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OPeration desert storm

OPeration desert storm Operation: Desert Storm began on January 15th in 1991. It began when 19 hours after the midnight deadline of January 15 had passed aircraft from the American, British, Saudi, and Kuwaiti air forces thousands of tons of bombs on military targets throughout Iraq. Saddam Hussein had not heeded the coalition’s threats and would pay dearly.(Pike) In the years prior to 1990, Iraq and Iran had fought in an 8-year war that had put an extreme financial strain on Iraq. The war began on September 22, 1980, when Iraqi troops launched a full-scale invasion of Iran. Iraq had hoped for a lightning victory against its neighbor that was in the midst of revolutionary outburst. This, however, was a terrible miscalculation. He did not realize that Iran would so violently oppose the attacks of his army. Saddam insisted upon commanding his forces personally. This was a mistake because his troops would be left for periods of time with no orders; they had to wait for his orders. Another major mistake he made was the transferring of high-ranking officials periodically in fear of them gaining popularity. Saddam was afraid that any one general would gain so much popularity that they would henceforth propose a formidable opponent to his power.(Infoplease) Iran was three times the size and had a larger population. Iran also began viewing the war as a holy war, causing them to fight to the death. Everyone in Iran believed this to be true, the priests even told the soldiers that this war was for a holy cause. This gave the soldiers the idea that they would be going straight to heaven by becoming a “martyr for the glorious Islamic cause” (Manchester). In glory, Iranians would approach any kind of Iraqi military force poorly armed but willing to fight to the death. Iraq had initial success but their losses began to mount and become quite evident. By the end of 1981 the Iraqi troops had been pushed back at least in part out of Iran and Saddam offered peace. Iran, however, had a religious war at their hands and was not ready to let this end so easily. Iran then saw much success until 1988. By this time they had captured the Fao Peninsula which gave them control over much of the trading in the Persian Gulf. Then, fearing an attack from Iran, Kuwait sought aid from other countries. The US and the Soviet Union allowed Kuwaiti ships to fly their flags and American, French, and British troops were sent in to police the Gulf. Despite never officially declaring war on Iran, the US destroyed much of Iran’s fleet. Iran was now on the other side. They were facing defeat. Finally in July of 1988, Iran agreed to the United Nations cease-fire act. The eight-year war was finally over. Each side lost several hundred thousand troops during the war, and this war had changed nothing. The only thing that had resulted from the war was that Iraq was in immense debt. Iraq now owed $80 billion for all the aid given to it by other countries during the war. They had an army of 500,000 men that now had no job to return to in their country and the economy was devastated. Saddam’s biggest concern, however, was not the economy, or those 500,000 without jobs; his concern was in the public. They had become impatient after the long war that had failed to produce anything and were looking for economic prosperity and changes in their way of life (Scales). Saddam mulled about what he could possibly do to remove his people’s attention from their downtrodden situation to something else. The public’s attention shifted when Saddam stirred up trouble with Kuwait. Saddam was looking for ways to reduce the war debt that had been accumulated in the previous years. One way he sought to do this was by first refusing to pay the $10 million war debt his country owed to Kuwait, and later demanding that Kuwait cancel Iraq’s debt of billions of dollars. Saddam eventually came to the conclusion that the best way to clear up this problem was to invade and take over Kuwait. Apparently, the rest of the world did not take Saddam too seriously. He showed his intentions of taking over Kuwait numerous times and proposed a joint takeover with many countries. First he proposed to Egypt, that they take over Saudi Arabia and Kuwait and share them. Then he proposed to Jordan and Saudi Arabia that they take over Kuwait. However, none of these respective countries believed him. Saddam then assembled his troops near the Iraq-Kuwait border, but she would surely not start another war because his country was economically devastated already. There were many reasons Saddam wanted to take over Kuwait. The Iraqi government accused the Kuwaitis of stealing 2.5 billion barrels of oil from its Rumaila oil fields by sliding drills into Iraqi oil pipelines. They had also accused Kuwait of exceeding OPEC oil production which had dropped the price of oil from $20 a barrel to $13 a barrel in the first six months of 1990. This meant that for every dollar a barrel of oil went down in price, there would be a 1 billion-dollar loss for Iraq. Iraq foreign minister Tariq Aziz later said in a letter to the Arab league that Kuwait is "systematically, deliberately and continuously" harming Iraq by encroaching on its territory, stealing oil, and destroying its economy. "Such behavior amounts to military aggression". On August 2, 1990, Saddam Hussein’s troops invaded Kuwait. The rest of the world was hit with the realization that Saddam was not joking around. However, Saddam did not think that there would be any backlash to his invasion. He thought he would be able to easily take over Kuwait and no other country in the world would oppose him. He could not have been more wrong. Thousands upon thousands of Iraqi soldiers poured into Kuwait in a massive attack. The Kuwaiti troops were no match, and within hours, Saddam’s forces were in Kuwait City, Kuwait’s capital. Kuwait then came in contact with the US and pleaded for help. The United States complied and soon became entangled in what would become a war. Saddam would now be up against a formidable coalition made up of the many industrialized countries including the United States, the Soviet Union, and Japan. The United Nations Security Council passed a reolution ordering Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. Saddam would go on to ignore the UN, so it declared economic sanctions against Iraq. Many nations also froze the Iraqi accounts in their banks and the UN banned all trade with Iraq. Being that Iraq imported about 75% of their goods, this would hurt them greatly (Bullock). Despite the US supporting Iraq against Iran, it condemned Iraq when it invaded Kuwait. Most of the world was immediately angered over the Iraqi actions. Stronger than most however, was the US’s response. The President of the United States at the time, George Bush, took many actions against Iraq. First, he intended on hurting Iraq by making it impossible for the Iraqis to withdraw or even earn interest on their money (the economic sanctions). Second, he banned all United States imports of Iraqi oil that amounted to about 4% of the US oil consumption. He even ordered a US aircraft carrier into the Persian Gulf to ensure that all of his decisions were enforced. On August 7th, President Bush announced that the US would be ordering troops into Saudi Arabia. These troops were at first only a measure of defense. However, in one of his best speeches, George Bush stated quite clearly the goal of the US. In mid-September in 1990, bush spoke to a joint session of congress and said directly to Saddam Hussein, “Iraq will not be permitted to annex Kuwait…. That’s not a threat, not a boast. That’s just the way it is going to be” (Time) President Bush did acknowledge that he was taking a risk but there was no other choice and he believed he war making the right decision in opposing Iraq. 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 Kuwait’s destiny; and therefore 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. Soon after August 2nd, there were 50,000 US troops mobilized and 10,000 more getting ready to ship out (Scales). Then, in November, the United Nations gave Iraq an ultimatum, get out of Kuwait by January 15, 1991, or they will be removed by force. Margaret Thatcher put it best, saying, “Time is running out for Saddam Hussein. Either he gets out of Kuwait soon or we and our allies will remove him by force and he will go down to defeat with all its consequences. He had been warned”(Hutchinson). Clearly, the US was not about to put up with Saddam, and although they did not really want to fight, they would be left no choice. The United Nations had several reasons to so vehemently oppose Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. The 2 main reasons was the vast amounts of oil in the region which account for 53% of the world's known petroleum reserves The 2 biggest of which are Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, and the stability of the nations that have the oil. Saudi Arabia was afraid that just as Iraq invaded Kuwait, they would invade Saudi Arabia as well. Any disruption of oil from this region would seriously affect the economies of the Western nations. The United States depends on Middle East petroleum for about 25% of its energy needs and other Western nations depend very heavily on the Middle East as well. 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 maintained the occupation of Kuwait. There were, however, last minute attempts to end this situation peacefully. On January 3rd 1991, President Bush invited Iraq to last chance talks in Geneva with “no compromising, no face-saving, no rewards for aggression.” On January 9th, a meeting was set up between James Baker of the Allies and Tarik Aziz. The meeting lasted 6 hours, yet ended with no compromise. Baker said that Iraq refused to compromise. He was quoted as saying he “heard nothing that suggeseted to me any Iraqi flexibility whatsoever…The choice is Iraq’s.” On the other hand, Iraq’s Aziz stated that the US did not really want peace. If that wasn’t enough, he also stated that Iraq would go on to easily defeat the US. That confrontation was just about the last straw. With only a few days left before the January 15th deadline, all the US needed to do was get congressional approval to use force. On the 12th, congress reluctantly gave the President authority to launch war if Iraq had not left Kuwait by the UN deadline (The Economist). Even after the approval of force, the UN tried to reason with Saddam. Saddam, however, did not see what he was up against. He said, “Should the Americans become involved, we will make them swim in their blood.” Despite trying to end the situation at hand peacefully, the US would be forced to fight. Late on January 15th, about 19 hours after the deadline, the coalition unleashed Operation: Desert Storm. Iraq would go on to lose in the war with the Coalition because their forces were not as well trained as the Coalition forces, their weapons were technologically inferior, they had no air support and the Coalition forces were well-prepared for moves against them. The Iraqi weaponry was inferior to the coalition’s and the coalition was altogether too powerful. ON February 28th, Saddam Hussein agreed to the United Nations cease-fire. His troops were absolutely devastated and the Persian Gulf War was over. The results show just how clear a victory it was. There were 149 killed and 513 wounded for the coalition, while it estimated there were about 150,000 Iraqi’s killed (Friedman). The UN and US both wanted Iraq to leave Kuwait but realized that Iraq would not budge unless they were forced out. Neither side wished to back down diplomatically or militarily and with no other useful options available, war was the only way to go for U.S. and her allies. The Allied forces defeated Iraq fairly easily with a combination of air, sea, and ground forces. There were various attempts to end the conflict peacefully, but Iraq left no other choice but to unleash Operation Desert Storm Bibliography:

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