Gulf War Vs. Today

In the early nineties, the United States' effort during the Gulf war was primarily centered on regaining and maintaining stability in Kuwait. When Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the United States realized that the best stance for our country to take was with Kuwait's best interest at hand. Step one in the quest to regain stability within the region began with ousting Saddam Hussein's Army from the area, and was followed by a barrage of stabilizing maneuvers. In this case the US needed to make clear that their definition of stability meant restoring Kuwait to a sate of "business as usual" with the least amount of major political revisions.

President Bush showed much determination in the wartime effort to liberate Kuwait but his determination to restructure Kuwait in the wake of the war was even greater (1). The trail of destruction that followed the invasion of Saddam's army, and the instability left from the Gulf War left Kuwait with an unstable government and an unstable chain of command in the Middle East. The U.S.'s goal on restoring stability to the region meant that they would have to help restore its government. The U.S. knew that they did not want to take full responsibility for the war stricken region so decisions had to be made on how they could create a stable system of government. Before the war even began the decision to leave Saddam Hussein in power had already been made. (1) Taking him out of power would mean more instability for the neighboring country's and would most likely affect trade to many other countries. The repositioning of a leader and plan of Government was finally selected for Kuwait restoring what America decided was an acceptable amount of stability to the region. The Liberation of Kuwait and the restoration of the emir were two big victories in the U.S.'s quest for stability for the Arab Street.

Another goal that was completed by the United States in the stabilization of Kuwait was the destruction of Iraq's offensive capabilities (1). The reconstruction and stabilization of Kuwait would have been much more difficult with Saddam still hammering offensive maneuvers at them during their rehabilitation. This ensured stability in the region by calming the hearts and minds of the civilians within the area and lengthening the time in which Saddam could regain his fighting force to a point where the U.S. could stabilize Kuwait without further disruption from Saddam's army.

After the successful stabilization of Kuwait, the United States decided that Kuwait had the power to run its own government and carry on by itself. The U.S. was unaware that within a matter of years they would be sending troops back to the Middle-East to rid Saddam from power altogether. In 2003 President Bush decided that there was reason to believe that Saddam possessed weapons of mass destruction that threatened the well-being of the U.S. Within weeks American force was back in the Middle-East.

While America would love to believe that the reason that the United States is back in Iraq to restore peace and stability to the region, it would be ignorant to state this as our main goal. The main goal for our current stay in Iraq is to restore peace and stability to the United States rather than Iraq. With the threat of weapons of mass destruction and the importance of our economic dependence within the region, the United States was scared of what could happen next.

The first task at hand was to find and take control of the weapons of mass destruction before the thought of another terrorist attack on the U.S. riddled Americans minds any longer. President Bush sent weapons inspectors into Iraq but no weapons of mass destruction were to be found (4). Bush was not happy with the outcome