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The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) was created on 25 May 1981. Security was one of the main reasons that brought about the GCC. The Iran-Iraq war posed a threat which the individual states in the Arab Gulf knew they could not handle on their own. So they grouped together to form a mutual defense plan. The GCC members all set out to strengthen their military capabilities by ordering top of the line weapons and equipment. However, the forces were mainly symbolic, and proved useless during the Iraq invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Even though the military equipment provided exceeded billions in US dollars, the Peninsular Shield Forces, the GCC reaction force of roughly brigade size, was not utilized or alerted during the entire crisis. After a series of minor military exercises and no significance for a period of four years, the GCC Shield Forces shut down in the beginning of 2006. This caused a major loss in confidence for the GCC countries. |
