Papaer 2 – The gulf War

Now answer all the following questions. You may use any of the sources to
help you answer the questions, in addition to those sources which you are
told to use. In answering the questions you should use your knowledge of
the topic to help you interpret and evaluate the sources.
1) Study Sources A and B.
How different are these two sources? Explain your answer using details of
the sources.
Source A and B have some similitudes such us that they both are about
Saddam Hussein in Kuwait or the invasion. How dangerous was that and
that Iraq was winning a lot of power and causing fear in people.
In the other hand, they are very different because source A is about a bad
image of Saddam, a lot of people and Generals were afraid of him. At one
point he offered to go away from Kuwait but his invasion was used as an
excuse to invade and paralyze Iraq. If he stilled in Kuwait, someone will
invade Iraq at the same time. Saddam living Kuwait would ruin those
plans. And in source B contradict source A because it is about how
Saddam refused to go out of Kuwait, no one could take I out, they tried
peacefully and it wasn’t successful so they had to try with military forces,
invasions and sanctions.
2) Study Sources C and D.
Does Source D make Source C surprising? Explain your answer using
details of the sources and your knowledge.
Yes, source D make source C surprising because in source D says that Iraq
was trying t and proposing to have peacefully negotiations with Kuwait
and to make friendship with America. This source shows that Iraq was
trying to solve the problem peacefully and the other countries involved
were refusing to do it that way. The USA made that Kuwait ignore the
normal diplomacy. And in source C, Iraq is seeing show as a bad country
that wasn’t helping at all and that was doing things bad. For example Iraq
didn’t propose to leave Kuwait. Also a really long time passes between
sources which a lot of things changed.
 3) Study Source E.
What is the message of this cartoon? Explain your answer using details of
the source and your knowledge.
The message of this cartoon is that at first the grave was an oil drum and
slowly it started to transform into a normal grave, representing the death
of someone because of the war. And when they put the US flag on top
that means the death of a soldier. A huge amount of people were
suffering and Bush didn’t care about this. The text that says “You’ve
thought this through right Gorge?” is about how the president of that
moment that was Bush cared more about oil than deaths, Bush was ready
to sacrifice people to have what he wanted.

4) Study Sources F and G.

How far do these two cartoonists agree? Explain your answer using details
of the sources and your knowledge.
This too cartoonist agree because both sources are about how Saddam
Hussein was doing whatever he wanted and no one stopped him, like we
see in the source F, Saddam was following the ideas, the way of rolling and
control same as Hitler. This source is blaming Saddam because of his
actions. On the other hand, the other cartoonist shows how diplomacy
wasn’t working at all and it was being stepped on by the leaders. Showing
that it wasn’t just the blame of Saddam, the US was also involved. Source
F shows Saddam Hussein with a mini Hitler in is shoulder, representing
how Saddam followed Hitler´s actions, for example Hitler is saying: “…and
then, if they still do nothing, you gobble up another neighbor…!’’ This is an
Australian cartoon, published in August 1990. Source G shows a soldier
feet with the label U.S force build-up about to step over a table with an
angry man sitting with the label diplomacy. In front of the US solider there
is another soldier but labeled Saddam´s defiance, also about to step on
the man and diplomacy. It talks about how everyone was involved and
how destroying diplomacy were and Kuwait was stuck in the middle. This
is an Us cartoon, published in the second half of 1990.
 5) Study Source H.
How useful is this source to a historian studying events in the Gulf in
1990–91? Explain your answer using details of the source and your
knowledge.
Yes, is useful because Even though it has comments from the United
States, it is reliable because it tells you what each person feels about the
situation and what they were experiencing. In this source an American
Official is talking about how he wrote a letter but Mr. Aziz, (an Iraqi leader)
refused to take it because of the language that was used. He said that “the
language in the letter was not compatible with the language that should
be use in correspondence between heads of state”. What this shows is
that the Iraqis wasn’t willing to negotiate peace. It´s important to know
what each leader thinks and that Mr. Aziz was really strict.

6) Study all the sources.

How far do these sources provide convincing evidence that the USA was
responsible for the outbreak of military hostilities in January 1991? Use
the sources to explain your answer.
 FOR AGAINST
- Source D: The USA
government encourage
Kuwait to ignore normal
diplomacy. Peace wasn’t
going to work if no one
cooperates.
- Source E: President of that
moment care more about
wining what he wanted than
people lives.
- Source G: This is another
example of the USA stepping
on diplomacy.
- Source A: Saddam Hussein
caused a lot of conflict and
trouble because he invaded
Kuwait, making countries
argue.
- Source B: Saddam extremely
refused to get out of Kuwait
and everyone feared him.
- Source C: In this source we
see how Iraq was being a
terrible country and
influence because from the
POV of the USA he wasn’t
fighting for peace.
- Source F: This source clearly
shows how Saddam was out
of control and was following
Hitler’s plans and way of
controlling people, which
helped him to advance really
quickly.

Gathering all the information from the sources we can say that they
provide a lot convincing evidence that the USA was responsible of the war,
but they also show that there were other responsible too. The blame is
shared with other countries and leaders.
In one hand the USA had a lot of guilt because his response to everything
was with army, military forces and always in disagreement. For example in
Source D when Saddam was offering peace or at least trying to do some
pacific negotiations the USA was not satisfied at all, Iraq wasn’t proposing
the exact thing that the US wanted so they never agree on something. This
was really bad for the war because being enemies with other countries
instead on allies or fiends could ruin lives and relations. Another huge
example is that the president of that time (George Bush) didn’t care at all
about other people’s lives, he didn’t even try to hide it, and in source E we
see how he was more interested in his goal that was having the oil than
his soldier´s life. This cartoon of the tomb represent a lot of death along
the fights. Similar to source D, in source G we see a carton that explains
perfectly the situation in that moment, showing how a US soldier was
about and almost stepping diplomacy. Bush was a terrible man, he was
extremely focus in war and not in peace.
On the other hand, the USA don’t have to accept all the blame because
the other countries wasn’t very saint full, one terrible responsible was
Saddam Hussein, in source A we see that one of the reasons of
disagreement was that he invaded Kuwait, he stayed there for a really
long time and he refused to go away. He didn’t have good reasons to do it,
and if he really wanted to help with peace he would cooperate more. The
US request for some agreement was that Saddam had to leave Kuwait, but
again, he refused. This caused a lot of discontent in people, leaders and
countries. Source B also talks about how people because of the Kuwait
invasion feared him. Iraq had a huge influence in the whole war situation,
in source C we see how Iraq continued being a terrible country, led by
Saddam who was harsh and without compassion. The last evidence of
USA not being the only responsible is that in source F we see a clearly
cartoon of Saddam Hussein with a mini Hitler in his shoulder, with a text
explaining how to rule people, if they didn’t do whatever he wanted they
should be killed or punished. With this Hitter’s plans and advice, Saddam
was unstoppable, he invaded a lot of countries and because of the fear
everyone had, no one opposed him.
As a conclusion we can deduce that we have certain evidence of USA
being responsible but I think we have more convincing evidence of
Saddam Hussein being even guiltier. He had worse actions that made the
war a horrible time.