Operations Desert Shield

[Giulia Satmary]

Earlyon 17 January 1991, Operation desert shield came to an end when the air campaign of Operation desert storm began. Task Force normandy, consisting of nine AH-64 Apache helicopters from the U.S. Army's 101st Aviation Regiment, 101st ABN DVN (Air Assault), accompanied by four Air Force MH-53 Pave Low special operations helicopters, flying fast and low, opened fire at 0236 - Baghdad time - on 17 January.

After their 27 Hellfire missiles destroyed Iraqi radar sites, the Apaches followed with 100 Hydra-70 rockets that knocked out the associated anti-aircraft guns. The attack created a twenty-mile gap in the enemy's air defense network opening a corridor through which U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle fighters, supported by EF-111 Ravens, raced into Iraqi air-space virtually unopposed followed by hundreds of U.S. Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps and Coalition fixed-wing aircraft and cruise missiles.

Finally, on 24 February, the ground war began. Hours before the start of the offensive, special reconnaissance teams from the 5th and 3d Special Forces Groups (Airborne), 1st Special Forces, flying out of King Khalid Military City on specially configured helicopters, were sent deep behind Iraqi lines to gather intelligence. Kicking off the main attack in bad weather, the XVIII Airborne Corps quickly made an end run around the open right flank of the Iraqi Army. Simultaneously, U.S. and allied forces in the east attacked directly north toward Kuwait City. The Tiger Brigade (1st Brigade, 2d Armored Division), supporting Marine Corps units, pushed directly north from Saudi Arabia through blazing Kuwaiti oil fields set on fire by retreating Iraqis. By midafternoon on the first day of battle, elements of the 101st and 82d Airborne Divisions were deep into Iraq, in one case just twenty-four miles south of the Euphrates River.

In one of the most decisive actions of the war, the VII Corps, moving directly east with three heavy divisions abreast, attacked the elite Iraqi Republican Guard units. Late in the afternoon on the twenty-sixth, the VII Corps hit elements of the Tawakalna Division in the battle of 73 Easting. In quick succession, the 2d ACR, 1st and 3d Armored Divisions, and the 1st Infantry Division smashed through the Tawakalna Division. Overwhelming the enemy with accurate tank fire and assisted by deadly Apache helicopter gunships, the VII Corps hit the Medina Division in the early afternoon of the twenty-seventh. At the Battle of Medina Ridge, the 1st Armored Division discovered an attempted Iraqi ambush and destroyed over 300 enemy tanks.

In 100 hours, U.S. and allied ground forces in Iraq and Kuwait decisively defeated a battle-hardened and dangerous enemy. During air and ground operations, U.S. and allied forces destroyed over 3,000 tanks, 1,400 armored personnel carriers, and 2,200 artillery pieces along with countless other vehicles. This was achieved at a cost to the United States of 96 soldiers killed in action, 2 died of wounds, and 105 non-hostile deaths.

With Kuwait liberated, U.S. forces immediately turned to humanitarian missions. They sorted out refugees, assisted the Kuwaitis in reoccupying their city, and helped them begin the long process of rebuilding. U.S. Army Civil Affairs and Corps of Engineer units set up food, water, and fuel distribution points and medical clinics. The American instrument of war became a force for peace. The long struggle of reconstruction was just beginning as most of the victorious U.S. Army combat units headed home.

Successful execution of the attack was the result of months of training with our coalition allies and validated the soundness of the Air-Land Battle doctrine. Air-Land Battle was developed after the Vietnam War for conventional warfare and oriented on the European theater but tested during Operation desert storm.

The Gulf War was an armed conflict between Iraq and a 42-country coalition led by the United States. The coalition's efforts against Iraq were carried out in two key phases: Operation Desert Shield, which marked the military buildup from August 1990 to January 1991; and Operation Desert Storm, which began with the aerial bombing campaign against Iraq on 17 January 1991 and came to a close with the American-led liberation of Kuwait on 28 February 1991.

On 2 August 1990, Iraq, governed by President Saddam Hussein, invaded neighboring Kuwait and fully occupied the country within two days. The invasion was primarily over disputes regarding Kuwait's alleged slant drilling in Iraq's Rumaila oil field, as well as to cancel Iraq's large debt to Kuwait from the recently ended Iran-Iraq War. After Iraq briefly occupied Kuwait under a rump puppet government known as the "Republic of Kuwait", it split Kuwait's sovereign territory into the "Saddamiyat al-Mitla' District" in the north, which was absorbed into Iraq's existing Basra Governorate, and the "Kuwait Governorate" in the south, which became Iraq's 19th governorate. The invasion of Kuwait was immediately met with international condemnation, including UN Security Council Resolution 660, which demanded Iraq's immediate withdrawal from Kuwait, and the imposition of comprehensive international sanctions against Iraq with the adoption of UN Security Council Resolution 661. British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and American president George H. W. Bush deployed troops and equipment into Saudi Arabia and urged other countries to send their own forces. An array of countries joined the American-led coalition, forming the largest military alliance since World War II. The bulk of the coalition's military power was from the United States, with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and Egypt as the largest lead-up contributors, in that order. Additionally, Saudi Arabia and the Kuwaiti government-in-exile paid out around US$32 billion of the US$60 billion cost to mobilize the coalition against Iraq.

The conflict marked the introduction of live news broadcasts from the front lines of the battle, principally by the American network CNN. It has also earned the nickname Video Game War, after the daily broadcast of images from cameras onboard American military aircraft during Operation Desert Storm. The Gulf War has also gained fame for some of the largest tank battles in American military history: the Battle of Medina Ridge, the Battle of Norfolk, and the Battle of 73 Easting.

Most of the coalition states used various names for their operations and the war's operational phases. These are sometimes incorrectly used as the conflict's overall name, especially the US Desert Storm:

With Iraq's newfound success in the war, and the Iranian rebuff of a peace offer in July, arms sales to Iraq reached a record spike in 1982. When Iraqi President Saddam Hussein expelled Abu Nidal to Syria at the US's request in November 1983, the Reagan administration sent Donald Rumsfeld to meet Saddam as a special envoy and to cultivate ties. By the time the ceasefire with Iran was signed in August 1988, Iraq was heavily debt-ridden and tensions within society were rising.[42] Most of its debt was owed to Saudi Arabia and Kuwait.[43] Iraq's debts to Kuwait amounted to $14 billion.[44] Iraq pressured both nations to forgive the debts, but they refused.[43][45]

Iraq's relations with its Arab neighbors, particularly Egypt, were degraded by mounting violence in Iraq against expatriate groups, who were well-employed during the war, by unemployed Iraqis, among them demobilized soldiers. These events drew little notice outside the Arab world because of fast-moving events directly related to the fall of Communism in Eastern Europe. However, the US did begin to condemn Iraq's human rights record, including the well-known use of torture.[54] The UK also condemned the execution of Farzad Bazoft, a journalist working for the British newspaper The Observer.[38] Following Saddam's declaration that "binary chemical weapons" would be used on Israel if it used military force against Iraq, Washington halted part of its funding.[55] A UN mission to the Israeli-occupied territories, where riots had resulted in Palestinian deaths, was vetoed by the US, making Iraq deeply skeptical of US foreign policy aims in the region, combined with the reliance of the US on Middle Eastern energy reserves.[56]

So what can it mean when America says it will now protect its friends? It can only mean prejudice against Iraq. This stance plus maneuvers and statements which have been made has encouraged the UAE and Kuwait to disregard Iraqi rights ... If you use pressure, we will deploy pressure and force. We know that you can harm us although we do not threaten you. But we too can harm you. Everyone can cause harm according to their ability and their size. We cannot come all the way to you in the United States, but individual Arabs may reach you ... We do not place America among the enemies. We place it where we want our friends to be and we try to be friends. But repeated American statements last year made it apparent that America did not regard us as friends.[62]

I know you need funds. We understand that and our opinion is that you should have the opportunity to rebuild your country. But we have no opinion on the Arab-Arab conflicts, like your border disagreement with Kuwait ... Frankly, we can only see that you have deployed massive troops in the south. Normally that would not be any of our business. But when this happens in the context of what you said on your national day, then when we read the details in the two letters of the Foreign Minister, then when we see the Iraqi point of view that the measures taken by the UAE and Kuwait is, in the final analysis, parallel to military aggression against Iraq, then it would be reasonable for me to be concerned.[62]

According to Glaspie's own account, she stated in reference to the precise border between Kuwait and Iraq, "... that she had served in Kuwait 20 years before; 'then, as now, we took no position on these Arab affairs'."[citation needed] Glaspie similarly believed that war was not imminent.[60]

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