When Iraq invaded Kuwait in August 1990, the United States organized and led a massive international effort to protect Saudi Arabia from potential Iraqi aggression while trying to force Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait. The early phase of this program, dubbed Operation Desert Shield, moved American military assets into Saudi Arabia. In the meantime, President George H. W. Bush's administration led the United Nations-based coalition to impose and enforce economic sanctions on Iraq, a strategy which if successful might have prevented further warfare. Iraq, however, failed to respond to the deadline for withdrawal set by the U.N., and so the U.N. coalition launched Desert Storm with six weeks of intensive air strikes on Iraqi forces in Kuwait as well as in Iraq itself. This was followed by an equally intense 100-hour ground war that shattered the invaders and "effectively ended the war."
The U.N. coalition's forces included troops and equipment from Great Britain, France, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Canada, Italy, Oman, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates. For its part the United States provided 527,000 troops, 110 naval vessels, 2,000 tanks, 1,800 fixed-wing aircraft, and 1,700 helicopters. Losses incurred on the way to the swift victory were remarkably one-sided: "Iraqi military casualties totaled an estimated 25,000 to 65,000....In contrast, UN forces suffered combat losses of some 200 personnel from hostile fire." One hundred twenty-two Americans died from hostile fire, while thirty-five were lost to friendly fire. There were also one hundred thirty-one non-combat fatalities among the American contingent.
The Persian Gulf War produced a number of significant results. As one newspaper commentator put it, the victory "restored Kuwait to its rightful despots." It extended a veneer of security over Saudi Arabia and other Gulf states, backed by a strong embedded American military presence. The many members of the American-led coalition showed a remarkable unity of purpose as they enthusiastically supplied troops, materiel, and cash to pay for the war. Despite the upheaval in the region, the world petroleum market experienced little turmoil. The war also marked "what might be the beginning of a revolution in military affairs"--a new emphasis on joint operations, "high-paced air and armored operations, precision strike systems, night and all-weather warfare capabilities, sophisticated electronic warfare and command and control capabilities, and the ability to target and strike deep behind the front line...." As well, the war greatly weakened Iraq's army, while leaving Saddam Hussein in power.
Although calling for the majority Shi'ia population in the south as well as the Kurds in the north of the country to rise in revolt against the regime, the U.S. government failed to support the insurgents, which led to a wave of brutal repression. The U.S. responded by imposing and enforcing "no-fly zones" in both regions, while the United Nations resolved and acted to eliminate Iraq's chemical, biological and nuclear weapons programs, enforcing severe economic sanctions on the country all the while. However potent a threat to the region or the world that Saddam Hussein's Iraq might have been at one time, combined war, weapons inspections and sanctions left the country a mere shadow of what it had once been. Saddam Hussein did manage to force the U.N. weapons inspectors to leave the country in 1998, but the American threat of renewed war in 2002 enabled the inspectors to return. Despite the fact that the U.N. team found no evidence of any "weapons of mass destruction" in Iraq, the United States government under the direction of President George W. Bush presented the world with numerous items of spurious or otherwise discredited intelligence as it urged the United Nations to empower "regime change" in Iraq by way of a new war. When France and Germany refused to endorse such a plan, the Bush administration, with the government of the United Kingdom in tow, brought war to Iraq anyway.
The vastly superior American and British forces quickly succeeded in toppling the government in Iraq (at a loss of fewer than 300 American lives), allowing the already greatly weakened country to slip into a state of chaos, where it has been since the spring of 2003 while the occupying armies try to restore some semblance of order and civil society. Iraq's ruined infrastructure must also be rebuilt, to which project the Bush administration has pledged many billions of dollars. While many people around the world express satisfaction at Saddam Hussein's fall from power and subsequent disappearance, much more time will have to pass before the benefits promised by the Bush administration--regional peace and stability and a substantial reduction in of the threat of international terrorism prominent among them--become evident. In the meantime, American soldiers continue to die in Iraq as local and foreign insurgents resist the efforts of the United States, the United Nations, and others in Iraq to rebuild.
American Casualties, Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, 1990 -1991
| Branch of Service |
Killed in Action |
Non-Mortal Wounds |
| Army |
224 |
|
| Navy |
56 |
12 |
| Marines |
24 |
92 |
| Air Force |
35 |
|
| Total |
339 |
104 |
