The First Gulf War

On the afternoon of January 16, 1991, American television viewers who happened to be tuned to the Cable News Network (CNN) experienced possibly the most extraordinary event in the history of television: they were told and shown by direct live reportage and video from CNN reporters then stationed in Baghdad, that the city was at that moment  in the predawn hours of the night, Baghdad time  under air attack. Thus, American viewers learned that their country had gone to war. The first air strikes came within hours of the deadline established by the United Nations for Iraqi withdrawal from occupied Kuwait ("Desert Storm," 1991).

The war that began that day ended a month later, after only four days of ground combat ("Desert Victory," 1991). It was one of the most extraordinarily onesided wars of modern history. Iraqi casualties have never been reliably determined, but were probably at least one hundred thousand dead. U.S. casualties were fewer than two hundred dead  a substantial fraction of them

. . .
as certainly not a red light. By the end of July, Iraqi forces were concentrating massively on the Kuwaiti border, and on August 2 they struck. The Emir of Kuwait fled at once, and resistance was shortlived and ineffective. In a day, the Iraqis were firmly in control. For the Bush Administration, it was a case of bad news and good news. The bad news was that the Administration had been caught sleeping by a crisis. The good news was that dealing with such crises displayed President Bush at his most effective. (Moreover, the week before the invasion, U.S. public attention had been focused on the savingsandloan scandal, and on the participation of Bush's son Neil therein. The focus swiftly shifted to the Middle East.) The Administration swiftly organized its response to the crisis. A deployment of U.S. forces to Saudi Arabia was ordered, lest Saddam  as seemed quite possible  should continue on from Kuwait to make himself the master of the entire Persian Gulf oil supply ("Baghdad's Bully," 1990). At the same time, this military response was matched by a diplomatic offensive in the United Nations. In this latter arena, the Administration profited immeasurably from world developments of 198
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Gulf War, Bush Administration, President Bush, Saudi Arabia, Iraq's Sovietbuilt, Korea Vietnam, Arab Muslim, Iran Iraqis, Persian Gulf, Desert Victory, persian gulf, gulf war, persian gulf war, bush administration, saddam hussein, 1991 newsweek, saudi arabia, president bush, united nations, middle east, reluctant goahead, reluctant goahead 1991, keeping hands 1991, glaspie gentle 1991, political outcome war,
Approximate Word count = 2873
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)

More Essays on The First Gulf War