Kuwait, a small country, is nestled between Iraq (in the north-west) and Saudi Arabia (in the south-west).
In Aug 1990, Iraq, under Saddam Hussein, invaded Kuwait for its large oil reserves and to cancel the debt Iraq owed to Kuwait.
United Nations Security Council directed Iraq to withdraw but Iraq didn’t agree, triggering fears in Saudi Arabia (which shares border with Iraq) that it could be attacked next.
America, which had been an ally of Saudi Arabia since WWII, rushed its troops to Saudi Arabia to deter a possible attack.
By Feb 1991, US and other alliesEngland, France, Egypt, Syria, etc., who had joined this anti-Iraq war, attacked and defeated Iraq in what is today known as the Gulf war.
Now that Saddam (a part of the Sunni minority in Iraq) had become weak, the Kurdish community in the north & the Shīʿites in the south rose in rebellion.
But Saddam’s Ba’ath government suppressed the rebellion mostly using aerial attacks; this led the US & allies, who were still present in Iraq, to create ‘no-fly’ zones for the Iraqi aircraft.
Meanwhile, the UN designated inspectors in Iraq to find out any illicit weapons and destroy them.
Iraq didn’t cooperate with these inspectors; this and tensions related to no-fly zones led to the occasional exchange of fire between Iraqi forces and the US/Allies.
In 1998, the then US President Bill Clinton frustrated with Iraq’s conduct ordered the bombing of various military installations in Iraq.
After 9/11 in 2001, George Bush (who had now become the US President) argued that with the vulnerability of America, Iraq’s possession of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD), and Iraq’s support for terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda, perpetrators of 9/11, it was important to disarm Iraq.
In late 2002, the debate on whether armed intervention in Iraq was required or not was still on in the UN Security Council, when the US gave Saddam 48 hours to leave Iraq; he refused and US/Allies launched an attack.
And despite the claims by the US officials, no major WMD were found; this led to opposition in the UN and various countries such as France, Canada, Germany condemned the US invasion of Iraq.
On 15 Feb 2003, between 6 and 11 million took to the streets to protest the US war in Iraq; despite the protests, the US/Allies went ahead with the attacks.
In May 2003, while Saddam was still hiding, the US outlawed his Ba’ath party, dissolved the Iraqi military, prohibited former Ba’ath party officials from any government positions.
A weak interim government couldn’t control the revolts and uprisings; every few days there would be suicide bombings and the US had to intervene to control insurgencies till the US troops pulled out of Iraq in Dec 2011.
