War Without Victory

Nominally, the United States achieved victory in the first Gulf War. However, the decades of fighting in the Middle East, punctuated by the second Gulf War demonstrate that the United States was not victorious in that war. However, equally clear is the fact that Iraq was not victorious. This paper examines the politics behind the Gulf War including deterrence, diplomacy, power struggles, and military and political implications to come to the conclusion that there was no victor in the Gulf War.

In August of 1990, Saddam Hussein, the leader of Iraq, ordered an invasion of Kuwait (A&E, 2013). This action alarmed other countries in the area, and these countries asked for intervention from other countries and from the United Nations. The United Nations Security Council responded by ordering Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. The United States, working with and through the United Nations, attempted to use deterrence...
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