By TRISHANK KARTHIK & RYAN LIM
George Bush, on the eve of the Gulf War - "Five months ago, Saddam Hussein started this cruel war against Kuwait. Tonight, the battle has been joined.
Our goal is not the conquest of Iraq, it is the liberation of Kuwait."
 When the Kuwaitis rejected Iraqi demands for other countries to cut back oil production and raise oil prices, Iraq began asserting its rights to Kuwait. President Saddam Hussein began assembling his troops on the border. At first, Hussein expected no opposition to his conquest
because the United States did not strongly object against the idea. On August 2, 1990, Iraq marched in, swiftly taking over Kuwait and moving troops down to the border with Saudi Arabia. United States President George Bush then realized that Iraq now controlled a significant number of the world's oil reserves. It was a threat to the oil fields of Saudi Arabia and the Persian Gulf.
He was determined to stop the Iraqis before it was too late and, in his own words, "to liberate Kuwait".
While assembling an international coalition of nations opposing the Iraqi aggression, George Bush sent troops to guard Saudi Arabia and persuaded the United Nations to imply severe economic sanctions against Iraq. However, these sanctions did not greatly affect the Iraqi leadership.
After several months, it finally became clear that universal condemnation and international sanctions
would not deter the growing Iraqi aggression. Immediate military planning went into action. At the beginning, the Coalition forces seemed unbeatable. However, the Iraqis had spent six months building an elaborate and deadly circle of fortifications along the border. Consequently and more importantly, no one knew how the American public would react once American forces began to suffer casualties. Read
the personal diary of an Iraqi soldier during the Gulf War.
 August 2, 1990: Iraq invaded Kuwait and provoked a great international reaction and a destructive war. The control over Kuwait's coastline gave Iraq greater and more convenient access to the Persian/Arabian Gulf. Iraqi army leader, Saddam Hussein, also demanded rights to the Rumailah oil fields on the Kuwait-Iraq border. Poor intelligence left the Western forces at a great strategic and psychological disadvantage in the first weeks of the confrontation. The United Nations Security Council condemned Iraq's invasion. He urged a cease-fire and demanded a withdrawal. Nevertheless, Saddam Hussein only went on to further strengthen his hold over Kuwait, and the U.N. mounted Operation DESERT SHIELD to prevent any further Iraqi aggression. To Britain it was known as Operation GRANBY, and to the French, Operation DAGUET. The Commander-in-chief was American Lieutenant General H. Norman Schwartzkopf. By August 30, 1990, the American commitment in the Gulf and Saudi Arabia had increased to 260,000 men. On the other hand, Arab-Islamic forces totaled nearly 200,000 from 13 countries. Iraq moved 550,000 troops and 4,200 tanks into the Kuwaiti battlefield.
Desert Shield was officially launched on January 16, 1991, by Desert Storm, the code name for the U.N. campaign to overthrow Iraqi forces from Kuwait. Iraqi forces had supposedly been on maximum alert for several days, but U.N. air and missile attacks achieved almost a maximum level of surprise too. Allied aircraft striked targets in Iraq and Kuwait almost around-the-clock, targeting in particular Scud and other missile sites, command posts and communications, troop concentrations and artillery emplacements. The Iraqis fired Scuds, one of its most frequently used weapons, against Israel and Saudi Arabia. On February 24, 1990, Schwartzkopf commenced the ground war; the U.S. 1st Marine Division led Egyptian, Saudi and Kuwaiti units into Kuwait and took over Kuwait City. The British 1st Armoured Division and U.S. formations attacked through southern Iraq, defeating Republican Guard tank divisions and moved on to Basra. The trapped Iraqi armies were defeated in detail in 100 hours. Only two divisions out of 42 in the southern sector remained functional. A cease-fire came into effect on February 28, 1991. Allied losses: American, 389 killed, some accidentally, and 457 wounded. Other Allied casualties, 77 killed, 830 wounded. Iraqi casualties: 100,000 killed, 300,000 wounded (U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency); 30,000 killed, 100,000 wounded (British Ministry of Defence). At the cease-fire the Western Allies had nearly 500,000 men in the battlefield; the U.S. had 100 ships, Britain 18 and France 10, with 14 other nations contributing a total of 46 ships. In addition, the U.S. was using another 250 ships to supply its army.
After the 100 hours of the Gulf War, the Coalition had achieved its missions: the liberation of Kuwait and the destruction of Iraqi forces. But, after the cease-fire the American government faced criticism for not completely destroying the Iraqi army and overthrowing Saddam Hussein.
 United States officials reasoned in a response that international sanction had been given only to expelling Iraq from Kuwait, not to destroying Iraq. It was also argued that completely destroying the Iraqi army and government would have led to greater instability in the region, since Iraq's neighbor, Iran, was another sworn rival of the United States and moderate Arabs.
Besides the Iraqi people, the Palestinian Arabs were undoubtly the biggest losers of the war. Their loyal support for Saddam Hussein during the war led the oil-rich countries to cut funding to the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO). This weakened PLO's position and most likely influenced its decision to sign a peace agreement with the Israeli government in 1993.The Gulf War also introduced the American army forces to the Gulf War syndrome. The syndrome was caused by the exposure of harmful substances and chemicals after the bombing of Saddam Hussein's underground facilities. Saddam Hussein also created a major crisis by burning oil production plants, thus causing a pollution problem in effect.After the war, an intriguing question remained: would the confrontation against Iraq become a model to deter further aggressors, or was it just a one-time event?At the time this article was written, aggression and terrorism is still active in the Middle East.
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Produced by the ThinkQuest Team 18220: Gerald Tan, Ryan Lim and Trishank Karthik
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