Iraq is a divers nation that has many internal problems. The
Shiite Muslims in the south, the Kurds in the north, both yearning for
independence from the country of Iraq. These internal problems needed a
strong military influence to control the turmoil.
After enforcing his military, Saddam Hussein started to seek domination of the Persian Gulf Area by invading Iran. This war was fought out to a stalemate and put Iraq into a great amount of debt to its neighbors because of this war and the extensive amount of money put into training and building up a military. Though this build up they had gained a military that was a able to roll over any country in the region.
Kuwait then lowered their oil prices which force Iraq to lower their price too or go further into debt. This also made it nearly impossible for Iraq to pay back the debt that was accumulated during their war. And to make things worse Iraq accused Kuwait of drilling diagonally and taking oil that was rightfully theirs. Iraq also justified the war by making the statement that Kuwait was once a part of Iraq so they need to be reunited. So attacking Kuwait was all that was left.