Cost Of The Golf War Essay Research

Cost Of The Golf War Essay, Research Paper

How much did the Gulf War cost the US

How much did the US pay for the Gulf War above and beyond the yearly

cost for supporting its military. The US Department of Defense estimated

the incremental cost at $61 billion. This additional cost included

deployment, construction and operations in the Gulf. However, $54

billion was offset by contributions of other members in the Coalition.

Two-thirds of the $54 billion was provided by the Gulf States ($36

billion) with the remaining one-third mostly provided by Japan and

Germany ($16 billion).

Notes on the graph:

Payments were made in one of two ways: with financial assets (”Cash”) and with services such as sealift and airlift (”In-Kind”) As of March 1992, there was a shortfall in receipts compared with commitments. The total amount committed was $54 billion but only $52.9 billion had been received. The shortfall was $1.1 billion. Saudi Arabia provided the US Military with fuel, food, water, local transportation and facilities, accounting for the “In-Kind” assistance. This accounted for 25% of the Saudi commitment to the US Military presence and was 71% of all “In-Kind” contributions. The US paid roughly $7 billion, less than 12% of the total US cost and less than half what Saudi Arabia and Kuwait paid.

Why is the cost of the Gulf War to the US and how the US paid for the

war, interesting. Along with the large scale engagement of international forces (the US had over 500,000 troops while non-US

Coalition forces were roughly 160,000 or roughly 24% of all forces), the large international contributions to defer the cost of the war for the US deployment provides an indication of how deep international support for that war was, at least amoung those countries wealthy enough to provide the contributions.

In the end, the war cost the US only $7 billion, less than 12% of what the war might have cost the US. Could the US have prosecuted the war so quickly and forcefully without strong international support. This is an economic as well as a political question. Did the US have the political will to fight such a war without the substantial international support. Given the current disinclination in the US to support international activities, this is an especially important question.

How might those that paid for the US operation have affected that

operation. The advantage of working in a large coalition is that there are more resources and more political capital to accomplish a given end. The problems associated with a large coalition are the compromises and constraints that must be adhered to so as to maintain that coalition. While there was general agreement that Iraq should be removed from Kuwait, there was less consensus that Iraq should be invaded and the Iraqi government replaced.

Why discuss Iraq’s pre Gulf War problems.

Consider a rigid dictatorship with a collapsing economy and overextended debt. The government has the largest military in the region (A) and is close to most of the world’s proven reserves of petroleum (B). In addition, the government has already attempted unsuccessfully to invade one neighbor (Iran) and has forcefully suppressed a revolt by its own population; in both cases using chemical weapons (C). There is evidence the government is attempting to produce nuclear weapons (D). Shouldn’t such a government be watched very closely.

Strangely, Iraq was not watched more closely, either by the US or by the other major powers at the time.

There was little opposition to the Iraqi invasion of Iran by the Gulf

States and by the Developed World. Was this a mistake. Even though the Iranian Government was despised in the US and elsewhere, should the principle of national sovereignty been upheld. Ironically, by not

upholding the principle of sovereignty, the world ends up with two

unprincipled regimes. Iraq invades another country, Kuwait. Iran,

feeling conspired against, supports terrorist groups.

The Iraqi Government is culpable for its action but there are larger

lessons that the US and the rest of the world can learn from the Gulf

War. One lesson is to watch carefully those countries with overwhelming debt and large standing military, but this is an old lesson. The interesting question is, given these conditions with Iraq so strategically located, why wasn’t it watched more closely.

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Notes:

0.”Iraqi ground forces were the largest in the Persian Gulf at the time of the invasion of Kuwait… Iraq ground forces had more than 5,000 main battle tanks, 5,000 armored infantry vehicles, and 3,000 artillery pieces larger than 100mm.” (1) A.”The Persian Gulf countries (Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates) produce 26 percent of the world’s oil, while holding 64 percent of the world’s oil reserves.” (2) B.Iraq first used chemical warfare (CW) against the Iran during the Iran-Iraq war in 1984 but did not develop an effective offensive doctrine involving chemical warfare until 1988 (1). Iraq also used CW to put down Kurdish uprisings including the gassing of the Kurdish village of Halabja in March 1988 in which between 2,000 and 4,000 people died (3). C

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