Saddam Hussien War – Persian Gulf War-The Feat of the Western CountriesEssay Preview: Saddam Hussien War – Persian Gulf War-The Feat of the Western CountriesReport this essayPersian Gulf War-the Feat of the Western CountriesEssay submitted by UnknownOn August 2nd, 1990 Iraqi military forces invaded and occupied the small Arab state of Kuwait. The order was given by Iraqi dictatorial president Saddam Hussein. His aim was apparently to take control Kuwaits oil reserves (despite its small size Kuwait is a huge oil producer; it has about 10 per cent of the worlds oil reserves ). Iraq accused Kuwait, and also the United Arab Emirates, of breaking agreements that limit oil production in the Middle East. According to Saddam Hussein, this brought down world oil prices severely and caused financial loss of billions of dollars in Iraqs annual revenue.
Saddam Hussein had the nearly hopeless task of justifying the invasion. He plead the fact that Kuwait had been part of the Ottoman province of Basra, a city in the south of Iraq. However, the Ottoman province collapsed after World War I and todays Iraqi borders were not created until then. There was also a further and more obvious blunder in a bid to justify this illegal invasion. Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, had namely recognized Kuwaiti independence in 1963. Furthermore, Hussein claimed that Kuwait had illegally pumped oil from the Iraqi oil field of Rumaila and otherwise conspired to reduce Iraqs essential oil income.
By invading Kuwait, Iraq succeeded in surprising the entire world. The USA ended her policy of accommodating Saddam Hussein, which had existed since the Iran-Iraq war. Negative attitude toward Iraq was soon a worldwide phenomenon. The United Nations Security Council passed 12 resolutions condemning the invasion. The ultimate decision was to use military force if Iraq did not withdraw unconditionally by January 15, 1991. Then, when the deadline was set, it was time to start preparing for the worst-the war.
President George Bush confronted little difficulty in winning Americans support for the potential war against Iraq. However, the government found it difficult to decide upon and state one overriding reason for going to war. Was it to oppose aggression or was it just to protect global oil supplies? Other powers were more directly concerned as consumers of Persian Gulf oil, but they were not as eager to commit military force, to risk their youth in battle and to pay for the costs of the war. Critics of President Bush continued to maintain that he was taking advantage of the issue of energy supplies in order to manipulate the U. S. public opinion in favor of war.
After consulting with U. S. Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney in early August 1990, King Fahd of Saudi Arabia invited American troops onto Saudi soil. He had seen Kuwaits destiny; therefore, he wanted protection. It was also the interest of the USA to stop any further advantage of the Iraqi army. The deployment was called “Operation Desert Shield.” These troops were armed with light, defensive weaponry.
On November 8, 1990 President Bush announced a military buildup to provide an offensive option, “Operation Desert Storm,” to force Iraq out of Kuwait. The preparation of the operation took two and a half months and it involved a massive air- and sea lift.
Finally, in January 1991, the U. S. Congress voted to support Security Council resolution 660. It authorized using “all necessary means” if Iraq did not withdraw from Kuwait by January 15. Shrugging off this final warning, Saddam Hussein resolutely maintained the occupation of Kuwait.
The United States established a broad-based international coalition to confront Iraq militarily and diplomatically. The military coalition consisted of Afghanistan, Argentina, Australia, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Belgium, Canada, Czechoslovakia, Denmark, Egypt, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Honduras, Italy, Kuwait, Morocco, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Niger, Norway, Oman, Pakistan, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Korea, Spain, Syria, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States. The war also was financed by countries which were unable to send in troops. Saudi Arabia and Kuwait were the main donors. More than $53 billion was pledged and received.
Before the war, it appeared obvious that Iraq would have very little chance against the Coalition. The relative strength between the parties was extremely unequal. The most critical difference was that the Coalition had a total of 2600 aircraft, over three times more than Iraqs 800 aircraft. Most Arab observers thought Hussein would not last more than six months. Lieutenant General Khalid bin Sultan, the commander of the Arab coalition forces, gave Iraqs leader only 40 days, and repeated this prediction many times. Iraqs prospect was dreary.
President George Bush waited two days after the UN deadline for Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait before ordering the Coalition to begin action against Iraq. The winds of Desert Storm began howling across Iraq on January 17, 1991, at 2.30 am Baghdad time. Bhagdad was bombed fiercely by the coalitions fighter airplanes in the first night of the war. An interesting fact is that several weeks before this, US intelligence agents successfully inserted a computer virus into Iraqs military computers. It was designed to disable much of Baghdads air-defense system.
To minimize casualties, the coalition forces, under the command of U. S. General Norman Schwarzkopf, pursued a strategy beginning with five weeks of intensive air attacks and ending with a ground assault. Drawing on its 1,800 planes, land- and carrier-based, the United States flew the greatest number of sorties. The British, French, and Saudis made up most of the rest. Besides the tremendous air power, the coalition deployed technologically advanced weapon systems, such as the unmanned Tomahawk cruise missile, advanced infrared targeting that illuminated Iraqi tanks buried in the, sand and laser-guided bombs, “smart bombs.” Its use of brand new aircraft that never before had been engaged in combat, such as British Tornados and U. S. F-117A Stealth fighters, gave the Coalition an accuracy and firepower that overwhelmed the Iraqi forces. The large-scale usage of air force and latest technology made the war short and saved great numbers of Coalition soldiers lives.
Satellite and ground missile attacks. In the past, coalition military forces have conducted strikes on civilian targets throughout the region in a strategy of targeting, air-to-ground, anti-aircraft and cruise missile, artillery, antitank, light rocket and heavy tank systems, and ballistic missiles. The coalition has also employed ground-to-air air attacks in support of operations at high altitude, by utilizing Patriot missile batteries that have a range of 15,000 km and a range of 50 km, respectively. The Iraqi air force has used Patriot missiles to bomb Kurdish targets in northern and coastal areas of Iraq during the first two years of the Iraq War in late 2011. After the invasion of Baghdad, the coalition conducted air strikes in southern Iraq against various military targets in a coordinated and coordinated network of attack on four major government institutions, mainly the Kurdish Peshmerga and the Iraqi-controlled Anbar Province. A recent airstrike that killed several senior Ankara officials was an attempt by Kurds to destabilize Anbar, and Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi claimed “it’s a direct response to our military actions.” These strikes have also targeted Kurdish leadership. During March 2016, the United States engaged in a ground war in northern Iraq with Iraqi Kurdish forces in the town of Hawiyah where Iraqi forces captured about 30 % of Hawijah’s strategic military headquarters. In May 2016, the United States launched a ground operation that hit a number of Syrian Kurdish military targets. The following month, United States forces also conducted reconnaissance strikes along the border of Northern Syria. The attack targeted Kurdish forces near the capital, Erbil, the northernmost city in the Kurdish region of Nusaybin. In late February and early March 2017, the United States conducted an operation in northern Syria targeting members of the Kurdish forces that have seized large numbers of towns and villages. In early March 2016, the coalition conducted air strikes into Syrian Kurdish controlled areas through the southern part of Aleppo city, the most important stronghold in the area. In early April, the coalition launched a new ground mission in northwestern Syria targeting Syrian government forces and civilians that were fighting alongside the ISIL group. During July 2017 the coalition performed reconnaissance operations in Deir Azzam, in the northern Syrian province of Deir Ezzor, in conjunction with the Iraqi air force. The coalition launched a campaign of aerial strikes against ISIL in Iraq on July 16, 2017. Combined with the targeting of ISIL targets in Iraq’s southern Nusaybin and in southern Aleppo province, the coalition is engaged in the same offensive for at least a month, targeting ISIL targets in the northeastern city of Mosul, Syrian Kurdish forces inside the city of Deir Azzam, or in Mosul that can be compared with other Raqqa offensive operations. Other strikes have included airstrikes in northern Mosul, in northern Idlib province, in northeastern Latakia governorates, and around Damascus. The coalition’s air attack against ISIL targets in Syria and Iraq continues on this schedule. In addition, coalition air strikes have targets that it cannot easily target in Iraq in the near future. This is particularly noticeable now that ISIL uses more than a thousand aircraft against coalition targets with ground and air support to achieve objectives. It appears ISIL continues to target, or even target, key military and infrastructure sites, as the coalition continues operations. The Iraqi air force continues to develop a ground strategy that has broadened air power—the A330A Tomahawk cruise missiles. Combined with the air combatting forces operating in the Syrian theater of operations, which include the ground air forces, coalition air force, and special operations forces will continue to support their ground power efforts in their mission to destroy ISIL. To date, coalition air strikes have targeted several targets against ISIL targets, including air attack staging zones from Raqqa, Deir Azzam, Hama air defenses, and Mosul, among others. However, the use of ground forces to destroy
After establishing air superiority, coalition forces disabled Iraqs command and control centers, especially in Baghdad and Al Bashrah. This caused the communication to fail between Baghdad and the troops in the field. The next stage was to attack relentlessly Iraqs infantry, which was dug in along the Saudi-Kuwaiti border, and the elite 125,000 man Republican