On August 2, 1990, at about 2 a.m. local time, Iraqi forces invade Kuwait, Iraq’s tiny, oil-rich neighbor. Kuwait’s defense forces were rapidly overwhelmed, and those that were not destroyed retreated to Saudi Arabia. The emir of Kuwait, his family, and other government leaders fled to Saudi Arabia, and within hours Kuwait City had been captured and the Iraqis had established a provincial government. By annexing Kuwait, Iraq gained control of 20 percent of the world’s oil reserves and, for the first time, a substantial coastline on the Persian Gulf. The same day, the United Nations Security Council unanimously denounced the invasion and demanded Iraq’s immediate withdrawal from Kuwait. On August 6, the Security Council imposed a worldwide ban on trade with Iraq.
On August 9, Operation Desert Shield, the American defense of Saudi Arabia, began as U.S. forces raced to the Persian Gulf. Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, meanwhile, built up his occupying army in Kuwait to about 300,000 troops. On November 29, the U.N. Security Council passed a resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq if it failed to withdraw by January 15, 1991. Hussein refused to withdraw his forces from Kuwait, which he had established as a province of Iraq, and some 700,000 allied troops, primarily American, gathered in the Middle East to enforce the deadline.
At 4:30 p.m. EST on January 16, 1991, Operation Desert Storm, the massive U.S.-led offensive against Iraq, began as the first fighter aircraft were launched from Saudi Arabia and off U.S. and British aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf. All evening, aircraft from the U.S.-led military coalition pounded targets in and around Baghdad as the world watched the events transpire on television footage transmitted live via satellite from Iraq. Operation Desert Storm was conducted by an international coalition under the supreme command of U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf and featured forces from 32 nations, including Britain, Egypt, France, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait.
During the next six weeks, the allied force engaged in an intensive air war against Iraq’s military and civil infrastructure and encountered little effective resistance from the Iraqi air force or air defenses. Iraqi ground forces were helpless during this stage of the war, and Hussein’s only significant retaliatory measure was the launching of SCUD missile attacks against Israel and Saudi Arabia. Saddam hoped that the missile attacks would provoke Israel to enter the conflict, thus dissolving Arab support of the war. At the request of the United States, however, Israel remained out of the war.
On February 24, a massive coalition ground offensive began, and Iraq’s outdated and poorly supplied armed forces were rapidly overwhelmed. By the end of the day, the Iraqi army had effectively folded, 10,000 of its troops were held as prisoners, and a U.S. air base had been established deep inside Iraq. After less than four days, Kuwait was liberated, and the majority of Iraq’s armed forces had either surrendered, retreated to Iraq, or been destroyed.
On February 28, U.S. President George Bush declared a cease-fire, and on April 3 the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 687, specifying conditions for a formal end to the conflict. According to the resolution, Bush’s cease-fire would become official, some sanctions would be lifted, but the ban on Iraqi oil sales would continue until Iraq destroyed its weapons of mass destruction under U.N. supervision. On April 6, Iraq accepted the resolution, and on April 11 the Security Council declared it in effect. During the next decade, Saddam Hussein frequently violated the terms of the peace agreement, prompting further allied air strikes and continuing U.N. sanctions.
So all what President George W. Bush did was to free the Iraqi people from their dictator when he was finally caught in the hole that he was hiding in.
He was executed by hanging on December 30th 2006
> So all what President George W. Bush did was to free the Iraqi people from their dictator when he was finally caught in the hole that he was hiding in. <
I understand and respect what you’re saying. But three points, please.
1. I certainly agree that Saddam Hussein was a monster. And maybe the Iraqi people are better off today without him. But I can only say “maybe” there. At least 100,000 Iraqis died in the war and in the bloody sectarian violence that followed. And who knows what Iraq will look like 10 years from now.
John Quincy Adams once said that America “does not go abroad in search of monsters to destroy.” Well, that’s exactly what Bush did in Iraq.
And suppose tomorrow Trump ordered a ground invasion of North Korea to remove Kim Jong Un. That would be a horrible mistake. And it would be no different than what Bush did in Iraq.
2. Saddam provided a counter-balance to Islamic Iran. That counter-balance is now gone.
3. The invasion of Iraq took our eyes off of Afghanistan. Resources that should have been deployed there went to Iraq instead. We will lose the war in Afghanistan. No doubt about it. The Taliban will re-occupy the capital as American helicopters take off from the U.S. embassy roof.
LBJ is responsible for the Vietnam debacle. Not Nixon. Not Ford. Vietnam is all on LBJ. Likewise George W. Bush is responsible for the coming Afghan debacle. It’s all in him. I cannot forgive either man.