Battle for the Gulf - A Different Kind of War

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Summary

It was a new benchmark in the history of warfare, the first time the world had seen precision bombing on a vast scale. With air superiority established over the Iraqis, the coalition air planners w...

It was a new benchmark in the history of warfare, the first time the world had seen precision bombing on a vast scale. With air superiority established over the Iraqis, the coalition air planners were now confident enough to launch conventional aircraft on massive daylight raids. When Saddam Hussein met with his ministers after the first night’s bombing, he had already ordered action he believed would shatter the coalition of Western and Arab countries attacking Iraq. Scud missile launchers hidden in the desert fired at Israel. At the Pentagon, the defense secretary picked up the hotline to Tel Aviv. Israeli retaliation seemed inevitable. Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir and George H.W. Bush disliked each other and when Bush telephoned him, Shamir angrily told the president that if America couldn’t stop the Scuds, the Israeli Air Force would. On February 21st, 48 hours before the ground attack was due, Iraq’s foreign minister, Tariq Aziz, arrived in Moscow. Hussein’s admission that he was willing to withdraw from Kuwait had led to some frantic Soviet diplomacy to save their old ally from defeat. Aziz went straight to the Kremlin. Aziz told Mikhail Gorbachev Hussein would not accept the UN resolutions that called for Iraq to recognize Kuwait’s independence and pay it compensation. But, he said, Iraq would withdraw from Kuwait. Gorbachev thought this was good enough. He called the White House. Bush’s carefully crafted international coalition was fragmenting. The French president, Francois Mitterrand, called to demand more time for diplomacy. Within a month of the air war, the ground war by the Allies began to force Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. It was a very short and comprehensive victory.

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