Gulf War 1990-1991 Case Study History Essay Research (Essay Sample)

Gulf War 1990-1991
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The Gulf War officially started on January 17, 1991. Americans called Operation Desert Storm. It was a direct outcome of Iraqi's invasion of Kuwait. Saddam Hussein had invaded Kuwait in August the previous year. By then, the U.S president was George H.W Bush who joined hands with the Soviet Union and Great Britain governments to condemn the Iraqi action. The war was characterized by accurate, continuous, and timely strategic, tactical, and operational intelligence being delivered by the United States Army. Thus, it is this high level of Army Intelligence that became the differentiating factor that made the operation successful. The military intelligence of the United States is believed to come of age in the Gulf War.
In the war, Saddam Hussein had gambled that his fellow Arab nations would stand by him in invading Kuwait. He was quite wrong on this assumption. Two-thirds of all the Arab League member states did not support the invasion. Powerful Saudi Arabia's King Fahd supported the United States and NATO. In fact, as part of the massive power build-up, U.S Air Force fighter jets landed in Saudi Arabia days after the war was declared. They used Saudi Arabia for purposes of building up the troops and equipment that would be used in the already popular Operation Desert Shield. When President Bush's ultimatum to Iraq to leave Kuwait elapsed, a full attack began. The next 4 days would be days of vicious battles in the desert which turned Operation Desert Shield to Operation Desert Storm. Tragically, the United States lost 148 fighters in the war (Lewis, 2017). Nonetheless, this number was by far smaller than what the greatest optimistic leaders had hoped for. The unprecedented low number of American casualties was an outcome of a herculean effort put in by the armed forces.