The Iraqi armed forces had extensive experience of warfare. They had just brought an eight year war with Iran to a successful conclusion. The Coalition troops, on the other hand, were largely inexperienced. Britain had found the Falklands War with marines and paratroopers; this war was fought with tanks and mechanized infantry instead. The Syrians had fought within the last decade in Lebanon, but the 9th Division had not been involved. The Egyptians had last fought a war in 1973, shortly after the US had wound down its involvement in Vietnam. Of the gulf states, only Omani Army had anything approaching extensive combat experience.
One reason that the Iraqis' experience did them little good was that it was the wrong kind of experience. They had plenty of experience in fighting a positional war of wearing down Iran forces. Instead of helping, this was a positive disadvantage when fighting a mobile campaign; they would have been better off starting fresh without a lot of bad habits.
Of Iraq's 545,000 troops in the Kuwait Theater of Operations, about 100,000 are believed to have lost their lives. Of IRaq's 44 army divisions, 42 were found to be combat ineffective. By the end of the war, estimated losses of equipment were as followed:
Total Equipment
Iraqi Coalition
Lost On hand Lost On hand
Tanks 4,000 4,230 4 3,360
Artillery 2,140 3,110 1 3,633
Armored Personal Carriers 1,856 2,870 9 4,050
Helicopters 7 160 17 1,959
Aircraft 240 800 44 2,600
