Operation Desert Storm Analysis

The World’s current security environment is uncertain and complex. Globalization amplifies emerging conflicts that bring national and transnational security challenges to the United States, which require employment of the military as national instrument of power. The United States military supports conflicts ranging from peace to war, and varying in purpose, scale, risk, and combat intensity. The ability of the United States military to advance its national military objectives depends on it employs the force and the effectiveness of the force. In order to efficiently and successfully fulfill the national military objectives, military leaders should consider some major lessons from the past, like maintaining a capable force for a decisive …show more content…
Nevertheless, in the case of aggression, the United States military is prepared to defeat adversaries by inflicting great damage against them, to compel them to cease hostilities or render them incapable of further aggression. As the National Military Strategy states, the United States military will respond decisively to counter any possible attack and win the war through decisive victory. Operation Desert Storm demonstrated this decisive victory. The United States and its allies liberated Kuwait in record time. In doing so, they evicted and destroyed a huge Iraqi mechanized army and shattered Saddam’s war making capability. Desert Storm ranks with some of the greatest annihilation battles in history, marking a milestone for the United States Army after a long rebuilding process from the Vietnam War. The product was the new AirLand doctrine, applied during Desert Storm, and emphasizing that decisive victory is reached only through maneuver on the operational level. However, post Desert Storm and the 9/11 attacks, the belief was that the future belongs to terrorists and not in state on state conflict. Therefore, United States policy began downsizing the Army in …show more content…
This significantly increases the possibility of violating the jus in bello proportionality rule. Globalization, diffusion of technology, and demographic shifts are causing complexity and rapid change in today’s strategic environment. Some non-state organizations like VEOs are taking advantage of those trends to propagate their destructive ideologies, using violence and terror as a primary means of power to achieve their objectives. Therefore, the United States National Military Strategy recognizes them as one of the primary threats to the transregional security, thus posing the immediate threat to national interests. Today, the United States and its allies and partners are fighting a war against those organizations in multiple regions. Those efforts include the full range of military capabilities in order to disrupt, degrade, and ultimately defeat VEOs in their actions. As they have done since the Second World War, United States policy makers will continue to use military solutions to political problems. Confirming the Clausewitzian continuation of politics by different means, they continue to seek military help because it was and always is ready, available, and capable. The United States military proved its remarkable achievements in numerous operations, but policymakers and military leaders could revise its role in