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Period: to
Iraq
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Political: Gulf War
The Gulf War began on January 17, 1991 when an aerial bombing took place in Iraq by coalitiion forces. Their intention was to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait after the invasion in 1990. A ground attack shortly followed the aerial bombing and allowed a victory for the coalition forces. Kuwait became fully liberated when President Bush declared a cease-fire 100 days after the ground attacks. -
Political: No Fly-Zones
The NFZ were established by the US, UK, and France, with the intention to protect humanitarian operations in Northern Iraq and the Shiite Muslims in the south. This did not allow Iraqi planes to enter the 36th parallel extending northwards, or the 33rd parallel extending southwards. -
Political: Cruise Missile Attack
On June 27, 1993 President Bill Clinton ordered a cruise missile attack on Iraqi Intellegence Headquarters. The reason for this attack was retaliation for an attempted assassination of the former US president George H.W. Bush when he was in Kuwait during Mid-April. Between the time of attack, and the time that it ended, the US successfully launched 27 cruise missiles. -
Social: "Oil-For-Food" Program
"Oil-For-Food" was established in 1995 by the United Nations and was termniated in late 2003. Many Iraqi citizens were upset with the sanctions that were imposed because they were taking away their rights to food and medicine. As result this program was made. The purpose of this program was to allow Iraq to sell oil (its main export) on the world market in exchange for commodities for the Iraqi people. These commodities mainly consisted of food and medicine along with other humanitarian needs. -
Economic: Bombing of Iraq
The bombing of Iraq (code name "Operation Desert Fox") was led by the US and the UK and continued over the course of four days. It was a direct result of Iraq's failure to obey the United Nations Security Council. The bombings created major problems regarding the Iraqi Disarmament Crisis. The set goal of these bombings and cruise missile attacks were to disrupt Saddam's ability to maintain his grip on power. -
Social: Uprising in Basra
In 1999, Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Sadiq-al Sadr, who is known the be one of the eldest Shi'ite leaders is killed. Shortly after the news of his death was publically known, there was a major uprising is Basra. This uprising resulted in hundreds of deaths, many of which were by execution. -
Economic: Smart Sanctions
During this time, the eleven year old sanctions against Iraq were replaced with the new "Smart Sanctions" by the UN Security Council. The Smart Sanctions were modified to better fit the needs of Iraqi civilians. The intention of the sanctions were to allow more goods to enter the country, but at the same time, there were more restrictions on the Iraq military. However, many Iraqis did not agree with this move. They had been hoping for the previous sanctions to be lifted completely, and not -
Economic: US Invasion of Iraq
The US invasion of Iraq was led by the US, accompanied by the United Kingdom and smaller sections of Australia and Poland. This invasion marked the beginning of the current Iraq War. Shortly before the invasion, 10,000 US troops met in Kuwait on February 18th. The majority of the troops invading were supplied by the US but there were a few that came from the Kurdish military. The main reasons for this invasion were to disarm Iraq of weapons of mass destruction, to end Saddam Huseein's support** -
Economic: Iraq War
The Iraq war is also known as the occupation of Iraq, the second Gulf war, Operation Iraqi Freedom, and Operation New Dawn. This is an ongoing military campaign that started directly after the invasion of Iraq by US forces. The US and UK strongly believed that Iraq was in possession of WMD that posed a threat to their security. After thoroughly investigating Iraq, the US found that they were no longer running their nuclear chemical and biological programs that they had been running in 1991 *** -
Social: First Free Election
On January 30, 2005, the people of Iraq had their first free election in over 50 years. They were voting to select a 257-seat National Assembly. Because the Iraqi people were not used to this, and there were some who were still against the right to vote for their leader, fights broke out. There were many threats of violence, including three deadly suicide bombings and mortar strikes at polling stations all across Iraq. It was recorded that at leat 17 people were killed, including 5 policemen. *