In August of 1990 Iraq started its long and vicious attack on Kuwait leaving thousands dead from their torturous reign as Kuwait's dictator. Kuwait, as defenseless as it was, had no chance against Iraq's small but mighty forces. It took a collection of United State's, Britain's, and France's elite to put an end to Iraq's torment on the small country. The torture and torment inflicted upon Kuwaitis during Iraq's occupation of Kuwait however, has many more reasons than first appears.
'Iraq's occupation forces intended to erase the conquered nation's identity.' (Strasser 36) Iraq intended on doing this by blotting out every sign of Kuwaiti life within Kuwait. The Iraqi forces did this in many ways. Strasser reported that 'blotting out the word 'Kuwait' on road signs was one tactic, ripping off the fingernails of people displaying the emir's picture was another.' There is a reasoning behind erasing Kuwait's identity that seems important to Iraq; to take from the rich and give to the poor; a sort of Robin Hood justification.
Map of the territories of a Greater Iraq as has be...
Von Irakern angezündete Ölförderanlagen in Kuwa...
kellyAlthough trying to justify what Iraq did to the Kuwaitis is futile, Iraq did what any starving animal in the wild would do, steal from its neighbor. 'The occupiers looted Kuwait as a matter of policy, reasoning that the wealth of the 19th province was needed elsewhere in greater Iraq.' (Strasser 36) Iraqis showed no mercy when it came to looting. 'The city the Iraqis left behind appeared to have been worked over by a huge army of drunken teenage vandals. They stole everything they could, from air conditioners to cigarettes, in a citywide smash and grab.' (Kelly 22) No reasoning can make what Iraq did right the torment the Kuwaitis endured is unnerving.
Very little escaped the Iraqis, 'What the Iraqis could not steal, they destroyed, in an...