sh 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. After establishing air superiority, coalition forces disabled Iraq's 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 Iraq's infantry, which was dug in along the Saudi-Kuwaiti border, and the elite 125,000 man Republican Guard in southeastern Iraq and northern Kuwait. Iraq retaliated by using mobile launchers to fire Scud missiles at Saudi Arabia and Israel, a noncombatant coalition. Overall, Hussein's forces launched 93 Scuds. The United States countered this threat with Patriot antimissile missiles, called also "Scudbusters," and commando attacks on Scud launchers. Patriot missiles gave an engagement rate of nearly 96 per cent. The coalition's air raids on Iraq's infantry lowered Iraqi soldiers' morale dramatically. It is easy to sense in the following quote from an Iraqi lieutenant's war diary the powerlessness and fear that the soldiers felt during air attacks by the Coalition:"2 February 1991 I was awakened this morning by the noise of an enemy air raid. I ran and hid in the nearby trench. I had breakfast and afterwards something indescribable happened. Two enemy planes came toward us and began firing at us, in turn, with missiles, machine guns, and rockets. I was almost killed. Death was a yard away from me. The missiles, machine guns and rockets didn't let up. One of the rockets hit and pierced our shelter, which was penetrated by shrapnel. Over and over we said, "Allah, Allah, Allah." One tank burned and three other tanks belonging to 3rd Company, which we were with, were destroyed. That was a very bad experience. Time passed and we wai...
