The Second Gulf War - a History

It's ANZAC Day here in Australia.  A day on which Australians are supposed to reflect on war and the glory it bestowes upon those who took part.

The war that has most occupied my thinking since September 11, 2001, has been the Second Gulf War.  Why?  Because of the utter insanity of that war, and the lies told to "sell" that war to the world.

Here's my take on it:

1988:
After nearly ten years of war against Iran, Iraq (America's proxy),  called it quits.  Iraq had lost 350,000 dead and five times that number wounded - it was exhausted.  But America was not happy that Iraq was no longer killing Iranians on its behalf.  All of a sudden, now that he was no longer America's favourite "strong man", Saddam Hussein was branded an "evil dictator".

Iraq also had a long-standing territorial dispute with Kuwait, going right back to when the colonial Brits had drawn lines on middle eastern maps with their flair for "divide and conquer" strategies.  Kuwait had also started massive slant drilling operations at the border with Iraq, plundering Iraqi oil deposits and undercutting the price of oil thus
seriously damaging Iraq's war-ravaged economy.

1990-2003:
The American ambassador to Iraq gave Saddam good reason to believe that the US would not intervene if he invaded Kuwait - virtually giving Saddam the green light to invade.   Had America threatened Saddam with massive military intervention, analysts these days overwhelmingly agree that the First Gulf War would never have happened.  But be that as it may, George Bush (snr) understood the importance of leaving Saddam in power because his (Sunni) regime effectively controlled the majority pro-Iranian Shia population of Iraq.

2003-2019:
George Bush (Jnr), manipulated by the neocons, and too stupid to understand the forces at work in Iraq, launched the Second Gulf War in 2003 and destroyed the regime of  Saddam Hussein.  As a result, a massive pro-Iranian (Shia) political force took over Iraq and the Sunni population, having been sidelined, mounted an aggressive insurgency, attracting al Qaeda and other foreign (Sunni) fighters to its cause 

In neighbouring Syria, a Sunni insurgency was also under way.  Soon these Sunni insurgencies joined forces and formed what became Islamic State (ISIS) - a "terrorist" organsation hundreds of times bigger than al-Qaeda was in September 2001.

The former Chief Strategist in the Office of the Coordinator for Counterterrorism of the US State Department, David Kilcullen, has said that "There undeniably would be no ISIS if we had not invaded Iraq."

America waged war against these Sunni "terrorists" and supported, armed, and trained Iraq's (Shia-dominated) government in Baghdad, apparently oblivious to the fact that the Shia were loyal to Iran.  

Who won the Second Gulf War?  Iran did.  Hands down.  And there's little America can do about it now. Game, set, and match.  Unless of course America wants to score a second own goal by invading Iran...  That would be fun...  Not...

And what of the Trump regime?  Trump has alienated America's "allies" to such an extent that it is questionable whether they would join America in invading Iran anytime soon. Trump has shown America's true (self interest) colours, and its "allies" have long memories.   Trust, once broken takes a long time to re-establish.

Thanks to Trump's idiotic presidency, global power has shifted away from America and more towards Europe, China and Russia.

We live in interesting times. 
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Gerry Binder 
Vietnam veteran