Essay - The Persian Gulf War During the Last Eighteen Months of...

The Persian Gulf War

During the last eighteen months of ***** Cold *****, the United States and members ***** a United Nations coalition were engaged in a large-scale war. The United ***** deployed over 500,000 soldiers, sailors, and air force personnel - ***** largest such deployment s*****ce the Vietnam War, but ***** war it found *****self in was not of global scale, but regional; and the enemy was not the USSR but Iraq, who, in ***** summer ***** 1990, possessed the fourth largest military in the world. On August 2, 1990, ***** combined armed *****s of Iraq, under the direct leadership ***** Saddem Hussein - some 140,000 soldiers - invaded the neighboring oil rich kingdom of Kuwait. Many Western countries feared the Iraqi dictator would push his forces further south into the kingdom of Saudi Arabia with its vast oil *****es that supplies. ***** August 3, 1990, President George Bush and his administration ***** prepared to respond to t***** invasion through economic, diplomatic, and ***** measures. Iraq's ***** meant that Hussein would control *****0% of the worlds oil supply. This was found to be unacceptable, especially if he could take his armies into Saudi Arabia ***** capture ***** capital within three days.

President ***** was resolved early in this crisis to defend Saudi Arabia and thwart any further advances by the Iraqi armed *****. U.S. Army General Norman Schwarzkopf, the commander ***** chief of Central Command, which *****sees U.S. military operations in Central Asia, said "two tiers of responses were possible....***** first...could ***** s*****gle retaliatory strikes...carried out by U.S. naval aircraft based on carriers in the region. Possible targets included ***** Iraqi Army in Kuwait...targets in Iraq itself....Such attacks could not be susta*****ed very long and probably ***** not accomplish much....Tier Two...was the execution of Operations Plan 90-1002 for the defense of ***** Saudi Peninsula. That would take months ***** involve 100,000 to 200,000 military personnel from all the services" (Woodward, 228). Tier Two would include the deployment four divisions from the Army and Marine Corps - including heavy armor units - three aircraft carriers - each with seventy-five attack and support planes - plus air force transports, bombers, all support ***** from all *****. Tradition*****y, ***** U.S. would have first opted ***** the Tier One choice: limited number of hardware and personnel deployed for a short*****sustained mission ***** ***** U.S. gambled the other side would blink ***** retreat. But analysis of the Iraqi culture and military showed that they had a formid*****ble opponent in Kuwait ***** threatens U.S. interests. ***** days after the invasion, ***** U.S. ***** with the Tier Two choice: ***** ***** Arabia. Full deployment ***** take seventeen weeks. Secretary ***** Defense Dick Chaney explored the idea with Powell ***** Schwarzkopf about the size of force needed to remove Iraqi forces from *****. This was ***** third option on the table now. Schwarzkopf stated that "it would ***** 8 to 12 m*****ths to put in place the U.S. force needed ***** kick Saddam out of Kuwait" (Ibid,