Page 12 - 2011 - The 'X' Chronicles Newspaper - January 2011

What Really Happened in the Gulf War What Really Happened in Gulf War Continued on from Page 11 On November 29, 1990, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 678, which gave Saddam till January 15, 1991 to evacuate Kuwait or face eviction by am American-led coalition that had swelled to thirty-four nations. The coalition itself was interesting; it ran the gamut from lightweights like Argentina and Bangladesh to serious combat powers like France and the United Kingdom. Japan and West Germany, big consumers of Gulf oil that were politically reluctant to engage in military operations, chipped in $10 billion and $6.6 billion respectively for the costs of the conflict. Egypt joined to get its external debts -- $16 billion in 1990 -- written off. Debt forgiveness on that scale and the peerless opportunity to charge every coalition ship that transited the Suez Canal a $200,000 toll certainly tempered Mubarak's disappointment at having to reject Saddam's bribe of $20 billion, dangled after the seizure of Kuwait. The Saudis deployed their military, but, far more importantly, paid heavily to the tune of $30 billion for war costs. Saddam still believed that the U.S. would not risk "another Vietnam." Former Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara was predicting casualties in Iraq of 30,000. Cheney's Having rebuffed American and U.N. demands excitedly about their easy kills along the Iraqi Pentagon was predicting as many as 30,000 that he leave Iraq, Saddam watched the U.N. lines of retreat, the press began referring to deaths in the first twenty days of combat. South deadline -- January 15, 1991 -- come and go. American strikes on Highway 8 as "the turkey Dakota Senator George McGovern prophesied Baker had threatened at Geneva that "midnight shoot," the route itself as the "Highway of 50,000 casualties. The U.S. Air Force predicted of January 15th is a very real date," and indeed Death." "Anything with wings and a bomb the loss of 150 aircraft, with one-quarter of the it was. The next day, Operation Desert Shield rack" was sent aloft to participate in the pilots killed, and another quarter captured "and became Operation Desert Storm slaughter. Saddam milked the images of death - possibly paraded through the streets of Desert Storm began in January with a - burnt-out passenger buses, private cars, and Baghdad." House Majority Leader Dick massive air campaign -- Operation Instant even scorched baby carriages -- for all they Gephardt threatened to block all funding for the Thunder -- whose name was chosen to were worth in trying to wring sympathy from conflict if Bush proceeded with his essentially distinguish it from the pin-pricking Lyndon the Arab street and world opinion. "The Republican authorization to use armed force Johnson air campaign in Vietnam -- Rolling victimizer had become the victim," two instead of a formal congressional declaration of Thunder -- which had gradually increased historians noted. Coalition forces lurched after war. With terrifying threats, numbers and pressure. Instant Thunder was front-loaded: the blundering, bleeding Iraqis, Schwarzkopf images like those floating around -- and 100,000 sorties that dropped 88,500 tons of screaming into the telephone to speed Franks newspaper columnists alternately flaying Bush bombs on Iraq immediately. The ground up. for his timidity and bellicosity -- Saddam offensive kicked off a month later. A problem The Air Force stopped bombing the assumed that the Americans would shrink from arose: it now seemed clear that the U.S. coastal highway running north from Kuwait battle, as indeed did nearly every witness called coalition would win; the revised war aim was to City through Basra and over the causeway that by Georgia Senator Sam Nunn's Armed grind down the Iraqi military and destroy the bridged the Euphrates. That was a grave error Services Committee to discuss the military WMD facilities. But the Iraqis were running exploited by the Iraqis, who poured up the road option. away. Could the coalition destroy the bulk of the and out of Kuwait unscathed. It was a signal One after another, the parade of retired Iraqi army and annihilate the Republican failure of jointness and "air-land battle," and flag officers and secretaries (Admiral William Guards before they crossed back into Iraq and attributable to the growing problem of "friendly Crowe, General David Jones, former Secretary appealed for a cease-fire? Could they maintain fire" -- far more dangerous to the coalition than of Defense James Schlesinger, former Secretary any leverage over the Iraqis if Saddam simply Iraqi fire -- and to fears in Washington that a of the Navy James Webb, and former National abandoned Kuwait? second "highway of death" would be politically Security Agency Director William Odom) The most heavily-trafficked line of calamitous for America's image. Bush fretted asserted that a war with Iraq would be wrong- retreat was the principal Iraq-Kuwait highway, that he would be accused of "butchering the headed and bloody: it would shred the U.S. which filled with Iraqi infantry columns and Iraqis" and "shooting them in the back." He armed forces and convulse the Middle East. vehicles trying to reverse out of Kuwait. conceded a cease-fire after just 100 hours of Senator Robert Byrd insisted that even if the Saddam knew that the Arab members of the combat on February 27. U.S. delivered a "quick knockout," such a blow coalition would not join any attacks on Iraqi "would unleash a cascade of outcomes and units once they had left Kuwait, and suspected (Continued on Page 14) reactions that would reduce our long-term that other coalition partners like the French ability [to] influence events in that region." Let would follow suit. Allied forces, racing to hit Listen to Dr. Doug Rokke sanctions bite, they all recommended, as did the Iraqis before they could cross the Euphrates on House Speaker Tom Foley, who gave Bush a River, pounced on the traffic jams along The ‘X’ Zone Radio Show letter signed by eighty-one Democratic Highway 8 and slaughtered them. General with members that warned of "catastrophic Barry McCaffrey called the Iraqi units -- Rob McConnell consequences, resulting in the massive loss of infantry and armor alike -- "tethered goats." at lives, including 10,000 -50,000 Americans" if Neither the troops nor the officers exhibited any www.xzonepodcast.com America went to war with Saddam. initiative. Alerted by juiced-up pilots who spoke