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About the 1991 Gulf War
Tuesday, October 28, 2008
InstructionsHistoryStep 1:  The area that became Iraq was mandated to Britain by the League of Nations after World War I. In 1932, it was granted independence under a Hashemite monarchy, but remained unstable largely due to its quarreling ethnic groups. After taking power in 1979, Saddam Hussein, whose ascent began with the CIA-aided Ba'athist Revolution of 1968, sought in the early 1990s to annex the state of Kuwait, which had been affiliated with the city of Basra in the Ottoman Empire. The invasion of Kuwait in August 1990 began the series of events that led directly to the 1991 Gulf War.
FeaturesStep 1:  The primary operations during the 1991 Gulf War were Desert Shield and Desert Storm. During the five months before the liberation of Kuwait, coalition troops were staged in Saudi Arabia in a defensive posture to discourage an attack on the oil-producing nation. UN Resolution 678, passed on November 29, set a deadline for Iraqi withdrawal of January 15, 1991. A day after the deadline, a major air campaign largely against Iraqi civilian infrastructure began; a massive ground assault began shortly thereafter on February 24. Kuwait was declared liberated three days later.
SizeStep 1:  Thirty-four nations contributed troops, equipment or other support to the Gulf War operations. In Desert Storm, over the course of five and a half weeks, coalition forces flew approximately 100,000 sorties, launching guided cruise missiles and other "smart" weapons. F-15 fighter jets, A-10 Warthog "tank-killers," Apache and Black Hawk helicopters and Patriot anti-missile systems were among the most high-profile equipment featured in the campaign.
SignificanceStep 1:  Widely considered a masterful use of diplomacy and justified military force, the 1991 Gulf War cast the U.S. as a magnanimous superpower. But the war also set the stage for the subsequent invasion of Iraq in 2003. Richard Cheney, Secretary of Defense in 1991, advised against overthrowing Saddam at that time because of the social and political unrest that would follow. As a direct result, Hussein was still in power after the terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001, which were used to justify a doctrine of military preemption under which Saddam was deemed too dangerous to remain in power. As vice president, Cheney was instrumental in articulating the case for overthrowing Saddam, in some cases based on selective and discredited intelligence.
EffectsStep 1: In addition to psychological disorders that frequently follow military combat, over one quarter of Gulf War veterans subsequently reported abnormally high rates of immune system disorders and other symptoms including chronic pain, fatigue and memory loss, all of which have been grouped together as Gulf War Syndrome. A 2001 study of 15,000 American Gulf War veterans found they were 1.8 to 2.8 times more likely to have children with birth defects, a conclusion that suggests exposure to the depleted uranium armor-piercing ammunition used by coalition troops was a major cause of Gulf War Syndrome.
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