Conflict and Tension - Section 3

• After the 1st Gulf War there were many uprisings against Hussein and initially rebel forces captured a number of important cities.
• However Saddam regained control and launched a brutal against the Shia and Kurds amogst others.
• Kurds - Saddam's regime had a history of attacking the Kurdish because they had supported Iran in the Iran-Iraq war and they wanted an independent Kurdish state free from Iraq.
• Shia's- Saddam disliked the Shia's within Iraq as he was a Sunni Muslim and during the Iran-Iraq war they had become radicalised against him and threatened him - disagreed with them.
• Hussein attacked the Kurds through the use of chemical weaponry to destroy their villages, there was an increase in violence after the 1991 uprisings and it was estimated 1,330,000 Kurds fled to Iran, Turkey and the Turkish border.
• Hussein targeted Shia Muslims after the 1991 uprisings who lived between the two rivers in South Iraq - diverted the river, turning their land into a desert and removing their food supply. Villages in this area were also destroyed by Iraqi military and wells containing water were poisoned delibrately.
• Little direct support was given to the groups trying to overthrow Saddam despite the fact Iraq was becoming well known for its inhumane torture and treatment.

Reasons Why Intervention Did Not Happen:

• America did not want to become involved in internal affairs in Iraq.
• Britiain and the US did consider intervening at first, however decided against it because the removal of Saddam Hussein might have caused more unrest, rather than decreasing it.
• The US supported Turkey - giving them finacial and military aid. However the Kurds in Iraq were trying to create an independent state - this meant the US couldn't intervene as it meant actively supporting Kurdish independence in Iraq, but not in Turkey - if so it would cause conflict so therefore the Americans were reluctant to intervene.

• The UN decided to put another round of snactions in place against Hussian after his appalling treatment of the Shia's and the Kurds.

The Sanctions:

• In 1991, UN Resoloution 688 was passed - created a safe haven for the Kurds under US troop protection.
• There were no fly zones put in place - Iraqi troops couldn't fly over these places in order to protect innocent civillians from being attacked.
• Hussein was banned from possesing any WMD's and UNSCOM was set up to inspect their nuclear sites and destroy any WMD's they had.
• Trade and military sanctions were put in place.

Impact:

• Povery , disease and starvation - UN offices reported high levels of child death, malnutrition and hospitals being unable to cope with basic demmands as without their oil revenue they were unable to import food and medicine.

• Despite a decade of sanctions and the occasional bombing Sddam remained in power, however the Iraqi military was weakened and UN reporters stated that 90% of their chemical and biological weapon sites were destroyed.
• However, Sddam's rule was tighter than ever and the Anti-American propaganda had increased. UN inspectors found their job more difficult as they were prevented from entering sites by huge crowds of Saddam's supporters - with them being thrown out altogether later.

WMD's:

• Military Intervention: George W Bush included Iraq in his 'Axis of Evil' speech alongside Iran and NK after 9/11 - the case for US intervention was backed consistently by PM Blair.
• As far as Bush and Blair were concerned their arguments for intervention  against Iraq were focused on possesion of WMD's

For:

• US and UK Intellegince claimed he had WMD's ready to use in 2-3 years.
• He had previously sent UN inspectors away - raising suspicions he had illegal weapons.
• Saddam called for Jihad to liberate Palestine and destroy Israel - Israel were a main ally of America and conflict could reduce their power in the are - threaten oil supply and troops there.
• Bush suspected Saddam had linls to AL-Qaeda - providing them with weapons, training and intelligence - Saddam had supported terrorist organisations in the past and a member of his government met with reps. of Al-Qaeda in 1995.

Against:

• In Februrary 2003 the UN had found no WMD's in Iraq.
• The accuracy of UK and US intelligence was questioned.
• Arms sales in Russia,France and China made up 90% of Iraq's weapon imports - they didn't want this interrupted.
• Later found there was no cooperation between Hussein and Al-Qaeda - Saddam did not support the 9/11 attacks and none of the terrorists from 9/11 were Iraq.

• France announced it would veto any resoloution put before the UN that might allow an attack on Iraq - perhaps so it could continue its trade with Iraq as war would interrupt this.
• Germany and NZ also opposed the war despite being allies of America - they questioned how legal the intervention in Iraq was; demonstrated through the world wide protests.
• Arab states worried about the aggressive actions of Americ and Britian - the prescence of US troops was no longer desired by Saudis - US was being percieved as imperialistic.
• Bush used the word 'crusade' to describe the intervention and worried the Muslim world.
• However the US and the UK did get the support of 48 countries and this was called the ''Coallition of the Willing'.
• The UK, US, Australia and Poland were willing to lend soldiers to the invasion.

• On March 17th 2003, President Bush announced that he was allowing Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq or face war, and failure to do so would lead to the forceful disarming of Iraq.
• On March 20th, when his ultimatum was ignored US,UK,Australian and Polish troops invaded Iraq with 160,000 troops invlolved.
• The main target was Basra, and the attack also included strikes on key locations.
• Coallition forces were joined by Kurdish rebels during the attack.
• At the beginning, Hussein ordered the attack of SCUD missiles - technically a WMD but not at the level the US and UK had reported he had - these types of weapons were never found.

• Most of Iraqi's forces were quickly defeated, despite sandstorms and Saddam's Republic Guard slowing down and it looked like the invasion would be over quickly.
• Baghdad was occupied on April 9th and 2 weeks later Coallition forces claimed to have occupied the whole country - although some areas still needed to be captured.
• Saddam and other leaders went into hiding with Saddam being captured in December 2003.
• Hussein was found guilty of murder and torture in November 2005 and he was hung in December 2005.

Iraq falls apart:

• Tribal warlords and religious leaders want to extend their power.
• Because of the borders, Sunni's, Shia's and Kurds turn against eachother and there was no government or order there to stop them.

Police and Civil authorities fall apart:

• Shia militia was growing and Sunni's were preparing to defend themselves from the Shia militia.
• Kurds were looking to establish their independent provinence.

Maintaining Order and Stability:

• An interim government was created - The PM was Allawi (Shiite), the president was Yamer (Sunni) the VP was Kurdish. Through this all the major grops had a rep - feel as if they were being spoken for.

Civil War:

• Despite the interim government being put in place, the US troops were struggling to stop a civil war from breaking out.

al Sistani:

• V important in making the democratic elections happen - he told 15 million Shiite Muslims to go out and vote as it was their relgious duty.
•  Showed restraint when under attack from SUnni Muslims - bombings, shootings etc. in Shia areas.

al-Jafaari:

• Despite the troubles between the different groups of Muslims millions of Iraqis voted for his transiotional government (2005-6).

al-Sadr:

• Between 2004-8 he rivaled Sistani by urging his Shia forces to rise up against America and he became linked to the Mahai army who had 500,00 armed follwers that had captured Basra and Sadr City.

al-Maliki:

• Assumed power after Jafaari's government fell and dominated Iraq's politcs from 2006.
• Picked by the CIA and dependent on US troops to stay in power, he also promised to stop insurgencies but failed - 2 million Sunni Muslims died and thousands more fled; as a result violence stopped.

• In 2007, Bush ordered a troop surge in Iraq to try help deal with the insurgencies - 20,000 more were sent in, and there was also an increase in the finacial aid that America sent to Iraq.
• This led to the Sunni Muslims ending their parliament boycott.
• In 2008, the number of casulties decreased and Sadr and other Shia warlords agreed to disarm, with Sadr 'just' organising civil disobediance rather than serious things.
• By 2009, the US were able to plan the removal of their troops with Maliki's government remaining in charge.
• On January 1st 2001, Iraqi forces took control of the green zone.
• 2009- oil buisness was recovered and there was the lowest death rate in Iraq since the war.
• Obama planned the removal of troops for 2010.

• There was corruption and bribery everywhere - although Iraq was rich the people weren't.
• Electricity,Sewage disposal, and Water were unreliable.
• Death toll was 100,000-150,000 with some estimates being 400,000.
• Terrorism and violence was common.
• 2.7 million people in Iraq were homeless and there was a refugee crisis.
• When US troops were withdrwan from Iraq in 2009, there was an increase in violence.
• There was still widespread opposition to the West's involvment in Iraq.
• Gas reserves were being burned off and wasted.