President Bush announces the U.S. ground war againt Saddam Hussein's forces has begun.
Feburary 23, 1998:
Usama bin Laden issues his fatwa (Islamic declaration of war) against the United States. His primary stated reasons for this fatwa are the continued U.S. agression against Iraq and the U.S. occupation of the Arab peninsula (read: Saudi Arabia) for the purposes of threatening Arab neighbors (read: Saddam Hussein).
February 26, 1991:
Saddam Hussein announces the withdraw of Iraqi troops from Kuwait.
February 26, 1993:
Ryder truck bomb attack on WTC in New York City kills 6.
April 19, 1991:
UNSCOM is formed to carry out weapons inspection in Iraq. In this interview with CNN, Tariq Aziz refers to "the end of the war in April 19, 1991".
April 19, 1995:
Ryder truck bomb attack on Murrah Building in Oklahoma City kills 168.
July 17:
Annual celebration of 1969 Ba'athist takeover of Iraq.
July 17, 1990:
Iraqi President Saddam Hussein launches attack on Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates (UAE), charging they had conspired with the United States to depress world oil prices through overproduction. (the official beginning on the "Mother of all Wars" and prelude to the August 2 invasion of Kuwait).
July 17, 1996:
TWA Flight 800 "bombing" (according to George Stephanopoulos) kills 230 passengers.
October 31, 1998:
President Bill Clinton signs H.R. 4655, "The Iraq Liberation Act of 1998", restating the case for Saddam Hussein's ouster and pledging support for the Ba'athist opposition.
October 31, 1999:
Egypt Air flight 990 mysteriously drops into the Atlantic Ocean 30 minutes after takeoff, killing 217. The 767's cockpit voice recorder confirms the co-pilot, Gameel al-Batouti, has complete control when the plane begins to lose altitude. Examination of the flight data-recorder shows that Batouti cut the power and pushed the control yoke forward, sending the 727 into free fall. During the fall, the flight's senior pilot, Captain Ahmad al-Habashi is heard re-entering the cockpit screaming "What's happening? What's happening?". Al-Batouti calmly replies "Tawakkalt ala Allah" ("I rely on God"), and repeats the phrase as many as ten times as the plane crashes into the Atlantic.
June 25, 1993:
U.S. launches cruise missile strikes against Iraqi intelligence for the attempted assassination of President George H.W. Bush in Kuwait City (and, unofficially, for the February WTC attack).
June 25, 1999:
Fuel truck-bomb explodes outside the Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia killing 19 USAF military personnel and wounding 515 persons, including 240 U.S. personnel.
August 7, 1990:
Operation Desert Shield begins, in response to the August 2 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
August 7, 1998:
Two car bombs explode at the American Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, killing 224 people and wounding more than 5,000 others.
September 11, 1990:
President George H.W. Bush addresses a joint session of the U.S. Congress on the matter of Saddam Hussein and the looming Gulf War ("This is not, as Saddam Hussein would have it, the United States against Iraq. It is Iraq against the world"). This was President Bush's first major address on the issue.
September 11, 2001:
Terrorists hijack four commercial airliners in coordinated strikes on New York City and Washington, DC, killing over 3000.