Tag Archives: Gulf War

Modern

The Gulf War Revisited

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While I have plenty of pictures of the A-10’s, affectionately known as the Warthog, this picture of a unit patch from a flight suit deserves special notice.  The Gulf War was not that long ago, a little more than twenty years, but for many of my generation it our first real experience of our country being at war. Growing up in the shadow of Vietnam, the Gulf War almost seemed like  shot at redemption. Since this week has had a sort of “remembrance” theme, I thought it would be a good time to look back at the Gulf War and that patch is a great reminder of a different time and a different war.

The Western World’s dependence on oil has kept the Persian Gulf a strategic theater for the US for a very long time. Like South America the US has always had this vested interest and has taken steps to insure that “friendly” leaders we in place to keep the oil flowing. This particular strategy did not pan out so well in Iran. In fact we did such a poor job of trying to keep Iran friendly that in the end we had to prop up their neighbor and help them fight a long drawn out and bloody war against them. That neighbor was Iraq, lead by Saddam Hussein, who with our help was able to keep Iran in check. Unfortunately, as often happens with us, the lesser of two evils grew beyond our control and decided to invade a neighbor, in this case Kuwait. This lead to the first Gulf War.

In the Gulf War the United States was able to gather a large multi-national coalition to face off against Saddam and remove his army from Kuwait. Most impressively the coalition contained several Muslim nations, something important to keeping the conflict from become a West vs Middle East conflict. This alone was a great start to what would be a historic campaign. For the US this was an attempt to wash the lingering taste of the Vietnam era out of its collective mouth. For the first time since WWII the US faced a black and white conflict without the shades of grey that were cast over South East Asia. This war was going to be different.

Different it was. The Gulf War was carefully planned and had clearly defined goals, the idea being to bring as much military force to bear against the enemy as possible. The air campaign that opened the war was surgical in the way it destroyed the enemy’s ability to fight. By the time the ground war started and the famous “left hook” was employed the Iraqi army was not only driven out of Kuwait, but stood substantially weaker. The coalition was a success, but even in the glow of victory came the seeds of another war. Saddam would be left in power and allowed to rebuild.

The US after the war stayed active in the region with mixed results. Promising help and support to the native Kurds and those opposed to Saddam, we stood by and watched as at least one attempted coup was put down. We did enforce no fly zones and supported the UN in trying to keep the Iraqi stockpile of chemical and biological from growing. This led to almost a decade of air strikes and economic sanctions designed to keep Saddam under control, which failed. All the time this was happening, Iran came back to world stage in attempting to obtain and build nuclear weapons, an effort that was helped tremendously by the first Gulf War and the flood of Iraqi material and minds that fled the country.
Militarily the strategy was almost perfect and highly effective. The enemy military was defeated, casualties were low and the objectives were met. The peace was not planned for  and we ended up in another war where many, many more people on both sides died and the results of which we are still waiting to see if it was worth it. Politically the strategy is still up in the air and its effectiveness is up for debate. Even though we maintain talking relationships with many of the Persian Gulf countries, the effects of 9/11 undid much of what the Gulf War accomplished.

Book Reviews

Book Review: Crusade – The Untold Story Of The Persian Gulf War

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Crusade – The Untold Story Of The Persian Gulf War

Crusade: The Untold Story of the Persian Gulf War written by Rick Atkinson details the campaign from the start of Desert Shield to the final hours of Desert Storm and the war against Saddam Hussein. Two things continuously went through my mind as I read this book. First was the fact that it was written several years after the war and knowing how the story continued in the time since leaves one shaking their head. The other was the fact that this was the first war that I had personally lived through. Comparing the events of the book to my own recollections of the events as they happened was fascinating and as any good history should do allowed me to learn something about what I thought I already knew. There were three aspects to the narrative that I found the most fascinating, the politics of the war, the personalities of the war and the execution of the war.

In writing about the politics involved in the war the author delves into the building of the Multinational Coalition that executed the war. Each member nation of the coalition had to be handled in different ways, balancing the various sensibilities of the Muslim nations with the political expediency of the Western nations is covered with apt skill. Even more fascinating is the dealings with nations that were not a part of the coalition, especially Israel. From my own perspective I knew that one of the major efforts undertaken by the US Government was to try to keep the Israelis from overt participation in the conflict. What this book showed however was the depth of the maneuvering that kept that from happening and the various personalities involved. Besides the Israelis and the Iraqis themselves, the Soviet Union was also a major player, trying to keep their fingers in the Middle Eastern pie. The author handles all sides with a deft understanding of the critical balance that had to be maintained during the fighting.

From the perspective of watching the war on the television we saw a never-ending parade of personalities from Powell to Schwarzkopf, Cheney to Arens. We had one view of these people, especially Schwarzkopf. This book provides valuable insights into these people and shows things that are not part of general knowledge. Schwarzkopf’s temper, something whispered about in rumors, is on full display in this book. Powell’s handling of Schwarzkopf, something we knew was critical, but here we are shown why. Far from a book of psychological examinations, what the author does is plainly put out there who these people are and how they effected the war in general. This helps the reader make their own judgments as to each individuals effectiveness.

Truly the most fascinating portion of the book was the way it laid out the execution of the war. From the first days of the air campaign to the closing moments of the ground campaign, every aspect is examined. The overwhelming theme in this part of the book is the desire to finally have US Military move out from under the shadow of Vietnam. That was what the war was really about to the commanders who were looking for a second chance. That is never portrayed as a bad thing in this book. From the couch the war was fought almost perfectly and where this book really makes its impact is in looking at this belief and explaining the reality. Precision bombing was more precise, but not as much as the nightly news would have us believe. The vaunted Patriot missile did not have the perfect record in defending against the SCUDS that we were told. The most tragic failure of the war was the fact that we lost more troops to friendly fire, then to the enemy. The reasons for these failures are explained in detail as a balance to the things that did work.

Rick Atkinson spent the war as a reporter for The Washington Post, providing an interesting prospective that he put to use in completing this novel. Since the publication he has gone on to finish several histories revolving around WWII and has received the Pritzker Military Library Literature Award for Lifetime Achievement in Military Writing.