The Persian Gulf War (1990-1991)

An Iraqi tank sets fire to Kuwait’s oil fields.

In two sentences, what happened?

1. The President of Iraq, Saddam Hussein, ordered the invasion of Kuwait.

2. About 32 countries, including the US, pushed Saddam’s army out of Kuwait.

The war was over as soon as it started

• America and the Coalition’s forces totaled 880,000 soldiers– Iraq killed about 400 of them.

• Iraq’s forces totaled 360,000 soldier– The coalition killed about 25,000 of them

So what happened when Iraq lost the Persian Gulf war?

• Saddam Hussein, President of Iraq, agreed to obey certain rules.

• Saddam said he would let weapons inspectors from the United Nations make sure he would not ever build certain weapons.

But Saddam did NOT stick to the agreement.

• From 1991 - 2003, Iraq built whatever weapons they wanted to!!

• Saddam refused to let UN weapons inspectors into Iraq.

• After 9-11-2001, the UN was sick and tired of Saddam’s behavior. They told Saddam to cut it out, or suffer “grave consequences.”

• So guess what happened next.

2003 - We invade Iraq

…and the Iraqis put Saddam on

trial… and found him guilty.

Bye, bye Saddam…

Iraqis convicted Saddam of several crimes… and sentence him to death

6 years later, we’re still helping Iraq rebuild its own government