The Persian Gulf War - Term Paper Example

The Persian Gulf War The Persian Gulf War Literature Review The Persian Gulf War, or the Gulf war, occurred during the years 1990-1982 (Gregory, 2010). The reason behind the war relates to the fact that Iraq triggered the international conflict through its invasion of Kuwait. The then president of Iraq, Saddam Hussein had ordered the invasion as well as occupation of Kuwait with an aim of acquiring Kuwait’s vast oil reserves. He consequently cancelled Kuwait’s debt to Iraq with the oil well acquisitions designed to repaying the debts. To him, his intentions were not only aimed at recovering the debt, but also expanding Iraq’s power in the Gulf region. After Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait on august 2nd 1990, the United Nations Security Council responded by calling for Iraq’s withdrawal from Kuwait on August 3rd. After Iraq had failed to comply with the United Nation’s Security Council directives, the board responded on august 6 the same year through imposing a worldwide ban relating to trade with Iraq. Iraq failed to relent on its objective or hinder to the warnings imposed and on august 8, the same year, it formally annexed Kuwait. The invasion of Iraq and subsequent threat it posed Saudi Arabia, considering it as the world largest oil producer, prompted the United States (U.S) as well as western European allies to send troops to Saudi Arabia with an aim of deterring any possible attack. Other Arab nations among them Egypt, contributed by sending forces to the region. The military build up gained from the U.S, its western allies and other countries won a name operation desert shield (Gregory, 2010). After these countries had ganged to defend other nations from the arrogant behaviours shown by Iraq, Iraq strengthened its military base in Kuwait through increasing the number of military to almost thirty thousand troops. The UN Security Council declared an offensive action against Iraq on 29th November if Iraq will not withdraw its forces from Kuwait by mid-January 1991. On 16nth January, 1991, the allied forces began a military offensive against Iraq with the U.S leading a massive air campaign that lasted throughout the war. Continued attacks remained the order of the day with sustained aerial bombardments regarded as Operation Desert Storm. Within the first few weeks, the aerial attacks and adequate ground cover became successful in destroying Iraq’s air defences and consequently launching attacks on communications networks, weapon plants and government offices among other essential structures of the Iraq’s government. By mid-February, the focus of the attacks shifted from air strikes by forward ground forces throughout southern Iraq as well as Kuwait managing to destroy their fortifications and tanks (Gregory, 2010). Operation Desert Sabre, as the allied ground offensive was formed to operate starting south Kuwait towards the City of Kuwait. The force effectiveness and superiority over the Iraq forces ensured they retook Kuwait city by February 28th. Meanwhile, U.S armoured thrust drove into Iraq from the west of Kuwait attacking Iraq’s elite Republican units. The incident occurred after the elite units of Iraq attempted to make a stand in south-eastern Iraq in the town of Al-Basrah. By the time, George Bush, the U.S president by then declared a cease-fire, Iraq resistance to the war had completely collapsed. The cease-fire occurred on February 28th, 1992. Although, the U.S and her allies won the battle the U.S forces faced an ordeal that befell her troops within the battlefield claiming twenty-eight lives of her forces as the war entered its latter stages. Although the ground forces remained far from the front line, their roles indicated they will stay closer than to less than two hundred miles closer to the battlefield. Taking into the battlefield for the second time after the Second World War, the morale of the U.S forces and those of her allies remained high despite the growing fears associated with the desert survival tactics among the soldiers (Gregory, 2010). However, whatever fears grew among the reservists and the whole team, none of the service men and women resented their call-ups. The aspect and approach to the war presented a sophisticated type in that soldier, and reservists experts stayed away from direct combat with the rivals with much of the attacks flowing from the air. Targets location occurred far to the rear with missiles being fired at such targets. For individuals possessing active disposition, the Persian Gulf War, remained stultifying to soldiers not involved in the actual fighting despite its high-tech thrills and its stunning success (Gregory, 2010). In understanding the events that took place during that time, the researcher examines a first eyewitness of the episodes that occurred on the battlefield. Mary Rhodes as the name of the interviewee stands is aged fifty-three years as per the time the interview was conducted. Mary Rhodes provides a good account of the events that took place during the Gulf war as she presents fist eyewitness evidence from the events prior to the war and those that occurred on the ground. As a military Reservist, Mary Rhodes hails from Indiana County, Pennsylvania. She joined the Army reserve department of 14nth quartermaster Detachment. In her community, the people within that society used to yield a lot of volunteers for the military in higher numbers than other parts of parts of the nation. After completing junior school at southern Pittsburgh, The interview took place at Mary’s home in the south Pittsburgh where she currently resides with her daughter Samantha, who was only two years old as her mother went to her. Her daughter stood with her during the two hours interview as she explained memories of the battlefield she experienced. Among the questions the interviewer sought to know understand from the interviewee are indicated here below and their answers following below the questions. · What caused the war? · When did the war begin and end? · How old the interviewee was during the time of the war and what was her role in the battlefield? · Who eventually won the war? · How was the interviewee’s country’s men response regarding the war .What was the most terrifying incident during the war? The interviewee’s response to the questions posed to her was as follows: First, she explains the cause of the war as Iraq’s invasion to Kuwait thus exposing danger to other nations as well as bleaching international peace. The bleach made the U.S to take action after Iraq failed to stop its invasion of Kuwait. She explains the war timelines to have begun on 16nth January and ended on 28th February 1991. The interviewee was 29 years old during that time. At only the twenty-nine years Mary’s role as a meter maid and having served the forces for ten years by the time the war commenced, remains indicative that her experience in the forces remained essential. The interviewee explains her role as making guard at night at the warehouse where she and her colleagues stayed. Regarding who won the war, the interviewee recalls says the U.S and her allies became successful during the war. Consequently, in answering to the question referring to the response of her country men, she explains the U.S citizens were full of joy claiming restored superiority that was dwindling. She responds to the last question with sorrows explaining her most terrifying event occurred on 25th February when she witnessed deaths of her colleagues while on guard. In a summary of the events that took place for both the interviewee and the documented materials, it remains crystal clear that the reasons that made the U.S to join the Persian Gulf War remained for the benefit of maintaining peace throughout the world. The decision by President Bush to liberate Kuwait remains an enormous political decision as well as a political gamble in the eyes of both the interviewee and scholars. The Iraq’s remained the fourth largest in the world that presented capability of firing nerve gas. After a month, the coalition forces achieved their objective of suppressing the Iraq troops (Gregory, 2010). The Iraq forces morale declined after the bombing with estimates indicating that around 30% of their troops deserted before the initial groundbreaking campaign took effect. The U.S used its expertise and military knowledge to enhance combating its rivals. As the interviewee explains, during that time, she and her thirteen reservist colleagues drawn from the 14nth Quartermaster Detachment were already among the military force ready to face Iraq right from the onset. The morale among the allied forces also remained high and therefore serving as a means to ensure they won the fight. She recalls every episode within the battlefield that she witnessed and reactions from her colleagues in the camps. For example, she recalls how her friend Beverly told her about her bad feeling regarding the whole war thing as evidenced by a journal that she kept. For Mary Rhodes, after spending eleven years in the forces, she would feel bored spending the whole day in a warehouse. She and her friend engaged in all types of careful games and readings waiting for a job that sent them to the Gulf. Despite the military superiority the U.S and her allies possessed, the Iraq forces still managed to counter their rivals and inflict a wound that remains among many Americans until date. It had occurred during the night of February 25th, two days before the war went to an end during when Mary’s and her friend duty to guard the roof of the warehouse at night. “We noticed a mist kind of forming in the dust,” Explains Mary of the ordeal that she refers to the most terrifying incident she encountered in the battlefield. “Look,” Mary pointed, “the angel of death.” She claims she will remember that occurrence throughout her life. The Iraq’s had fired four scads at that night with three of them breaking up in the atmosphere. Although their crew were notified of the third scan coming towards their direction, their screens failed to detect them will all screens indicating blank. Inside the warehouse, a hundred and twenty-seven reservists lived there as the scud plunged in there. Within fractions of seconds, the scud flew in and detonated killing twenty-eight reservists while injuring ninety-nine others. Mary’s friend Clarke lost her life together with twenty-seven others. To the interviewee, and the literature articles that explains the occurrence, the war remains a significant success in the history of Americans in the country’s role to ensure peace in the world but formed a detrimental scar to the people of her locality (Gregory, 2010). Although the military operations in Iraq fail to produce official figures, estimates of the number of Iraq’s military forces that died stems from about eight thousand to around six hundred and thirty soldiers. In contrast, the U.S and its allies lost approximately three hundred troops. The war eventually led to an agreement between Iraq and Kuwait and a formation o f a peace treaty that continues to date. In conclusion, the Persian Gulf War portrayed the U.S dominance in war affair over Iraq. The war remained a significant achievement to the U.S and her allies and served a noble goal of ensuring peace in the Persian Gulf (Gregory, 2010). Through use of deception, mobility as well as overwhelming air superiority, the U.S and her allied forces managed to defeat Iraq. Through adoption of a strategy that misled the Iraq forces on the route the forces would begin the attack. It remains evident that the strategy adopted by these allied forces proved so superior to the Iraq forces that with almost five days after the ground campaign started, the war was won (Gregory, 2010). However, although the war was won by the U.S and her allies a lot of lives were lost in the process. Lack of official reports relating to the number of lives lost the Iraq soldiers may prove a hindrance in giving the exact number of soldiers that died on the Iraq front, but that does not by any means indicate that lives were never lost on the losing side. Although the Americans and her allies won the battle, it remains clear that the strike that occurred on the twenty-five of February causing twenty-eight deaths left a sorrowful mark among the Americans. As witnessed and explained by Mary any eyewitness as well as different scholars, the loss of life and injuries sustained to the Americans remains in their memory once the Persian Gulf War memories are raised. Those mostly affected were the Pennsylvania residents where majority of the casualties hailed . However, the war restored the confidence of the American nation as the world’s single superpower and consequently helping to exorcise the Vietnam ghost that haunted the nation’s foreign policy debates for almost two decades (Gregory, 2010). The drift, doubt as well as implied demoralization that resulted from the war in Vietnam, as well as Watergate scandal, appeared to end. Reference Gregory, Josh. (2010)The Persian Gulf War. New York: Childrens. Print. Read More