Free Republic

A federal panel on Thursday cleared the way for a memorial to be built along the National Mall honoring the American service members who fought in Operations Desert Storm and Desert Shield. Pending final approvals, the National Desert Storm War Memorial would be built at 23rd Street and Constitution Avenue, not far from Vietnam Veterans Memorial, World War II Memorial and Korean War Veterans Memorial, Military Times reported. “These men and women who went to Desert Shield, Desert Storm put their lives on the line for this country, and they deserve to be placed next to my brothers and sisters...

Moshe Arens, Israel’s defense minister at the time of the 1991 Gulf War, wanted to launch a ground operation against Iraqi missile launchers firing missiles at Tel Aviv, but ran into strong opposition from then-IDF Chief of Staff Dan Shomron, according to recordings from IDF archives released Thursday on the 26th anniversary of the war. After American forces invaded Iraq in January 1991, Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein fired a total of 39 modified Soviet ‘Scud’ missiles at Israel in the hope the Jewish State would respond to the provocation by striking back at a Iraq. He reasoned the move would...

The VHS Tape was discovered in my Parents things. They taped it because I was deployed & one of the guitar pickers playing in the show. I made this video to preserve it for posterity. This is excerpts of the 8th Annual Walt Disney World Christmas Parade live telecast, featuring the Men & Women service members deployed into the Gulf, during Operation Desert Shield. Original air date Dec. 25th. 1990 This video is dedicated to all servicemenbers who deployed in Operations Desert Shield & Desert Storm, and especially those who may not have had the chance to watch it when...

He drew pictures of himself with angel wings. He left a set of his dog tags on a nightstand in my Manhattan apartment. He bought a tiny blue sweat suit for our baby to wear home from the hospital. “Follow your heart,” Charles M. King wrote in a 200-page journal for his son, Jordan, whom he first held this fall just weeks before he died in Iraq. The United States has reached another grim milestone in the war in Iraq: 3,000 military deaths. The Times’s Dana Canedy, whose fiancé was killed in Iraq, is taking questions from readers. Her responses...

Introduction F-16C #86-0257 from the 614th Tactical Fighter Squadron 'Lucky Devils' was shot down over Iraq during Operation Desert Storm. Its canopy was discovered by American ground troops in 2003 during Operation Iraqi Freedom. Now, almost fourteen years later, the only remaining part of #86-0257 will find a last resting place at the Pima Air and Space museum in Arizona. The retrieval of 257's canopy is a remarkable story, told here by the eye witnesses. Aug 2nd, 1990: Iraq invades Kuwait In the early hours of August 2nd, 1990, the Iraqi army invaded its neighbor Kuwait. Kuwaiti defenses were quickly...

It was a warm day, August 2nd in 1990 when I turned on the news and heard the stomach clutching news that Iraq was invading Kuwait. My heart beat accelerated as I realized that my son's Bravo Co. of the 82nd Airborne at Ft. Bragg was "on mission" for the month of August. This meant that his company would be the first to go if the US offered military assistance for the crisis. All day and evening my husband, a Korean combat veteran, and I seesawed between listening to the news and trying to reach our son's barracks phone. (Remember,...

SAM MENDES has the unenviable distinction of having directed one of the three most undeserving Best Picture winners in the last 30 years. In 1999, his directorial debut, American Beauty, won the Oscar and then, immediately, began sliding to oblivion. A paint-by-numbers critique of American middle-class mores, American Beauty was so heavy-handed and obvious as to be insulting even to the elite sophisticates it attempted to flatter. Of course experimentation with marijuana brings happiness. Of course the homophobic, wife-beating Marine father next door is really a closet case. Of course the only well-adjusted adults in the neighborhood are the...

To: The wives, parents, sons, daughters of the soldiers in the 101st Airborne Division (air Assault). From the vast and desolate desert of Saudi Arabia you so will soon be coming home (someday?). There are some things you need to know about him and what he has experienced before he arrives. The purpose of this is to ensure that his stateside rehabilitation will be successful. For the past several months your soldier has been existing in the most miserable environment. Therefore make sure the house is very hot and dry. Gradually start using the air condition. Too much at the...

New York ON A THURSDAY they had the book party. It was a simple affair: just family, friends, coworkers, and journalists. They came to Ambassador Joseph Wilson's house, nestled in the ritzy Palisades neighborhood of Northwest Washington, to celebrate the release of his first book, The Politics of Truth. One thing Joe Wilson keeps track of is his "Notoriety Quotient," or the amount of attention he receives from the media. And that Thursday it seemed to be on the rise. For the past week The Politics of Truth was mentioned in the same breath as Ron Suskind's The Price of...

<p>An article of faith among most Arab policymakers is that the U.S. gave Saddam Hussein a yellow-to-green light to invade Kuwait in 1990. Some of them will concede, albeit off the record, the yellow light was probably inadvertent and a reflection of inept diplomacy. Others state flatly, also off the record, that it had switched from yellow to green and that it was deliberate.</p>

I opted to leave this as a PDF. Some of the material is disturbing.

All, While our Desert Shield forces were building in and around Saudi Arabia back in 1991, all sorts of political and religious groups were hollering in the media to “keep the holiness of Ramadan” by not engaging in war against Iraq. 1991 was a media circus of political and religious experts predicting that the mythical Arab street would erupt if we were to attack Saddam during this most holy of Islamic months. A great tale of woe was told, we respected their tradition and then kicked Saddam’s @ss in January 1992. This time around have you noticed anything different? It’s...