Uploaded November 2023 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago

---

The Middle East is one of the most important regions for U.S foreign policy - mainly due to the area's abundant supply of oil. The US has shown itself greedily willing to involve itself in the area if it can benefit their oil interests. The Gulf War is perhaps the best example of this. In 1990, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded its small but oil-rich neighbor Kuwait - thereby becoming the benefactor of 1/5th of the world’s oil supply. This sent policymakers in Washington D.C. into a panic. What followed was the manifestation of America becoming the sole superpower in the world.

Massive shoutout to Zach from Conflicted. Check out his awesome History podcast: conflictedhistory.com

FREE NEWSLETTER:
https://mailchi.mp/a69f93be6c66/hikma-history-newsletter

- Become a Patron for as little as a dollar a month to vote on upcoming and keep the movement going!
patreon.com/user?u=12397811

Massive thank you to our Patreons:
Aman
Valter
William
Tahsin
Zaki
Sam
Elman
Walid
Fatima
Tristan
Edgar
Claudius
Bilal
Rob
Kjetil
Amin
Tasso
Deniz
Yehoshua
Artin
Adam
Omar
Farid
Ibrahim
Ari
Joshua
Haseeb
Mahmoud
Joel
CoreBard

- Join our social media community:
Twitter:
twitter.com/HikmaHistory

Instagram:
instagram.com/hikmahistory

Facebook:
facebook.com/HikmaHistory

Facebook group:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/hikma...

#Iraq #Saddam #America

Images Used:

Music Used:

Doug Maxwell - Arabian Nightfall (Sting):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bRzD...

If any of the images or songs are yours, please let me know I will amend them. Please don't report me straight away!

0:00 Intro
1:22 Consequences of the Iran-Iraq War
6:15 Saddam captures the world's attention
8:19 An undisputed superpower emerges
10:22 Saddam's defiance
11:29 Operation Desert Storm