1 Terrorist Threats to the Environment in Iraq and Beyond Ali Mohamed Al-Damkhi and Rana Abdullah Al-Fares Forum Terrorist Threats to the Environment in Iraq and Beyond • Ali Mohamed Al-Damkhi and Rana Abdullah Al-Fares Political Conºict and the Environment The environment often becomes a victim in times of conºict. Its deliberate de- struction has been used as a military strategy since ancient times, starting with such practices as the burning and salting of an adversary’s lands. 1 Various tech- nological developments have led to exponential increases in the scope and se- verity of such damage. Modern examples, such as the United States’ use of Agent Orange to destroy forests and cropland during the Vietnam War, have ensured that the concept of “scorched earth” remains well entrenched in the lexicon of violence. In 1991, the international community expressed outrage over a particu- larly egregious ecological tragedy that occurred during Iraq’s unsuccessful inva- sion of Kuwait. Retreating Iraqi forces destroyed oil wells and other installa- tions, leaving giant petroleum ªres and lakes of standing oil that inundated many square kilometers of land, and causing releases of oil into the Arabian Gulf that were twenty times larger than the notorious Exxon Valdez spill. Perva- sive dark clouds of airborne soot spread contamination throughout the desert ecosystem, killing a signiªcant percentage of the region’s vegetation and gener- ating noticeable decreases in atmospheric temperatures. 2 It took eight months for oil ªre experts from ten nations to put out the ªres in Kuwait, using almost every piece of specialist equipment that was available from across the globe. This catastrophe revealed both the scope and the kinds of aggressive environ- mental destruction that are possible in oil-producing nations wracked by politi- cal violence. Kuwait successfully presented a claim against Iraq at the United Nations, and was awarded $385 million US in compensation for damages to health and environmental resources. Numerous commentators, including one of the pres- 1. Al-Damkhi 2009. 2. Al-Houty, Abdal, and Zaman 1993. Global Environmental Politics 10:1, February 2010 © 2010 by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Downloaded from http://mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/glep.2010.10.1.1 by guest on 03 October 2021