in 1991 a small arab state of kuwait was
at the center of the last major wall of
the 20th century
Saddam Hussein's Iraq had invaded Kuwait
putting nearly half the world's oil
within his reach
virtually everyone agreed he had to be
stopped
over 1 million troops faced each other
across the battlefield revolutionary new
technology like stealth bombers cruise
missiles and precision guided bombs
would make this a battle unlike anything
anyone had seen before
I'll be getting to grips with some of
the challenges faced by the men and
women on the frontline in this new era
of warfare and I'll show how the
commander's chose their tactics in a war
dominated by cutting-edge technology and
ruthless political calculation with his
seizure of Kuwait Saddam Hussein
threatened to hold the whole world to
ransom he warned that the fight that
would follow would be the mother of all
battles everything would now depend on
the outcome of Operation Desert Storm a
battle for Kuwait
in the early hours of August the 2nd
1990 Iraq's army shocked the world by
invading its neighbor Kuwait they
smashed through the defenses on the
border and headed straight down this
road towards the capital Kuwait City
great tiny army was unable to mount any
serious resistance
thousands of Iraqi troops were soon
swarming through the capital
at around 4:30 a.m. just hours after the
start of the invasion Iraqi troops
arrived here at the Parliament building
the guards were taken completely by
surprise and within minutes
Kuwait's parliament had been captured
the ruler of Kuwait be Emir along with
most of the royal princes abandoned
their palaces and fled by the end of the
day the entire country of Kuwait was
completely overrun as thousands of Iraqi
troops continued to pour across the
border and they were all obeying the
orders of one man Saddam Hussein Saddam
Hussein was the president of Iraq and a
brutal dictator for 11 years he had
enforced a violent regime that murdered
and tortured without hesitation he'd
built up the fourth largest army in the
world with over a million troops but his
regime was in serious trouble not least
because an eight-year war with his
neighbor Iran had left him with a
mountain of debt
Iraq was bankrupted Saddam had to come
up with a solution to his cash crisis
and it lay across the border here in
Kuwait this is Iraq and here is kuwait
kuwait is almost floating on oil outside
the capital kuwait city oil wells cover
much of the country to the north there
are oil fields on the border with Iraq
here in the center the Borgen oil field
is the second largest in the world
altogether Kuwait held 10% of the
world's oil and it was this vast wealth
that Saddam had captured together with
the Iraqi oil fields that Saddam already
owned he now had control of over 1/5 of
the world's oil reserves
Saddam gambled that Western leaders did
not have the stomach for a Middle East
war and would have to accept his
occupation of Kuwait but he was in for a
rude shock this will not stand this will
not stand this aggression against Kuwait
what has happened is a total violation
of international law please raise their
hand the United Nations condemned the
invasion and call answer damn to
withdraw his troops from Kuwait but far
from withdrawing there were signs of he
might be planning something even bigger
thousands of Iraqi reinforcements were
moving into Kuwait some set up defensive
positions along the coastline
but most worrying for global leaders was
the large number of troops and tanks
driving right down through the country
and massing on its southern border the
question was would they stop there
200 miles south of the border was the
richest concentration of oil wells in
the world the oil fields of Saudi Arabia
the Saudi army was small if Saddam chose
to attack now there was nothing to stop
him if he sees Saudi Arabia's wells he
would control nearly half the world's
oil President Bush Senior and British
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher where
did Chairman to stop him they were
convinced that the only way to protect
Saudi Arabia and his oil was to put US
and British troops in on the ground but
there was a huge problem
Saudi Arabia is the spiritual home of
Islam
it contains the cities of Mecca and
Medina the most holy sites in the Muslim
world
it's royal family ran the country
according to strict Islamic laws any
attempt to fly in tens of thousands of
troops from the non-muslim armies of
Britain and America was a political
minefield on August the 6th 1998 just
four days after Iraq had invaded Kuwait
a top ranked White House team flew to
Saudi Arabia to meet King Fahd they
offered to fly in thousands of US troops
to defend the kingdom King Fahad knew
his meager forces couldn't stop Saddam
Hussein if he chose to invade so despite
the risk of huge anger from devout
Muslims he immediately gave the
Americans the invitation they wanted
within hours
one of the biggest deployments of croup
since world war ii was underway
more than 250,000 American and British
troops from bases in the US and Europe
headed for the deserts of the Middle
East
the Americans and British were
determined that their stand against
Saddam Hussein should be seen as an
international operation and not as an
american-led attack on an Arab country
in the coming months troops from over 30
countries would take their place
alongside the Americans and British in
the Saudi Arabian desert it was an
extraordinary coalition that even
included several Arab states like Egypt
and Syria but it was the Americans that
dominated man in charge was called
general Norman Schwarzkopf he was a
giant of a man with a keen intellect he
also had a fiery temper and he set the
tone with one of his first public
comments about Saddam Hussein that he
dares he dares come across that border
and come down here I'm completely
confident and we're gonna kick his butt
when he gets here Schwarzkopf was a
tough Joker but he knew he faced a
mammoth task
many of the troops have been trained to
go into battle on the green rolling
hills of Europe they arrived to find a
scorched barren desert like this one it
was a place few of them had ever
imagined they'd have to fight over
the sand clogged their engines they got
in their food and no one was even sure
it was stable enough to take the way to
the big American combat vehicles
but the biggest problem by far was
making sure the Western troops did not
offend their Muslim hosts even
apparently innocent behavior like female
American troops wearing short sleeves
could cause huge offence in a country
where women are expected to cover up
completely troops were issued with
instructions on how to behave
appropriately in a devout Muslim country
u.s. army chaplains were even renamed
morale officer so as not to cause
offence but it remained a fragile
coexistence
Araki attack on saudi arabia remained a
constant fear for the coalition but it
was the stories about the actions of
Saddam's army inside Kuwait that
outraged world opinion they brought a
reign of terror to Kuwait including
summary executions in the street
saddam's men were looting shots houses
and factories across the city torture
and punishment beatings became
commonplace as the Iraqis tried to crush
any sign of Kuwaiti resistance some
resistance fighters were even shot dead
in front of their own families as a
warning to everybody else not to get
involved
Western civilians living in Kuwait and
Iraq had been rounded up and taken to
Baghdad as hostages Saddam appeared with
some of them on television in a clumsy
attempt to show that they were being
treated well yes
has he in one fender honey does Stewart
get his milk yes Stewart is meanwhile
his grip on Kuwait was tightening so
they were saying the turn Kuwait into a
defensive fortress hundreds of thousands
of Iraqi troops were in and around
Kuwait many of them dug in down here on
its southern border they'd built very
heavily defended positions with grates
and ramparts close to the frontier with
Saudi Arabia behind them was a second
line of defense with thousands of troops
and then about a hundred miles further
back just inside Iraq were Saddam's
elite troops the Republican Guards
waiting in reserve by November 1998
world leaders had run out of patience
with Saddam although he hadn't attacked
Saudi Arabia he showed no signs of
withdrawing from Kuwait so the UN
Security Council passed a new resolution
that changed the coalition's mission
dramatically 12 votes in favor two votes
against one abstention no longer with
the coalition just defend Saudi Arabia
if Saddam's troops had not withdrawn
from Kuwait in six weeks the Coalition
will attack and force the Iraqis out
the countdown to war had begun
for the US military it was a daunting
prospect they were haunted by the
memories of the United States last major
conflict and knew that they could not
afford to make the same mistakes again
if one American soldier has to go into
battle that soldier will have enough
force behind him to win and then get out
as soon as possible
this will not be another Vietnam but
Saddam was determined that that was
exactly what it would be he calculated
that if the Americans attacked his best
hope was to inflict massive casualties
on the US troops Saddam believed that
after the Vietnam War it was not
something the US public would tolerate
and in 1998 he had the weapons to cause
thousands of casualties in seconds
just two years earlier in March 1988 the
Iraqi army had attacked a Kurdish
village in northern Iraq using a mixture
of mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin
five thousand people were killed and
thousands more suffered terrible
injuries
throughout the coalition every soldier
lived in fear of an Iraqi chemical
attack day after day they practiced the
drills that would save their lives
if nerve gas was used against them to
understand more about what this meant to
the coalition troops I joined a British
Army training exercise my job was to
help unload equipment until the
instructor launched a gas attack drill
go go go nine seconds come on think
about the drills hi there's no world out
if a soldier couldn't get their mask on
this quickly in a real attack the gas
could be lethal minute I then had to
carry on with my task exactly like the
troops would in a combat situation
understood
come on but gas masks make it impossible
to breathe properly as I was finding out
I'm not going to hairiness
ah stand still
unmask there's just no air in there at
all and the idea fighting something like
a battle under those conditions is
absolutely unimaginable and that a lot
harder than what I was just doing there
those shuttle runs the idea of spending
hours on hours in this getup charging
across Hills is extraordinary but in
1991 soldiers fear they really would
have to fight while under chemical
attack some of them were already
suffering heat exhaustion just from
wearing gas masks in training
schwartz confer knew that if it came to
war the greatest threat to his troops
was iraq's chemical weapons and he also
knew he would have to minimize American
and coalition casualties the key would
be to keep his grunt rupes out of the
battle for as long as possible
Schwartz coughs plan was to launch a
colossal air attack on Iraq itself and
all its forces on the ground to try and
force Saddam's were banned and Kuwait
but if this didn't persuade Saddam to
leave
Schwarzkopf knew that he would have to
take a far more risky step
he'd have to order his forces to fight
their way into Kuwait and some of the
experts predicted that this would cost
thousands of American lives his strategy
would call upon the full might of the
United States Armed Forces more and more
of the world's most sophisticated
aircraft tanks and weapons were arriving
in the Gulf and six American aircraft
carriers with over 400 planes would be
positioned within striking distance of
Iraq and Kuwait
one week before the UN deadline expired
750,000 coalition troops waited on the
battlefield as the politicians made one
last attempt to find the diplomatic
solution the US Secretary of State James
Baker met Iraq's foreign minister Tariq
Aziz in Geneva both men knew the tens or
even hundreds of thousands of lives were
at stake and James Baker warmed the
Iraqis not to use chemical weapons
reminding them that America had nuclear
bombs but seven hours of talks ended in
failure if Iraq should choose to
continue its brutal occupation of Kuwait
Iraq will be choosing a military
confrontation which it cannot win and
which will have devastating consequences
but Saddam remained as defiant as ever
and promised his people a great victory
he warned that the Americans depended
too much on technology he boasted that
Iraq could rely on the bravery and
experience of its soldiers their faith
would defeat the enemy at midnight on
January the 15th 1991 the UN deadline
expired across the world people watched
and waited everybody knew it was just a
matter of time before the war began
in the early hours of January the 17th
1991 hundreds of coalition aircraft took
to the skies and headed for their
targets
Operation Desert Storm had begun British
RAF pilots in low-flying Tornado
aircraft carried bombs designed to
crater Iraqi runways the Americans first
target was Iraq capital from the
rooftops of Baghdad 3000 anti-aircraft
guns fired into the night flying
straight into this wall of fire for
eight American bombers they were so
sophisticated that the Saudis had
nicknamed them ghosts the f-117 stealth
bomber was designed to be invisible to
radar but this was its first test in
major combat the stealth first target
was the main communications tower in
Baghdad at exactly 3:00 a.m. the pilot
in the lead aircraft pushed the button
and a 2,000 pound laser-guided bomb
descended on its target
across the city the ground shook as 14
more bombs from other Stealth's hit
their targets the aircraft turned for
home cruise missiles launched from US
warships knocked out the power stations
and plunged the city into darkness
the air campaign unleashed by the
coalition against Saddam's Iraq was
codenamed instant Thunder it was the
most powerful and focused use of air
power in the 20th century on the first
night
Karen ich an aircraft threw over a
thousand sorties they hit power stations
radar and communication networks
airfields and chemical weapons facility
the aim was first to gain control of the
skies above Kuwait and Iraq and destroy
sedan's ability to coordinate his forces
and then to target the forces themselves
guided in by laser a bomb launched from
planes like these could explode within
three meters of its target even from a
range of seven miles
the bombing campaign had badly damaged
the Iraqi radar stations and gave rocky
pilots little chance to respond rather
than fly blind against the most
sophisticated air force the world had
ever seen
most of them opted to leave their
aircraft inside hardened hangars and try
and sit it out throughout that night and
into the following day American and
coalition aircraft continued to attack
Iraqi targets including Saddam Hussein's
palaces Saddam Hussein was in fear for
his life he moved between safe houses to
avoid the coalition attacks but in
public he would not be cowed on Baghdad
radio he declared that the mother of all
battles had begun and in secret he
ordered his army to launch the weapon
that he hoped would blow the coalition
apart its target was a country over 700
miles from Kuwait
at two em on January 18th 1991 air-raid
sirens sounded across Israel
they warned of a scud missile attack
from Iraq heading for Tel Aviv Israel's
biggest city moments later the first
Scud hit this factory near a housing
estate in a residential suburb of the
city initial reports from the Israeli
army suggested that Israel was under
chemical attack in the confusion and
panic people all over the city put on
their gas masks
some even injected themselves with the
antidote to nerve gas Saddam Hussein's
attack on Israel was an act of ruthless
calculation
he hoped Israel would retaliate if it
did Israel would then appear to be on
the same side as the Arab nations in the
coalition Saddam's hope was that the
Arabs hatred of Israel would make this
unthinkable for them they would withdraw
from the coalition and the coalition
would collapse
from Washington senior White House
officials called the Israeli defense
minister urging him to show restraint
for hours the whole world held its
breath waiting to see how the Israelis
would respond eight scuds had been fired
at Israel at night and by daybreak
residents were still on alert but
reports of a chemical attack had turned
out to be a false alarm and remarkably
nobody had been killed by any of the
missiles under huge pressure from the
White House the Israeli Prime Minister
Yitzhak Shamir agreed not to retaliate
at least for the time being in return
the Americans promised to make the
destruction of the scud missile
launchers inside Iraq their top military
priority the Scud hunt was on
coalition aircraft began flying around
the clock
searching thousands of square miles of
empty desert hoping to spot here acts
estimated 20 mobile Scud launchers and
then destroy them for the American
commander general Schwarzkopf it was a
tough challenge finding the mobile
launchers is like finding a needle in a
haystack as you can well imagine scuds
continued to hit Israel and Washington
ordered Schwarzkopf to step up the
search by the 24th of January 40% of the
coalition's air sorties were diverted to
Scud hunting and Special Forces like
Britain's SAS were sent into Iraq to try
and destroy the launchers from the
ground
the Scud attacks on Israel went on but
still they fail to break up the
coalition as Saddam Hope
in a further attempt to weaken public
support for the war British pilots John
Diggle and John Peters shot down on the
first night were paraded on Iraqi
television they had been tortured and
were forced to denounce the war this war
should be stopped so we can go home
I do not agree on this roll through the
pictures provoked condemnation across
the world and only inflamed Western
public opinion against Saddam so then
was unable to prevent the air campaign
systematically destroying his army so
two weeks after the air war began he
ordered an attack that would forced the
Americans into the risky ground combat
they wanted to avoid
at around 8:30 p.m. yaki troops broke
cover from their positions here in
Kuwait and headed down there towards the
Saudi border their movement was watched
by an unmanned American spy plane
feeding pictures back to its operator
what do we have over crow let's see what
they are is something here we go
and twenty two hundred and fifty three
hours they've crossed the run and Saudi
Arabia King Fahd is gonna be pissed my
baby's gonna be pissed is it gonna be
hard the Coalition had complete control
of the skies over Kuwait but not a
single aircraft was close enough to stop
the Iraqis where's our air this is
ridiculous
fricking bomber couldn't ask for any
better target now
the Iraqis took the coalition by
surprise they met little resistance and
seized the Saudi town of calf gee about
10 miles down the road troops from
America Qatar and Saudi Arabia now had
to fight their way into the city to
regain control
my office mr. Oscar down rain take that
bad boy off
and when air support finally arrived
they had a decisive advantage I
certainly would not want to be an Iraqi
truth of their aircraft are swarming
over that battlefield like Mattson
after two days of fighting coalition
troops finally regained control an
estimated 38 Iraqis were killed and
hundreds more captured but the coalition
had suffered two in their first taste of
ground combat 43 coalition troops
including 25 US Marines were killed for
some it had been a sobering experience I
never expected that kind of fear but you
have to overcome it because if you don't
overcome it it's just like being
defeated without actually being killed
or anything like that
but with kafshi back in coalition
control world attention turned once
again to the air campaign which was now
in his fourth week
television audiences across the world
had become hooked on the extraordinary
footage being beamed into their homes
around the clock it was all part of the
public relations war after their
experiences in Vietnam American
commanders knew that unfavorable
coverage might damage public support for
the war so they carefully managed what
was actually seen by the watching world
flash kick that was an excellent
question
the American general who commands all
the Allied forces in the Gulf has said
that Operation Desert Storm has been
going according to plan the aim was to
portray the war as clinical and
bloodless with so-called smart bombs
making surgical strikes I'm now going to
show you a picture of the luckiest man
in Iraq on this particular day keep your
eye on the crosshairs right through the
crosshairs and now in his rear view
mirror
but the laughter was about to end in the
early hours of February the 13th 1991 -
stealth bombers flew towards the AL
ámoreá bunker in the suburbs of
Baghdad on what was supposed to be a
routine mission
shortly after 4:30 a.m. they released 2
laser-guided bombs
exactly as planned the bombs drop down a
ventilation shaft and exploded deep
inside the bunker to maximize
destruction the trouble was it was
packed with over 400 civilians hundreds
had been killed many of them children
pictures of the disaster were broadcast
around the world
I lose my wife Mythili who is that man
nobody on nobody cares something
something Musca it was a terrible
mistake
coalition air planners had believed that
the owl a Maria bunker was being used by
Iraqi commanders not civilians these
images of so many dead civilians and
their distraught relatives shattered the
myth that this was a bloodless war and
it forced short scoff to curtail the
bombing of Iraqi cities for fear of
causing more civilian casualties
but the Iraqi army got no such reprieve
the air campaign had battered Iraqi
targets for over a month and still
Saddam had not withdrawn his army from
Kuwait
Schwarzkopf new coalition ground troops
would soon have to drive them out and in
preparation he intensified the
airstrikes against the Iraqi frontline
there was nothing smart about this
bombardment old-fashioned planes like
the giant b-52s that have flown over
Vietnam dropped old-fashioned explosives
and napalm on the Iraqi positions when a
canister of napalm hit the ground it
exploded in a mass of burning jelly
which incinerated anything it touched
and sucked the air out of everyone's
lungs within 50 meters coalition Airmen
through around-the-clock bombing
missions attempting to destroy 50% of
the Iraqi armor we've got to get ready
for the ground troops going so we really
tried to hit a pause in order to clear
it out for the ground troops we've sent
out 50 100 500 bomb today some of them
were a thousand pounds apiece so it's
just unreal the gun is going out of here
in retaliation for the coalition's
continuous aerial bombardment Saddam
Hussein unleashed a new kind of
destruction
he ordered the Iraqi army to blow up the
oil fields of Kuwait
it created scenes of apocalyptic
devastation it looks like what I
envision hell would look like the
country of Kuwait is burning
hundreds of wells were blown up sending
a wall of flame and smoke thousands of
feet into the air
pipelines were ruptured storage tanks
exploded and huge lakes of oil pooled in
the deserts and
choking black clouds filled the air and
day turned to night as the smoke blocked
out the Sun
this piece of environmental vandalism
only increased the pressure on
Schwarzkopf to launch the ground
campaign his plan was a masterpiece of
strategic deception the main attack
would appear to come down here across
Kuwait's southern border 40,000 American
marines would thrust up into the Iraqi
defenses alongside them
troops from other coalition countries
including large forces from Syria and
Egypt their job was to make Saddam think
they were just the start of a much
larger attack from here in the South but
Schwarz cops named blow would come not
from the south but from the west under
the cover of the air war he had secretly
shifted the bulk of his army 1,500 tanks
and nearly 300,000 men up to 300 miles
off to the west to launch a giant left
book
his main heavy tank force with Britain's
men and tanks on their right flank were
waiting for the signal to burst into
Iraq and swing east into Saddam's
Republican Guard divisions dug in on the
Kuwait Iraq border
Schwarzkopf men had a double mission to
liberate Kuwait and to sow weaken the
Republican Guard and the Iraqi army that
they could never cause trouble in the
area again on the 24th of February 1991
the ground attack began
out in the Gulf the big guns of the US
warships began a massive artillery
barrage onto the Kuwaiti coastline
but the real attack would come from the
ground troops
and the first to go in would be the US
Marines this is Adam have fun get an
American flag in this pack right here
we're gonna raise him Kuwait the Marines
had to bull those gaps in huge banks of
sand like this one so the tanks in
artillery could advance
as the first troops went in none of them
knew what would happen
the fear of a chemical attack was so
great that the u.s. troops wore chemical
protection suits and gas masks
in front of them they expected vast
minefields and tens of thousands of
Iraqi troops in heavily defended
entrenched positions coalition
commanders expected the Marines to be
able to penetrate just a few miles into
the heavier rocky defenses with as many
as one in three of the Marines being
killed or injured but as the Marines
crossed into Kuwait they were amazed at
what happened everywhere Iraqi troops
either abandoned their positions or were
raising the white flag and surrender
most of them were conscripts and off the
devastating five-week air bombardment
they were sleep-deprived shell-shocked
and dehydrated they were in no position
to fight
let's go get up here
the Marines continued forward into
Kuwait there was little resistance and
nearly everywhere their progress was
unopposed right now I feel sorry for the
people that are remaining on the enemy
side because we're gonna wipe them out
just a matter of time the Marines were
scoring a major success in their thrust
up here into Kuwait almost too
successful they and the Arab forces to
the east and west of them were fast
heading for Kuwait City there was now a
risk that some of the cracky rocky units
like the Republican Guard up here might
retreat before Schwarzkopf's army could
destroy them so he brought forward the
timetable for his main attack he ordered
his big left hook including Britain's
tank force to go in 15 hours ahead of
schedule
the British word over Kuwait and the US
tanks would head for the Republican
Guard
ten hours into the ground war at 2:30
p.m. British and American troops began a
massive artillery barrage on to the
Iraqi positions in front of them
one of their key weapons was the
multiple launch rocket system
as each of the rockets burst in the air
above the Iraqis it scattered 644
bomblets over them it was as if they
were being showered by hand grenades in
just over 30 minutes more than half a
million of these bomblets
landed on the iraqi troops as the
artillery died down more than 150,000
coalition troops and over 1,500 tanks
began their advance
Saddam knew he couldn't keep Kuwait much
longer but he was still determined to
show the Americans he had the capacity
to hit them where it hurts he all of his
troops inside Kuwait to counter-attack
against the US Marines
but they couldn't match the Americans
firepower nor halt their relentless
drive towards Kuwait City
however Sedan still had one last sting
in his tail
Iraqi troops fired a scud missile
towards a coalition base in Dhahran
Saudi Arabia
the resulting explosion killed 28
Americans and a hundred were left
wounded there it was their biggest
single loss in the war so far
despite this incident the British and
American troops had to keep up the speed
of their advance Saddam's army was
collapsing by the minute at every minute
counted if Schwarzkopf was to be able to
destroy the bulk of Iraq's military
equipment before it escaped
Schwartz coughs main arm of thrust had
swept across a hundred miles of Iraqi
desert west of Kuwait and closed in on
Saddam's elite Republican Guard finally
at 4:00 p.m. on the 26th of February
they came face-to-face a gunner in one
of the lead vehicle spotted a line of
Iraqi tanks on the horizon the US tank
commander realized that he was heading
straight for a major Republican Guard
position
the gana in the lead American tank
quickly fired off a shot at one of the
Iraqi tanks seconds later the American
commander watched as the shell landed
directly on the target the Iraqi tank
exploded throwing a man out through the
hatch engulfed in a ball of flame
within seconds the other American tanks
had opened fire in just a few minutes
the Republican Guards position had been
obliterated
the Iraqi tanks had been utterly
outgunned the American tanks can score a
hit on the move
from over 2,000 meters away Iraqi tanks
were only accurate below 1700 meters and
they had to be stationed within a couple
of hours over 50 Iraqi armored vehicles
were destroyed with few American losses
throughout the night the Americans
pursued the Republican Guard by daybreak
they'd smashed an entire division
leaving over a hundred tanks and armored
vehicles smoking on the battlefield the
remaining Republican Guard divisions
made a desperate retreat and the
Americans continued to hunt them down it
looked like the Americans now had the
Republican Guard at their mercy but
something had happened inside Kuwait
that would help save them from
destruction Iraqi troops had been
fleeing from Kuwait City in any vehicle
they could get their hands on American
commanders were determined to stop them
it led to one of the most controversial
episodes of the war using laser-guided
bombs pilots attacked Iraqi vehicles
along a stretch of this road leading
north from Kuwait City
this created a roadblock and behind it
hundreds of vehicles became trapped in a
giant traffic jam this made them totally
vulnerable to the American aircraft
overhead some of them were so desperate
to escape they drove off across the
desert
every available American aircraft was
ordered into the attack with devastating
results for the mile after mile charred
vehicles and human corpses littered the
desert and choked the two main roads
going towards Iraq an estimated 2,000
vehicles were destroyed only very few of
them were tanks or armored personnel
carriers most were civilian vehicles
stolen by the Iraqi army as they fled
Kuwait City nobody knows how many
hundreds or thousands of Iraqis died in
the attacks the American leadership
realized that pictures like these would
soon be on television around the world
and they feared it would look like a
massacre this would become a key factor
in deciding when to end the war
36 hours later coalition troops led by
units from Kuwait's own army arrived in
Kuwait City
the street soon filled with vehicles as
people celebrate at the end of the Iraqi
occupation they're coming with will
completely little boys
alongside them on American troops
greeted as heroes as liberators of a
country that had been subjected to
months of horror by the Iraqi regime
they don't have any civilization they
kill not by guns only by torturing they
brought them over here in this place and
they just shot them and kill them and
left them for five days just like a
garbage they want to put names are
damned in my hand and they tell me to
remember it even you our old men
with the liberation of Kuwait the main
political goal of the war had been
achieved with the Republican Guard had
not yet been destroyed however President
Bush fear but continuing the bomber a
treating enemy might give the impression
that America was behaving like a bully
and so on February 28 1991 Bush declared
a ceasefire I am pleased to announce
that exactly 100 hours since ground
operations commenced and six weeks since
the start of Operation Desert Storm all
United States and coalition forces will
suspend offensive combat operations the
Gulf War was over
within weeks tens of thousands of
coalition troops began the long journey
home
all of them grateful that the mass
casualties they fear had never
materialized
in total 248 coalition troops were
killed far less than anyone had dared
hope nobody knows how many Iraqis died
though some estimates put the figure at
over 30,000 including 3,000 civilians
despite the pre-war fears of the
coalition it had turned out to be one of
the most one-sided battles in modern
history
Schwarzkopf and his men returned home to
a hero's welcome
the Allies could have chased Saddam all
the way to Baghdad but they had no
authority from the UN and no wish to
become mired in Iraq instead they hoped
that Saddam would now be too weak to be
a threat
but Saddam's regime did not crumble as
the Americans hoped he crushed to
uprisings that followed the end of the
war and remained in power for another 12
years several thousand US forces
remained in Saudi Arabia to keep watch
on Saddam's army Osama bin Laden has
claimed that it was this presence of US
troops in the Muslim holy land of Saudi
Arabia that motivated him to launch a
series of attacks against American
interests this culminated in the events
of September the 11th 2001 President
Bush's son George W Bush was now in the
White House and in response to the 9/11
attacks he declared a global war on
terror as part of this war he launched a
US and British led invasion of Iraq in
2003 which unstirred Saddam Hussein from
power thousands of British and American
troops remain in Iraq to this day
dealing with the consequences no one
knows when they will return home
you can find out more about the Gulf War
of 1991 in Dan's video podcast available
online now at BBC Cote UK
next night on BBC two Jack Dee hosting
have I got news for you