American History Essay

Desert Storm

In 1979 Saddam Hussien took control of Iraq, and immediately set the tone for his rule by killing 21 of his cabinet members. He wanted to make his country whole once again so in 1990 he invaded Kuwait and in less than 4 hours he had taken Kuwait and controlled 24% of the worlds oil supplies. It seemed like his next attack would be on Saudi Arabia. This was where the United States entered the war after a call for protection by Saudi Arabia. The United States set the deadline, January 15, 1991 for all Iraq forces to be out of Kuwait, but Saddam ignored the deadline. That triggered Operation Desert Shield, or the build up of troops in the region and eventually led to Desert Storm, an all out attack to free Kuwait.

Due to the power and sophistication of the U.S. and her allies, Saddam and his tiny nation of 17 million people stood no chance against the military might of the United Nations.

On the final night of the war, within hours of the cease-fire, two U.S. Air Force bombers dropped specially designed 5,000-pound bombs on a bunker that was supposed to hold President Hussien, to deliberately kill him.

During the days and nights, Americans completely bombarded Kuwait and Iraq with Smart Bombs, highly sophisticated laser-guided weapons. During the war, they flew over 2000 sorties or missions, and had a 100-hour land battle after they had knocked out Iraq s airfields and anti-aircraft missiles completely.

In official reports from the Pentagon, 24 percent of the 148 troops in action, were killed by friendly fire. 11 other Americans were killed when Allied munitions unexpectedly blew up. Most soldiers said the thousands of unexploded mines and bomb lets they encountered were more dangerous than enemy fire.

Finally on March 3rd, 1991, Iraqi leaders formally accepted cease fire terms, and Iraq moved out of Kuwait, And on March 5, the 35 U.S. POW s were released.