Was America’s first war that drove Saddam out of Kuwait really the First Gulf War? Certainly not! And was America’s second war that toppled Saddam the last Gulf War? I doubt it. 

It’s all about oil.

Before WWI Winston Churchill identified oil as “the ultimate prize equated with world mastery”, and Britain established a dominant position in Iran on the Persian side of The Gulf. After WWII the USA established a dominant presence in Saudi Arabia on the Arabian side of The Gulf. Realizing the the whole area was oil rich they tried to annex the whole of the Arabian Peninsula.

In the 1950s ARAMCO (Arabian American Oil Company) armed Saudi tribesmen and encouraged them to mount raids against border posts in the Buraimi Oasis, a system of villages in the Trucial States, a British protectorate that later became the UAE. They were repulsed by a force of local Arab levies, the Omani Scouts, led by British cavalry officers.

This was a 15 year war by proxy bewteen the USA and Britain that was never fully reported, and is still not fully resolved. An ARAMCO executive once described it as, “a neat little war between us and the Limies”.

In the 1960s there was the DOFAR campaign, a secret war in Oman that certainly involved American backed Saudis – and was eventually won by forces loyal to the Sultan of Muscat, led by British SAS troppers, supported by RAF fighter bombers.

And then of course there was the CIA coup in Iran that deposed the legitimate elected government of Mosedeq, and replaced him with the corrupt and despicable Shah. This led inevitably to the counter coup by the Ayatollahs and may yet lead to a disastrous new GULF WAR against Iran.

The strategic importance of Big Oil, and the big easy money it generates, always leads to corruption and bloody conflicts. I used all of this as background to my very first story – NO BRITISH INTEREST – that is in the book I published last year.

If you want insights into The Arabian/Persian Gulf, from a western perspectived based on 40 years in the international oil industry, read my book THE GULF “Reaping the Whirlwind”. You can preview the book, including all the background by following my URL:

http://www.amazon.com/author/mikerichards

And you can buy the paperback from amazon, and many other online stores, or download it from amazon’s Kindle store if you have a Kindle reader.