Wars Against Saddam

An in-depth look at the history of U.S. military actions in Iraq, beginning with the U.S. participation in Operation Desert Storm in 1990, and eventually discussing the war in Iraq following the events of September 11.

The Iran–Iraq War was an armed conflict between the Islamic Republic and the Baathist Republic of Iraq lasting eight years making it the 20th century's longest conventional war. The Iran–Iraq War began when Iraq invaded Iran via air and land on September 22, 1980. It followed a long history of border disputes, and was motivated by fears that the Iranian Revolution would inspire insurgency among Iraq's long-suppressed Shia majority.

In 1990 Iraq accused Kuwait of stealing Iraqi petroleum through slant drilling. Here we examine the real reasons for the invasion and how the United States may have encouraged it.

To wage war against Saddam's forces in Kuwait an array of nations joined the United States in a Coalition, the largest military alliance since World War II. The great majority of the Coalition's military forces were from the U.S., with Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom and Egypt as leading contributors, in that order. This is the story behind that build up.

The Air campaign of the 1991 Gulf War began with an extensive aerial bombing to shape the battlefield. Stealth aircraft were used to for the first time. The aerial strike force was made up of over 2,250 combat aircraft, which included 1,800 US aircraft with over 100,000 sorties flown. The air campaign began January 17th and largely completed by February 23 when the ground war commenced with Coalition ground forces entering Kuwait. This initial air attack phase of the war drove the Iraqi air force from the sky, whether through combat losses or Iraqi pilots flying their planes to Iran to escape the air assault. The air campaign also devastated Iraqi armored and infantry field forces before the ground phase of the war began.

This is the end around attack by massive armor formations that crushed Saddam's Republican Guard and the Iraqi military in record time. The Coalition forces were halted before they could topple Saddam.