1. Conflicts in Iraq Victory Parade for Operation Desert Storm
Military personnel carry a huge American flag through New York City during a ticker tape victory parade for Operation Desert Storm. Image: © Joseph Sohm; ChromoSohm Inc./CORBIS June 1991

2. Middle East Quick Quiz
How much do you know about the middle east? 5 quiz questions
1) Who created most of the borders and countries of the Middle East?
a. France and England
b. Jordan and Syria
c. Saudi Arabia
d. The United Nations
e. The United States

3. Middle East Quick Quiz
How much do you know about the middle east? 5 quiz questions
2) What language is spoken in most of the Middle East?
Which country in the Middle East is considered most holy to Muslims?

4. Middle East Quick Quiz
How much do you know about the middle east? 5 quiz questions
4) What is the most populous Islamic country in the world?
a. Egypt
b. Indonesia
c. Iran
d. Saudi Arabia

5. Middle East Quick Quiz
How much do you know about the middle east? 5 quiz questions
5) Which of following is Iraq? D C A B

6. Middle East Quick Quiz
How much do you know about the middle east? 5 quiz questions
Answers!!
1. A
2. Arabic
3. Saudi Arabia
4. B (196 million people)
5. C

7. Iraq Basics
Where?

8. Iraq Basics Who? Ethnic Groups A. Arabs 2/3 of Iraq B. Kurds
1/4 of Iraq & present in Turkey, Syria, and Iran
Own language & customs and traditions
Brutally suppressed in Iraq – demands for self determination

9. Iraq Basics: Religion A. Shiite B. Sunni 3/5 of the population
Closest ally = Iran
B. Sunni
2/5th of population
90% of world’s Muslims
Saddam Hussein & the Baath Party = Sunni
C. History of violence going back to the 7th century = sites of martyrdom = in Iraq!

10. Iraqi History A. British Mandate C. Military Coups
Post WWII British control &
British established the Iraqi monarchy – King Faysal had never been to Iraq! (but he had been to Oxford University)
C. Military Coups
1958 – first coup – Iraqi Royal family murdered
1963 – next military coup establishes the Sunni dominated Baath Party as ruling party
King Faisal I of Iraq
Original caption: Death of King Faisal. Faisal, King of Iraq, whose sudden death is just announced.
Image: © Hulton-Deutsch Collection/CORBIS
Date Photographed: ca. 1930

11. The Baath Party and the rise of Saddam Hussein
1963 – 1979 Internal struggle for power within the Baath Party (Saddam Hussein slowly rises through the ranks of the military)
1972 The Arab Socialist Baath Party = signed a treaty of friendship with the Soviet Union
1972 Iraq nationalizes the Iraq Petroleum Company
1979 President resigns and is replaced by Saddam Hussein, his deputy

12. Iran-Iraq War (1980 – 1988) A. Iraq’s Goals:
Remove Iran’s leaders, gain oil-land, & unite the Iraqi people and the Baaths behind Saddam
B. How?
Long brutal war, including use of chemical weapons on both sides – and military support for both sides from both the US and USSR
UN creates a peace deal
C. Results
Iraq left with big war debt
1 million dead on both sides
Iran’s Shia government support for anti Saddam forces within Iraq

13. Persian Gulf War (UN action against Iraq)
Why?
1.Iraq’s claimed the land of Kuwait
2. Claimed Kuwait was stealing oil from Iraq (“slant drilling”)
3. $ owed to countries Kuwait
4.Hussein thought no one would stop him

14. Persian Gulf War (UN action not just US)
What happened??
US invades w/full UN backing
US bombs Iraqi military & civilian infrastructure
We make no attempt to hold Iraqi towns or capture Saddam Hussein
Destroyed Vehicles Along Kuwaiti Highway
Destroyed cars and trucks line Kuwait's "Highway of Death" during the Persian Gulf War. The name was given to the stretch of road leading north out of Kuwait City which, while clogged with retreating Iraqi forces, was furiously bombed by coalition forces, killing most on it.
Image: © Peter Turnley/CORBIS

15. Persian Gulf War Pictures
Kuwait Oil Well Fires from Space
View from the space shuttle Atlantis of black smoke billowing from burning oil wells in Kuwait, which were set ablaze by retreating Iraqi troops at the end of the
Persian Gulf War.
Image: Digital image © 1996 CORBIS; Original image courtesy of NASA/CORBIS

16. Persian Gulf War Pictures
George Bush and Saddam Hussein on CNN Television Broadcast
The faces of the US President George Bush and the leader of Iraq Saddam Hussein on a CNN television broadcast during the Gulf War, 1990.
Image: © Zen Icknow/CORBIS
Photographer: Zen Icknow
Date Photographed: January 1990

17. Persian Gulf War (the 1st one!)
Results?
UN Peace Terms:
Iraq accepts border with Kuwait, surrenders all WMDs, destroys all WMD production capability – agrees to regular inspections
Iraq can sell oil in exchange for food & medicine
Above Iraq = a no fly zone
Kurds given semi-autonomous zone in the North of Iraq

18. 1991 – 2002 Between the Wars
Saddam Hussein had been defeated and forced to comply with the conditions of the peace.
Dangers for his rule:
Internal Party overthrow?
Sanctions = drop in economic activity and rapid increase in poverty rates?
Attempted Shia uprising in Southern Iraq
Regular strategic bombing by US air force
IAEA making regular inspections

19. 1991-2002 Between the Wars How did Saddam keep his hold on Iraq?
Used Chemical weapons against the Shiites in the South
Refused to allow IAEA inspectors into Iraq from on. (US launch a bombing campaign to destroy Iraq’s WMD program)
Propaganda campaign in defiance of the international community
Launched a military campaign against the Kurds in the North

20. Second Iraq War
Bush Doctrine: Doctrine of pre-meditative war – claims that after 9/11 there is no option
Why?:Bush argues Iraq is a threat because of WMDs
How? First US pushes for tighter inspections, then invades claiming Hussein was not cooperating

21. March 2003 – Ultimatum and Response
US and UK – after failing to get UN support for an invasion – give Saddam Hussein an ultimatum – 48 hours to fully co operate with inspectors or they will invade.
20 March – US and UK forces launch an air attack on Baghdad
9 April – Baghdad falls to American forces
President Bush declares “ Mission Accomplished

22. What Challenges did the Americans face in helping to re-build Iraq?
Ethnic divisions
Political divisions
Religious divisions
Infrastructure Collapse
Government Legitimacy
Local Attitudes to the Invasion?
Economic restructuring
Foreign relations – particularly with neighbors