On August 2nd, 1990 Iraqi military forces invaded and occupied the small Arab state of Kuwait. The order was given by Iraqi dictatorial president Saddam Hussein. His aim was apparently to take control Kuwait's oil reserves (despite its small size Kuwait is a huge oil producer; it has about 10 per cent of the world's oil reserves ). Iraq accused Kuwait, and also the United Arab Emirates, of breaking agreements that limit oil production in the Middle East. According to Saddam Hussein, this brought down world oil prices severely and caused financial loss of billions of dollars in Iraq's annual revenue.

Saddam Hussein had the nearly hopeless task of justifying the invasion. He plead the fact that Kuwait had been part of the Ottoman province of Basra, a city in the south of Iraq. However, the Ottoman province collapsed after World War I and today's Iraqi borders were not created until then. There was also a further and more obvious blunder in a bid to justify this illegal invasion. Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, had namely recognized Kuwaiti independence in 1963. Furthermore, Hussein claimed that Kuwait had illegally pumped oil from the Iraqi oil field of Rumaila and otherwise conspir

On November 8, 1990 President Bush announced a military buildup to provide an offensive option, "Operation Desert Storm," to force Iraq out of Kuwait. The preparation of the operation took two and a half months and it involved a massive air- and sea lift.

The ground war began at 8:00 p.m. on February 23 and lasted exactly 100 hours. This phase featured a massively successful outflanking movement of the Iraqi forces. Schwarzkopf used a deceptive maneuver by deploying a large number of forces as if to launch a large amphibious landing. The Iraqis apparently anticipated that they also would be attacked frontally and had heavily fortified those defensive positions. Schwarzkopf instead moved the bulk of his forces west and north in a major use of helicopters, attacking the Iraqis from their rear. The five weeks of intensive air attack had greatly demoralized the Iraqi front-line troops, causing wholesale desertions. Remaining front-line forces were quickly killed or taken prisoner with minimal coalition losses. Iraqi front-line commanders had already lost much of their ability to communicate with Baghdad, which made their situation even worse. On the final night of the war, within hours of the cease-fire, two U.S. Air force bombers dropped specially design ed 5,000-pound bombs on a command bunker fifteen miles northwest of Baghdad in a deliberate attempt to kill Saddam Hussein.

ed to reduce Iraq's essential oil income.

To minimize casualties, the coalition forces, under the command of U. S. General Norman Schwarzkopf, pursued a strategy beginning with five weeks of intensive air attacks and ending with a ground assault. Drawing on its 1,800 planes, land- and carrier-based, the United States flew the greatest number of sorties. The British, French, and Saudis made up most of the rest. Besides the tremendous air power, the coalition deployed technologically advanced weapon systems, such as the unmanned Tomahawk cruise missile, advanced infrared targeting that illuminated Iraqi tanks buried in the, sand and laser-guided bombs, "smart bombs." Its use of brand new aircraft that never before had been engaged in combat, such as British Tornados and U. S. F-117A Stealth fighters, gave the Coalition an accuracy and firepower that overwhelmed the Iraqi forces. The large-scale usage of air force and latest technology made the war short and saved great numbers of Coalition soldiers' lives.

Iraqi representatives accepted allied terms for a provisional truce on March 3 and a permanent cease-fire on April 6. Iraq agreed to pay reparations to Kuwait, reveal the location and extent of its stockpiles of chemical and biological weapons, and eliminate its weapons of mass destructi

Some common words found in the essay are:
Tank Battalion, Security Council, Scuds United, Saddam Hussein, George Bush, French Saudis, Arabia Kuwait, F-117A Stealth, Baghdad Bhagdad, President Bush, saddam hussein, saudi arabia, coalition forces, iraqi forces, security council, weeks intensive air, weeks intensive, january 15, missiles machine, air attacks, kuwaiti independence, five weeks intensive, president george bush, united arab emirates, missiles machine guns,
Approximate Word count = 1811
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)