The plan that could of put Saddam down

The United States intervention into Iraq. An action that was the source of mistrust between the country’s government and its people. An event that set a precedent for American foreign policy going into the 21st century. Many to this day consider it to be one of the country’s greatest errors, and it played a part in president George Bush failing to secure a second term. Oh, what Bush did secure a second term? Ah, you must be thinking that I was talking about Bush jr.; no, no, I’m referring to his father and the time he also invaded Iraq though this one was slightly more justified.

Ok, let’s set the scene. The year is 1990, and the Cold War was essentially over; the world order was in the process of becoming unipolar; however, remnants of the former Cold War still lingered. Though communism was neutralized and conflicts between Israel and Egypt pacified, many nations were still bitter over events years past. Among those nations was Iraq, who was drowning in debt due to a previously unsuccessful war with Iran. Bitter at the war resulting in an impasse and desperate to have his nation become a significant power, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein ordered an invasion of Kuwait, who Iraq was previously in debt to and which wielded a lucrative oil supply. The invasion took two days.

Both regionally and internationally, this action was met with outrage. However, the reasons were more politically based than moral for Kuwait was a long-time Western ally, and if Iraq invaded it and seized its oil reserves, it would tip the balance of power in the middle east. Regardless of motive, the UN security council condemned Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait on the day it happened. Saddam was taken aback by these responses since he had thought both the US and neighboring middle eastern nations were fine about him invading. In the United States, President Bush had to attempt a massive campaign to convince the US public to be on board with the war.

The Iraqi occupation of Kuwait was brutal, with an estimated 1,082 civilian non-combatants being killed. Sixteen geneva convention laws were violated, with two dozen torture sites being set up in the countries capital alone. One military official joked the Iraqis followed the Geneva Convention “for all of 20 minutes.” The soldiers had a habit of mistreating members of the civilian population. Those atrocities were horrendous. With Saddam committing similar atrocities in Iraq and the invasion of Kuwait was illegal enough to warrant a declaration of war, some still felt like it should have taken a few more steps in swaying public opinion in favor of war.

In an attempt to get public support for the war, the PR firm Hill and Knowlton, at the behest of the Kuwaiti government, trained the daughter of Kuwait’s ambassador to the United States in acting so she could testify before congress and claim that Iraqi troops were taking babies out of incubators. This would work to affect tens of millions of Americans viewing the testimony greatly, and many government officials cited it as justification for war against Iraq. It was only in early 1992 when the truth came to light, and by then, the war was long over.

As previously mentioned, the Iraqi invasion was a breach of international law, and they were cruel to Kuwait’s civilians, so the US declared war. Fighting began on January 16th, 1990, when the US started a massive bombardment on Iraqi command, which lasted for five weeks. This was the beginning of the famous Operation desert storm. One Bizzare detail about this conflict was a six-month window where Iraq could have invaded Saudi since that’s how long it took the US Army to bring it’s supplied as ships and armaments to Saudi.

As they were preparing for their invasion, the US army went as far as making fake military bases to distract the Iraqis, and they worked. In general, it would be fair to say the US’ handling of the war was full proof for they had over half a million troops from 39 countries (among them, being Syria, Niger, and Afghanistan of all places)at their disposal and seized all the advantages they had over the Iraqis. However though not pulling off many military wins, the Iraqis did destroy a lot of Kuwait’s infrastructure, greatly harming its economy.

Luckily that was far from the US’s situation, with this war being one of the cheapest in its history, with the Us spending most of the significant expense being paid by their allies. As a propaganda ploy, Saddam quite literally declared a Jihad on the US. However, though far from successful, Saddam’s military retaliation did result in some casualties, with Israel having the third-highest casualties in the war because of missiles fired at the country.

However, aside from those minor numbers, the war was essentially a curve stomp for the United States and their allies, with the US successfully destroying the bulk of Iraq’s air force. In fact, the aids epidemic killed more Americans than the war. Sadly not every American got to return home, with 26 allied prisoners being held in Iraq. One Lt. Col. Scott Speicher being deemed missing in action for almost two decades until his remains were found and returned to the US.

Despite being more than capable of doing so, the US did not occupy the whole of Iraq but instead withdrew after the Iraqi army left Kuwait. This was because the UN wanted to end Iraq’s occupation of Kuwait but didn’t want a US occupation of Iraq. That said, the following years were anything but relieving for Saddam with a great many sanctions being put on his country and there being a handful of rebellions attempting to topple him until eventually being toppled when Bush jr. invaded his country. Saddam also launched an apology for starting the war; however, it was riddled with racism and antisemitism, so none took it seriously. Another lasting legacy of the war was the rise of CNN, with the channel having a massive surge in rating due to its coverage of the war.

Overall, the gulf war was a war that essentially ushered in the American century—establishing the country as the world power and (at least in regards to rhetoric) a fighter against tyranny. Unlike wars that occurred in recent decades, this one really didn’t have any long-lasting results.