Israel. He hoped that by provoking a retalia-
tion from Israel the conflict would widen, and
Arab nations would desert the American-led
Coalition. Fortunately, calmer heads pre-
vailed, and Israel remained neutral. By Febru-
ary 22, Coalition air forces had flown 70,000
sorties against bridges, highways, factories,
and a large segment of Hussein’s ground
forces. Allied losses were 21 planes lost to
gunfire, while the Iraqi air force lost 30 in air-
to-air combat. But the dictator proved in-
tractable and still sought to provoke an even
wider action—something he could ill afford
to do. On January 29, 1990, he ordered his
army forward to capture the Saudi border
towns of Khafji and Wafrah to demonstrate
that country’s weakness. This thrust was then
summarily defeated, with heavy losses for
Iraq, by U.S. Marines and Saudi and Qatari
forces, which only underscored Hussein’s
lack of military ability. Meanwhile, President
Bush watched these events closely, being ad-
vised by his chief of staff, Gen. Colin L. Pow-
ell. On February 22, 1992, Bush gave Hussein
a final ultimatum to withdraw from Kuwait
before the Coalition commenced a potentially
costly land war. When the insufferable dicta-
tor scoffed at the notion, Operation Desert
Storm commenced the following day.
By February 23, 1992, Coalition land forces
numbered about 500,000 men, 3,000 tanks,
and 1,500 combat aircraft under the command
of Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf. The invasion
kicked off at 4:00 A.M. and proceeded uninter-
rupted for the next three days. Iraqi units, al-
ready pummeled by Coalition airpower, were
completely routed by forces touting the very
latest weaponry. Kuwait City was quickly lib-
erated, and a wide flanking movement pene-
trated Iraq right up to the Tigris River. Iraqi
casualties were staggering, estimated to range
between 50,000 and 100,000 men, plus thou-
sands of tanks and other equipment. Allied
losses amounted to 95 killed and 368
wounded. President Bush called a halt to the
slaughter after only 100 hours of combat,
when the last Iraqi unit had departed Kuwait.
He has since been criticized for not victori-
ously advancing upon Baghdad and removing
Hussein by force. This action, however desir-
able, would have exceeded the UN mandate
and violated the very international laws Bush
was trying to enforce. The world would have
to be content with a stunning victory over an
unreasonable despot.
No sooner had the Coalition ceased fire
than Hussein began reconsolidating his grip
on power. A revolt in the north by Kurdish
separatists was brutally put down by force,
as was a Shi’ite uprising in the Gulf region.
After the Gulf War, Iraq was theoretically
bound by cease-fire terms that allowed UN
inspectors to investigate facilities throughout
the country for nuclear and biochemical
weapons, but Hussein deliberately and con-
tinually obstructed these inspections. More-
over, the so-called no-fly zones, designed to
constrain the Iraqi air force, did not keep
Hussein from bombing the Kurds in the
north. Hussein’s defiance has since resulted
in several retaliatory bombing strikes from
American and British aircraft, but these pin-
pricks have done nothing to undermine his
bloody regime. He remains in power to this
day, carefully and deliberately rebuilding his
shattered military, and clandestinely acquir-
ing the capacity to build nuclear and bio-
chemical weapons. Given the sheer cunning
and durability of this maniacal dictator, any
Western hopes for his impending political de-
mise are probably premature. The world
awaits his next miscalculation.Bibliography
Aburish, Said K. Saddam Hussein: The Politics of Re-
venge.London: Bloomsbury, 2000; Cockburn, Andrew.
Out of the Ashes: The Resurrection of Saddam Hus-
sein.New York: HarperCollins, 2000; Deutsch, Jeffrey
B. “‘The Problem of Rabid Tigers’: Why Did Saddam
Hussein Invade and Occupy Kuwait?” Unpublished
Ph.D. dissertation, George Mason University, 1999;
Hamzah, Khidr, and Jeff Stein. Saddam’s Bombmaker:
The Terrifying Story of the Iraqi Nuclear and Bio-
chemical Weapons Agenda.New York: Scribner, 2000;
Hanish, Shak B. “The Iraqi Invasion of Kuwait: A Real-HUSSEIN, SADDAM