554 ChaPter^10
No matter the reasons, the Iraqis were clearly in American crosshairs
throughout the last months of 1990, and in January 1991, Desert Shield
became Operation Desert Storm, an attack on and invasion of Iraq. The U.N.
had given Iraq an order to leave Kuwait but Saddam had ignored it, so the
Americans and other allies began a massive air war on January 16th and 17th,- The U.S. and coalition partners had over 1800 aircraft in operation, flew
over 100,000 sorties, and dropped more than 225,000 bombs, about one-third
“dumb”–bombs with explosive material that are dropped from a plane and
simply fall to the ground–and about two- thirds “smart”–those which are
steered toward a specific target by computer. The coalition shot over 320,000
rounds of cannon shells as well. All of these attacks took place against a coun-
try that was roughly 170,000 square miles, or about twice the size of Idaho.
The air war devastated Iraq, killing at least 100,000 soldiers and civilians, vir-
tually destroyed the water supply, and badly damaged the environment [made
worse when Saddam deliberately set oil wells on fire] and by late February,
when the U.S. and others launched a land invasion into the country, there was
no resistance. The land war lasted about 100 hours before Saddam surren-
FIGuRE 10-13 Operation Desert Shield