production, Iraq would act against Kuwait. American policy statements warned Iraq against such action. American actions toward Iraq, however, appeared to indicate that no hostile American intervention would occur.
The combination of all of the factors discussed above led to the situation in which Iraq first determined to become a strong military power and second eventually invaded Kuwait in August 1990. The Bush Administration acted as if the Iraqi action was the most surprising thing the world had ever seen, and the only explanation offered for the Iraqi actions was that the country's leader, S...