Hugh+Boyd+Desert+Storm

 =Desert Storm The Beggining=

 One of the reasons the war began is because Saddam Hussein said Kuwait was lowering the world price of oil. He said they were selling too much and he ordered an attack on August 2, 1990. Troops took control within hours. Iraq claimed Kuwait to be a providence of Iraq.

For a while, the United Nations tried to convince Iraq to pull out of Kuwait. They put an embargo on Iraq. The United States and many other countries sent 1,000 of their troops over to Saudi Arabia to enforce the embargo.

On November 29,1990 the United Nations said that they would declare war if Iraq did not withdraw by January 15, 1991. As January 15 came and Saddam didn't move the UN declared war.

War began on January 15, 1991 with General H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. leading the effort. Allied planes flew more than 110,000 individual combat missions. The Allied team used smart bombs to acuratly hit targets. Iraq tried to fight back by shooting scud missiles at Israel and Saudi Arabia but many of the poorly manufactured missiles broke up during flight or were shot down by the United States patriot missiles.

The ground war began on February 24, 1991. Over 200,000 Allied Troops attacked Iraqi Forces in Kuwait and Iraq. Soon Iraqi troops began leaving. As they left, they set fire to hundreds of oil wells.

  =The US involvment in Desert Storm=

  U.S. involvement in the situation was immediate as Sheikh Jaber Al Sabah, the Emir of Kuwait, met with the Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney to request U.S. military assistance. President George Bush was all for helping Kuwait. U.S. military commanders and strategists imidiatly started formulating offensive plans.

On January 12, Congress granted President Bush the authority to wage war. Hostilities started on January 17, as an air campaign to disable Iraq's communications, air defenses, and early warning radar buildings went under way. Millions of Americans were glued to their television sets as CNN broadcast images of the air attack in Baghdad -- the beginning of the first "live" television war. 

[|Click here for a map of all the places that were bombed]

 The resulting campaign, which would come to be known as Desert Storm, mainly involved Air Force units, with strong support from the Navy, included strategic aircraft assaltes against installations in Baghdad as well as other military targets.

After five weeks of air and missile combat, ground troops began their campaign in Kuwait. On February 27, coalition forces entered Kuwait City, forcing Iraq to cease-fire after only 100 hours.



=Resolution of Desert Storm =  On March 3, General Schwartzkopf sat down with the Iraqi military and dictated the terms for the cease-fire. Allied forces would remain in defensive positions in the area of Iraq they currently occupied. Iraqi forces would be allowed to leave this area, but would not take any of their equipment or supplies. In addition, no aircraft would be allowed in an area near U.S. forces, and other flights were strictly limited. On March 6, President Bush addressed Congress and announced the freedom of Kuwait, and on March 8, U.S. forces began touching American soil for the first time in months.

The Gulf reunited the American people and the military, helping to mend the wounds from the Vietnam War. Returning service members were welcomed back and faith in the military's power was restored. Still, the war was not without problems -- friendly fire accounted for almost a third of the over 200 Americans killed, raising doubts about the advances in military technology.

= credits http://library.thinkquest.org/6104/HowitStarted.html  = [] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/inatl/longterm/fogofwar/dbasetargets.htm