On January 16, 1991 – barely 30 months after the eight-year Gulf War between Iran and Iraq ended and six months after Iraq invaded Kuwait, full-scale war erupted again along the Persian Gulf. The previous November, the United Nations had authorised military action if Iraqi troops did not leave Kuwait by January 15. A host of mediators (representing the UN, the United States, the Soviet Union, France and even the pro-Iraqi PLO) had negotiated in vain with dictator Saddam Hussein. And though opponents of force argued that trade sanctions needed more time to work, U.S. commanders – leading an international anti-Iraqi coalition – launched Operation Desert Storm right on schedule.

The first onslaught came from the air, as coalition cruise missiles, "smart" bombs and other high-tech ordnance pounded Iraq’s infrastructure and its troops on the field. (Badly outgunned, most Iraqi troops fled to Iran, which, despite a recent warming in relations, impounded their aircraft.) Hussein retaliated by pumping oil into the gulf and eventually setting hundreds of Kuwaiti oil fields ablaze. His tanks tried invading Saudi Arabia but were repulsed. Iraq directed sporadic volleys of Soviet-made Scud missiles against Israel and Saudi Arabia – but Hussein’s long-time threat to use poison-gas warheads never materialised. To protect Israel (and to spare Arab coalition members the embarrassment of fighting alongside the Zionist state), Washington deployed American-crewed Patriot antiballistic missile batteries around the country.

By late February much of Iraq lay in ruins. Then came the attack on the Iraqi forces in Kuwait by coalition ground forces, under a strategy devised by the U.S. general Norman Schwarzkopf; Iraqi soldiers surrendered in droves. Retreating troops were slaughtered. On February 27, after 100 hours of fighting, Kuwait had been liberated and much of Southern Iraq was under Allied occupation. U.S. president George Bush declared a cease-fire. Desert Storm’s basic objectives had been met.

Some 200,000 Iraqis were dead, including hundreds of civilians. (The allied total was 148). Iraqi Kurds and Shiites, encouraged by President Bush, revolted. Still, Hussein remained in power – and his surviving forces crushed the uprisings, driving nearly two million Kurds into Turkish and Iranian refugee camps. Meanwhile, Kuwait was an environmental disaster area and its resident Palestinians, accused of aiding Iraq, faced persecution and expulsion. The second Gulf War had left the region as troubled as the first.

Following Kuwait’s liberation, the full scope of the environmental vandalism that Saddam Hussein wrecked on the country became evident. Months after the cease-fire hundreds of oil wells that were deliberately set on fire by Iraq were still burning out of control, despite the best efforts of Texan fire specialist Red Adair to bring a halt to the desert inferno.

Huge columns of smoke, some rising as high as 20-storey buildings, left a dense pall of smoke hanging over the countryside, so thick that it blocked out the sunlight, turning day into night. The coastal waters of the Gulf itself were also fouled by an oil slick that stretched for miles – the result of Saddam’s command that thousands of gallons of oil be released into the sea.

Great damage was also done to Kuwait’s desalination plants, essential to the country’s agricultural irrigation. The toll on wildlife in the region was incalculable. Experts predicted that it would take more than 20 years for some areas to recover.