We tend to call the 1990-91 conflict the Gulf War this was not the first Gulf war in this region. From 1980 to 1988 Iraq fought a bloody war against its neighbor Iran. In 1980 Iraqi invaded over a border dispute over the ownership of the Shatt Al Arab waterway which borders the two countries.
The Waterway was so clogged with silt and debris it was now useless. The war left Iraq with over $80 billion worth of debts mainly to Kuwait.
It was these tacticsy of chemical and artillery bombardment, which the Coalition forces were expecting during the later Gulf war, and these debts, which were the seeds of that future conflict.
There are several reasons why Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. "After the 8 year war with Iran over territorial disputes and religious rivalries, Iraq had a massive debt to many Arab nations including Kuwait."
WHO ARE THE OPPRESSORS? AND WHAT DO THEY WANT? Cont.
The Arab emirates were afraid that the Islamic fundamentalists would rise against the government and eventually take over the government as they had Iran against the Shah.
In 1990 Iraq was in severe financial difficulties the price of oil was low and Iraq relied on this as its main source of income. It accused Kuwait of overproducing and flooding the market with cheap oil. Kuwait agreed to lower production but this failed to pacify Sadamm Hussein.
He had a second grievance with Kuwait that of the Rumalia oil field in northern Kuwait. The Iraqis owned half this oil field and wanted the rest of it, so they accused the Kuwaitis of stealing oil from the Iraqi half of the oil field.
In the years that followed, U.S. and British aircraft patrolled skies and mandated a no-fly zone over Iraq, while Iraqi authorities made effort to frustrate the carrying out of the peace terms.
This resulted in a brief resumption of hostilities in 1998, after Iraq refused to admit weapons inspectors. In addition, Iraqi force regularly exchanged fire with U.S. and British aircraft over the no-fly zone.
Department of Defence, The war in Iraq: ADF operations in the Middle East in 2003 (Canberra: Department of Defence, 2004)
Jim Molan, Running the war in Iraq: An Australian general, 300,000 troops, the bloodiest conflict of our time (Sydney: HarperCollins, 2008)
John Mortimer and David Stevens (eds), Presence, power projection and sea control: the RAN in the Gulf, 1990–2009 (Canberra: Sea Power Centre – Australia, 2009)
Marcus Fielding, Red Zone Baghdad: my war in Iraq (Sydney: Big Sky, 2011)
J. Bickerton, 43 days: the Gulf War (Melbourne: Text Publishing and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 1991)
Peter Dennis, et al., The Oxford companion to Australian military history (Melbourne: Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, 2008)
David Horner, Australia and the “New World Order”: from peacekeeping to peace enforcement 1988–1991 (Melbourne: Cambridge University Press, 2011)
David Horner, The Gulf commitment: the Australian Defence Force’s first war (Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, 1991)
John Mortimer and David Stevens (eds), Presence, power projection and sea control: the RAN in the Gulf, 1990–2009 (Canberra: Seapower Centre – Australia, 2009)