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Sunday, August 2, 2020, marks thirty years since the United States became embroiled in what seems endless wars, at great cost, in Southwest and Central Asia. That was the day that Iraq invaded Kuwait. It seems that an ambiguous comment made to Saddam Hussein by Ambassador April Glaspie had led him to believe the United States would take a hands-off approach if he used force in disputes with Kuwait over border and oil-export issues. Ambiguous policy positions can be misinterpreted with disastrous consequences; Thucydides informs us that they have been at least since the Peloponnesian War. Likewise such a statement...

You wish the liberal media would have shown 1/10th the respect for George H.W. Bush in life as it is doing now that he has died. Morning Joe exemplified that this morning, as Joe, Mika and Jon Meacham each offered emotional tributes to the 41st President—while making invidious comparisons with the current occupant of the Oval Office. But emotion aside, there was one interesting fact that emerged. Joe Scarborough revealed, and Mika Brzezinski confirmed, that Mika's father, the late Zbigniew Brzezinski, national security adviser to Jimmy Carter, voted for George H.W. Bush. And that was the one and only time...

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...

Part 1 - 4:30am-6:00am Israel scud attacks. Jordan’s concerns as it’s in the middle; reports from Kurdistan; Peter Arnett from Iraq; missiles on Israel; Bush tells Israel the coalition will attempt to destroy missile launchers; effects of scuds on Pentagon planner; attacks on occupied Kuwait; more pilots MIA. Part 2 - 6:00am-7:30am Saudis worried about scuds; attacks at border with Kuwait; US dependents will be able to leave; International Correspondents with Bob Franken; Israel saying it will react to 2nd scud attack but not when; Scowcroft woke Bush thru the night with reports; everyone nervous about potential Iraq response; 4th...

<p>If someone had told me a few months ago that I’d be writing a piece for Front Page on this theme, I would’ve dismissed him as a lunatic. After all, then I was supporting the positions expected from those on the so-called antiwar right. I was harshly critical of Israeli defense initiatives, more willing to talk up for Noam Chomsky than the sitting President, and insistent upon baiting “neo-conservative” Michael Ledeen of National Review into admitting that he sought to see the regime in Tehran overthrown by any means necessary, including US Military involvement.</p>

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 raw CNN footage, minus commercials, when the start of the Gulf War ground war was announced. Part 1 of two parts for first tape of 23 Feb 1991. Part 2 is in the same playlist and shows President G.H.W. Bush announcing the start.

The US military that won Desert Storm or Gulf War I in 1991 was a spectacular military, a gargantuan industrial age military with high tech weaponry and well trained personnel, that when called upon, achieved victory with the speed of Patton and the elan of Teddy Roosevelt. Overlooking the vast eight mile carnage on the Highway of Death in Kuwait, destruction that was caused by a US Air Force and Navy that bore almost no resemblance to the two services now, a sergeant in the 7th US Cavalry remarked, “America sure got its money’s worth from those Joes.” In 44...

Two Muslim clerics with outspoken backgrounds are among the speakers at St. Cloud State University's Islam Awareness Week, which starts today. One of them is Siraj Wahhaj, who will speak on "What is Jihad?" at 2 p.m. Thursday in the Atwood Memorial Center Theatre. Wahhaj, an American-born imam of a mosque in Brooklyn, N.Y., is on the executive committee of the Muslim Alliance in North America, a network of organizations addressing needs in American Muslim communities. In 1991, speaking to an Islamic association of Texas, Wahhaj called Operation Desert Storm "one of the most diabolical plots ever in the annals...

WHEN THE IRAQI REGIME collapsed in April 2003, few observers saw reason to mourn the loss of Saddam's brutal dictatorship. While a great deal of information about the former Iraqi regime's assorted atrocities has been uncovered since the invasion, newly-released documents go even further in demonstrating its manifest depravity. One such document is CMPC-2003-012666, a letter from Qusay Hussein that directs as follows: Transfer all Kuwaiti POW's / a total of 448 captured Kuwaitis who are located at the Al-Nida Al-Agher Prison and the Intelligence / General Center and Kazema Prison in Al-Kazema, to make them human shields at all...

Never again should we neglect, marginalize our military. Never again should we forget what it takes to build our defense. Vietnam Syndrome was kicked a quarter century ago in the deserts of the Middle East. Let's vow to never let it come back “By God, we’ve kicked the Vietnam syndrome once and for all.” — President George H.W. Bush after victory in Desert Storm On Aug. 2, 1990, Operation “Desert Shield” was declared after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein invaded neighboring Kuwait and stood poised to invade Saudi Arabia. Desert Shield started as the defense of Saudi Arabia and lasted until...

Having served overseas in three deployments during his tenure for the United Stated Army, SFC Monte Kaiser assumed his days of fighting were over. Tragic events in the past month however have charged a Desert Storm veteran with the task of preparing for what could be his greatest mission, where love and his sense of honor will be his primary weapons. Having lost his fiancee, Tanaya Goins, in a senseless and devastating tragedy, he need carry on without her for the sake of the son she left behind, and fulfill an obligation he takes on without reserve. Shortly after graduating from high...

Developed at the end of the 1960s to be the best air superiority fighter in the world, the F-15 proved to be a real MiG Killer during the Operation Desert Storm scoring most of the allied aerial victories. During the Air War over Iraq the mighty Eagle proved also to be a very robust airframe, bringing back its pilots also after suffering serious damages. After the first ten days of the first Gulf Air War, to avoid the destruction of their air force, Iraqis flew their aircraft to Iran and to prevent this “exodus” the U.S. Air Force was forced...

Leadership: The hero of Desert Storm gave America a taste of victory after the wasted sacrifice of Vietnam and demonstrated that only the sometimes-unwise decisions of politicians can keep us from victory over our enemies. Schwarzkopf, called "Stormin' Norman" because of his reportedly explosive temper, led America to two sorely needed military victories: a small one in Grenada in 1983 and a big one as de facto commander of allied forces in the Gulf War in 1991. Grenada was the first step in a recovery from the legacy of Vietnam, where defeat was snatched from the jaws of victory in...

Truth is, retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf didn't care much for his popular "Stormin' Norman" nickname. The seemingly no-nonsense Desert Storm commander's reputed temper with aides and subordinates supposedly earned him that rough-and-ready moniker. But others around the general, who died Thursday in Tampa, Fla., at age 78 from complications from pneumonia, knew him as a friendly, talkative and even jovial figure who preferred the somewhat milder sobriquet given by his troops: "The Bear."

Tom Brokaw is the man that our Brent Bozell recently described as having "used NBC and [his] anchor chair as a platform to promote Democratic agendas and delight in Republican setbacks for more than 20 years." But every once in awhile, perhaps out of Greatest Generation nostalgia, Brokaw has something kind to say about a Republican. As was the case on Morning Joe today, when, after reciting a list of the 41st president's accomplishments, said that George H.W. Bush was "the most underrated modern president of our time." View the video here.

1st aerial kill of Desert Storm subject of motivation for Westfield's Air National Guard 104th Fighter Wing WESTFIELD – There is no easy way to explain the experience, the rush, of piloting an F-15 Eagle jet fighter, peacetime or in combat. “There is nothing else like it,” said Air National Guard Brig. Gen. Jon K. Kelk, credited with the first Iraqi MiG-29 aerial “kill” of Desert Storm in January 1991. “There is every emotion, every element of excitement, intrigue. In combat, multiply that ten times,” he explained Friday as he prepared to motivate members of the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s...

EXCLUSIVE: Captain Katherine Jenerette Gives A Woman’s View From AfghanistanAbout Katherine: Katherine Jenerette is Captain in the US Army Reserve and a paratrooper from North Myrtle Beach, SC. She is serving with the 1st Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 25th Infantry Division ‘Task Force Arctic Wolves’ in the Horn of Panjwa’i in one of the most volatile districts in Kandahar Province (and Afghanistan). She is a former U.S. Congressional Field Representative for South Carolina’s First District and a North Myrtle Beach Planning Commissioner and was a Candidate for US Congress in 2010. Katherine was recently name as one of THE 45...

St. Petersburg , Florida -- Operation Desert Storm, which pushed Iraqi troops out of Kuwait but kept Saddam Hussein in power, took a huge toll on American servicemen and women. 159,705 veterans were injured or became ill, and 10,617 veterans have died of combat related injuries or illnesses since the initiation of the Gulf War during August 1990. Since the second Gulf War began, there have been another 5,884 casualties. Most of the veterans we talked to for this story say they are aware when they sign their name on the dotted line, they might not come home or could...

Twenty years ago today, ground op erations in Operation Desert Storm came to a halt. American arms had won their most dazzling success in two generations, perhaps ever. After five weeks of round-the-clock air strikes, forces under Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf shattered Saddam Hussein's army, the biggest and most heavily armed in the Middle East, in just five days. The victorious 34-nation coalition lost only 392 killed, 294 of them Americans. Saddam had been driven from Kuwait; his regime teetered on collapse. A bright, new, world order seemed in the offing. But two decades later we can see how many Americans,...