TEHRAN (Mehr News Agency) – Iraq invaded Kuwait on Aug. 2, 1990 and later declared that it was annexing Kuwait, which it had long claimed. This eventually led to the 1991 Persian Gulf War.

Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein said that the invasion was a response to overproduction of oil in Kuwait, which had cost Iraq over $14 million when oil prices fell. Saddam Hussein also accused Kuwait of illegally pumping oil from Iraq's Rumayla oil field.

The United Nations Security Council called for Iraq to withdraw and subsequently placed a trade embargo on the country, banning most trade with Iraq. On Aug. 7, U.S. troops moved into Saudi Arabia to protect Saudi oil reserves.

The United States then organized a military coalition of 32 nations, including Britain, Egypt, France, and Saudi Arabia, which were prepared to go to war with Iraq.

On Nov. 29, the UN set Jan. 15, 1991 as the deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi troops from Kuwait. When Saddam refused to comply, Operation Desert Storm was launched on Jan. 16-17, 1991, under the leadership of U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf. The U.S.-led coalition began a massive air war, attacking Iraqi troops and Iraq's military and civilian infrastructure.

Iraq called for attacks against the coalition and launched Scud missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia in an unsuccessful attempt to widen the war and break up the coalition. The main coalition forces invaded Kuwait and southern Iraq on Feb. 24 and over the next four days encircled and defeated the Iraqis and liberated Kuwait. When U.S. president George Bush (the elder) declared a cease-fire on Feb. 28, most of the Iraqi forces in Kuwait had either surrendered or fled.

Although the war was a decisive military victory for the coalition, Kuwait and Iraq suffered enormous property damage and Saddam remained in power. In fact, he was allowed to turn his attention to a Shia and Kurdish uprising and moved to brutally suppress it. Coalition troops stood by and watched but did nothing as Iraqi troops killed at least 250,000 Iraqi Shia and Kurds. According to some reports, the actual death toll may have been as high as 400,000.

The war also financially benefited the Bush family. Current U.S. President George W. Bush (the son) is, of course, a Texas oilman. His company Arbusto merged with Spectrum 7 in 1984 as it was on the verge of bankruptcy. Spectrum was bought out by Harken Energy in 1986. Bush was given a seat on Harken’s board, some stock options, and a $120,000 consulting contract.

As the first president with an MBA, Bush has surrounded himself with people with similar (and more successful) corporate backgrounds. U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney was formerly the CEO of Halliburton, the world’s largest oil field services company. Halliburton, through its European subsidiaries, sold spare parts to Iraq’s oil industry, despite UN sanctions.

The war caused a massive environmental catastrophe in the Persian Gulf. Also, no-fly zones were established in the north and south of the country. The Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK) and the Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) took advantage of the situation and established autonomous areas in northern Iraq. However, the rest of the country experienced over a decade of economic problems which caused a serious decline in the standard of living.