Operation Desert Storm Case Study

Operation Desert Storm was created to liberate Kuwait as compared to Operation Desert Shield which protected Saudi Arabia from Iraqi attack. On January 17 at 3am (Iraqi time) Operation Desert would start with a massive air and missile attack on targets within Iraq and Kuwait. Colonel David Deptula (who is in charge of target planning for the army) said “Imagine Iraq like a human body. What happens if you take away somebody ability to think or communicate with the rest of the body? What happens if you sever their spinal cord? They cannot function right?’ this attack was an air campaign with strategic planning that involved bombing/destroying key areas in Kuwait and Iraq. The result of the air campaign, became the “most devastating air assault …show more content…
Saddam would make a statement in regards to withdrawing from Kuwait under special conditions. These conditions would be that Israeli people must withdraw from Arab territories, Iraq’s debts will be forgiven and that the United States and Coalition forces will pay for the cost to rebuild Iraq. As President Bush was the top official for the US and the Coalition forces, he would reject Saddam’s offer. US General Norman Schwarzkopf would say that “Iraqi military is on the verge of collapse” as well as Dick Cheney (Defense Secretary) would say “the allies are preparing for one of the largest land assaults of modern times” as many people are pushing for the war to end. On February 22, President Bush with the acceptances all parties, issued a mandatory withdrawal of Iraqi troops in Kuwait by noon of February 23 to avoid a ground war. Not surprisingly enough, Saddam would ignore this request as he believed that if he complied with this request “he would have been humiliated him in the eyes of the Arab world. Saddam would build up his army to be ready to fight. As the deadline approached, President Bush would address his nation on television and would say that “The liberation of Kuwait has entered the final phase”. President Bush would grant US General Norman Schwarzkopf the use of all forces available to eject the Iraqi army from Iraq. The ground campaign/combat would begin as a massive amount of troops (US and …show more content…
As Iraqi troops were withdrawing from Kuwait heading north into Iraq in a straight convoy. The US forces created a mission to “hit the convoy leaving Kuwait City and stop them at all costs” to a group of US air force pilots. Capital Merrick Krause, a pilot would say that “There was thousands of headlights coming toward our way”. As the Iraqi troops were all in a straight line, the pilots would first destroy the leading vehicles causing a huge traffic jam allowing them to come back and drop many more bombs causing the destruction of numerous Iraqi troop vehicles retreating. Many people including the pilots would call this the “Highway of Death” as over 100,000 Iraqi troops were killed. Sardar Suleiman, an Iraqi Solider would say that “he saw more destruction in 15 minutes of retreat than what he seen in eight years of fighting the Iranian war” showing the intensity of destruction and determination to end the war. As the Iraqi troops/army were heavily attacked, the remaining troops were starting to escape into Iraq as it became known as the Battle of Medina Ridge. As the US forces caught up with the remaining Iraqi regime, tank battles would start. The ending result would leave the US having four tank destroyed while Iraq having lost 186 tanks destroyed with capturing the rest of the Iraqi troops. Colonel Montgomery Meigs would say that “These guys (Iraqi troops) stayed and fought”. This event