I was in the American Embassy in Kuwait during the late s. The instruction we had during this period was that we should express no opinion on this issue and that the issue is not associated with America. James Baker has directed our official spokesmen to emphasize this instruction. When nothing changed in Kuwait and Egyptian diplomacy failed, Saddam began the invasion.
Saddam, frequently emphasizing a desire for U. The invasion happened during the first Palestinian Intifada, which enjoyed wide Arab support. As Palestinians tried to shake off Israeli occupation, Saddam tried to appeal to pan-Arab nationalism by being the strongman who would stand up to the West and Israel.
He reasoned that the British illegally cut Kuwait out of greater Iraq in the 19th century and he was trying to right a Western wrong. The Arab League was not okay with this. Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak tried to negotiate a treaty to avert a war, but Saddam walked out after two hours. His forces invaded Kuwait on August 2, Whenever possible, Kuwaitis resisted fiercely, even establishing an underground resistance movement, though it was largely untrained and incapable.
His body was placed in front of a tank and run over. In that time, the Iraqi forces committed at least sixteen crimes against the Laws of Armed Conflict as outlined in the Geneva and Hague Conventions.
Those crimes include running of at least two dozen torture sites in Kuwait City alone, torturing civilians to the point of death and disfigurement. Kuwaiti women were taken hostage and raped repeatedly. Iraqi occupation forces killed at least 1, Kuwaiti civilian noncombatants, including women, children, and the mentally handicapped. Then they rigged the oil wells to explode if they were attacked.
Once Coalition forces and Iraqi forces met in the field, the Iraqis committed more war crimes. Among them, they pretended to surrender to U. Marines, then opened fire on them. Iraqis would disguise themselves as civilians and then ambush Coalition forces. Iraqi troops also tortured prisoners of war. Desert Shield began as the U. Until the buildup, however, Iraqi forces would have easily overwhelmed the Saudi defenses. Iraqi forces invaded Saudi Arabia at the January Battle of Khafji, capturing the city on the night of 29 January.
By this time, however, it was far too late. Coalition forces had more than enough troops and hardware to repel the Iraqis. The attacks were fought off by U. Marines, Army Rangers, and Coalition aircraft and the city was soon recaptured by Saudi and Qatari forces, backed by U. The Army set up FOB Weasel near the opposite end of the Kuwaiti border, which was a network of fake camps manned only by several dozen soldiers. With computer-controlled radios, messages were passed between fictitious headquarters sections.
Smoke generators and loudspeakers playing prerecorded tank and truck noises were used, along with inflatable Humvees and helicopters.
He commanded a Coalition of , personnel from 28 countries, along with combined Naval and Air Forces, with , troops from the United States. According to his memoirs, he implemented his operational plan to defend Saudi Arabia and expel Iraq from Kuwait using Gen. Though the U. The U. Still, as a percent of Gross Domestic Product 0. Saddam began to convey a more Islamic, religious appearance in Iraqi media, showing himself praying at mosques and supporting the Palestinian cause, hoping to reframe the war as a struggle against Western imperialism and Israeli scheming.
The Iraqi invasion already caused the price of oil to more than double , which led to a worldwide recession in the s and the defeat of George H. Bush at the hands of Bill Clinton in the presidential election, despite being a popular, successful wartime President.
Smoke plumes from burning oil fields were intended to disrupt coalition aircraft and the heat from fires was expected to slow the advance of coalition troops. Iraqi combat engineers dug trenches filled with oil and ignited them to slow Coalition advances and spilled oil into the Persian Gulf in an effort to keep U. Marines from making an amphibious landing. Estimates of Iraqi oil spilled into the Gulf range from 4 to 11 million barrels, several time the size of the Exxon Valdez Oil Spill , and was never cleaned up on Saudi Arabian shores.
Iraq fired Scud missiles at Israel in an attempt to draw the country into the conflict, a move that would force many Arab states in the Coalition to choose between withdrawing or fighting alongside Israel, neither of which were appealing to the Arabs.
In response, the U. Many hit the Tel Aviv neighborhood of Ramat Gan which was, oddly enough, a neighborhood of Iraqi expatriates. Those deployed included , in the conflict itself and another , in the theater, a total of 1,, An analysis of mortality rates among Americans of the same age as those who served in the Gulf War reveals that in that year span, roughly 30, of 1. Subtracting that 30, from the lowest figure supplied by Riley 80, would place the death toll from Desert Storm at 49, if present trends continue.
Accepting the higher figure of , would mean the deaths of 69, Gulf War veterans — making Desert Storm more costly, in terms of American lives, than Vietnam. All Rights Reserved.
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