The Gulf War

The Persian Gulf war was launched on January 6, 1991, after international

diplomatic efforts and sanctions had failed to force Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, which

was ilegally invaded on August 2, 1990, by the january 15th deadline set by the united

nations. The 31-nation military moved against Iraq, commanded by U.S. general H.

Norman Schwarzkopf, included forces from the United States, Saudi Arabia, Egypt,

Britain, Syria, and France. Japan, Germany, and others aided the war effort financially.

The war, code-named Desert Storm, began as a massive air strike carried out on key Iraqi

military targets. The allies quickly gained air superiority; many Iraqi planes were flown to

Iraq because it was a neutral area and they stood a less chance of being shot down. Iraq

launched scud missle attacks on Israel in an effort to bring them into the war, and weaken

the side of the allies. The ground war started when Saddam Hussein ignored a February 23

U.S. deadline to begin moving out of Kuwait immediately, but it only lasted about 100

hours. Allied casualties totaled at 147 killed in action and 407 wounded. The Iraqi

casualties numbered to be 100,000 dead and 300,000 wounded. Allied military operations

were suspended at midnight on February 27. Iraq agreed on February 27-28 to accept the

United Nation’s terms. the UN’s decision to terminate the ground war was later criticized

because Saddan Hussein was still in power and could still supress post war revolts iraqis.

In 1992 the United States, France, and Britain estabished a “no fly” zone to end Iraqi air

attacks on Shiites in southern Iraq. Among the postwar priorities were the re-building of

Kuwait, the destruction of Iraq’s chemical and nuclear weapons capabilities, and the

negotiation of a broad Middle East peace accord. The war was notable for the prominent

role played by electronic-weapons systems, such as the Tomahawk cruise missle and the

patriot antimissle system. It was also the first war in which environmental destruction,

which is also known as “ecoterrorism”, was a major part of strategy.

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