The Gulf War and the American troops
After Iraq invades Kuwait, King Fahd invites hundreds of thousands of US-led troops into the kingdom, a decision that saves the Gulf monarchies but sparks a religious and political backlash.
- The Gulf Conflict, 1990–1991: Diplomacy and War in the New World Order — Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh, Princeton University Press (1993)
- A History of Saudi Arabia (2nd edition) — Madawi Al-Rasheed, Cambridge University Press (2010)
- Awakening Islam: The Politics of Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia — Stéphane Lacroix, Harvard University Press (2011)
- Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism since 1979 — Thomas Hegghammer, Cambridge University Press (2010)
On 2 August 1990 Iraq invaded and annexed Kuwait. With Iraqi divisions on the Saudi frontier, King Fahd, after meeting US Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, agreed on 6 August to invite American troops, and the senior clergy issued a fatwa approving it. More than half a million American troops, and forces from dozens of other countries, eventually gathered, most of them on Saudi soil. In January–February 1991 Operation Desert Storm drove Iraq out of Kuwait; Iraqi Scud missiles hit Riyadh and Dhahran.
- The Gulf Conflict, 1990–1991: Diplomacy and War in the New World Order — Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh, Princeton University Press (1993)
- A History of Saudi Arabia (2nd edition) — Madawi Al-Rasheed, Cambridge University Press (2010)
The war unsettled Saudi society. In November 1990 dozens of women drove through Riyadh in protest at the driving ban and were punished. Petitions from liberals and Islamists alike demanded reform, and in 1992 King Fahd issued the Basic Law of Governance and created the appointed Shura Council. Sahwa preachers were jailed in 1994. Bin Laden, stripped of his citizenship that year, made the US troops in Arabia the centrepiece of his 1996 declaration of war.
- Awakening Islam: The Politics of Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia — Stéphane Lacroix, Harvard University Press (2011)
- Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism since 1979 — Thomas Hegghammer, Cambridge University Press (2010)
- A History of Saudi Arabia (2nd edition) — Madawi Al-Rasheed, Cambridge University Press (2010)
Saddam Hussein's army was on the Saudi border after swallowing Kuwait. Inviting allied forces, with the senior clergy's approval, was a lawful and necessary act to defend the kingdom and liberate a fellow Muslim country, and Saudi forces fought alongside them.
- The Gulf Conflict, 1990–1991: Diplomacy and War in the New World Order — Lawrence Freedman and Efraim Karsh, Princeton University Press (1993)
- A History of Saudi Arabia (2nd edition) — Madawi Al-Rasheed, Cambridge University Press (2010)
Bringing non-Muslim armies into the land of the two holy mosques was a humiliation that exposed the failure of a state that had spent billions on weapons. Clerics such as Salman al-Ouda and Safar al-Hawali demanded reform; Osama bin Laden went much further and declared war on the United States.
- Awakening Islam: The Politics of Religious Dissent in Contemporary Saudi Arabia — Stéphane Lacroix, Harvard University Press (2011)
- Jihad in Saudi Arabia: Violence and Pan-Islamism since 1979 — Thomas Hegghammer, Cambridge University Press (2010)
Why it matters today
The war showed Saudis both how vulnerable their country was and how much it depended on America. The presence of Western troops near the holy cities became the rallying cry of the Sahwa clerics and of Osama bin Laden, linking this war directly to the attacks of 11 September 2001.