- In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait which led the U.S. to launch Operation Desert Shield to protect Saudi Arabia. In January 1991, the U.S. led a coalition in Operation Desert Storm that began an aerial bombing campaign against Iraq and drove its forces from Kuwait in a brief ground assault. The war ended in February 1991 after Iraq's defeat and agreement to a ceasefire.

4. Iraq had a number of reasons for attacking Kuwait. Iraq had never really accepted the state of Kuwait and considered it to be part the land between the rivers, Euphrates and Tigris rivers that belong to Iraq. Iraq thought the underground oil along the border with Kuwait was theirs. Iraq claimed before the war, Kuwait was responsible for the reducing world oil prices. Saddam Hussein claimed that Kuwait owed his country money for Iraq’s economic losses. Kuwait's leaders refused all of Saddam's demands and increased its oil production by 40 percent. It is clear that Iraq expected to claim as its territory Kuwait and that they initially never expected an allied force to fight back. Background to War

5. INVASION BY IRAQ On August 2, 1990 Iraqi troops crossed the border between Kuwait and Iraq. Within a few days of the attack the country of Kuwait was occupied and the Iraqi forces were closing on the border with Saudi Arabia. At that time if Saddam's troops were not stopped at the Kuwait-Saudi Arabia border he would attack other oil producing countries. President George W. H. Bush ordered U.S. Air Force fighter aircraft to go to Saudi Arabia to stop the Iraqis. Operation Desert Shield started on August 2, 1990. Saddam Hussein was being presented as the evil dictatorship that he had come to destroy a peaceful and militarily weak neighbor

6. Shortly before 3:00 a.m. on the morning of January 17, 1991, several stealth F-117 and B-1 soared across the skies of the brightly lit city of Baghdad. The Iraqi radar failed to the detect the present of any aircraft. Within minutes of the attack most of Iraq's Command and Control Communications Center, Air Force Headquarters and Air Defense Operations Center were destroyed. Operation Desert Storm the air phase of the war had started. During the next few hours coalition aircraft destroyed the electrical system in Baghdad, most of Iraq’s radar defenses and any remaining fighter aircraft. OPERATIION DESERT STORM

7. Bombing of Baghdad

8. Bombing of Iraq by allied aircraft

9. Bomb damage by allied aircraft

10. Bomb damaged bridge in Baghdad Bombed Scud missile sites

11. Scud missile being prepared to be fired on Israel

13. Border between Iraq and Kuwait

14. Forty days later after the air war stated, on February 24, 1991 Ground Attack Day One, American and allied troops crossed the borders into Kuwait. American and allied troops begin two ground offensives in the deserts of western Iraq to defeat the Iraq forces in Kuwait.

15. “ I can’t say enough about the Army and Marine divisions. If I used words like brilliant, it would really be an under-description of the absolutely superb job they did in breaching the so-called impenetrable barrier. Absolutely superb textbook operation and I think it will be studied for many years to come as the way to do it” Quote by “ General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.”

17. On the second day of the war, the allied troops advanced further on all fronts. The troops approached Kuwait City, whiled the western troops began to cut off the Iraqis ability to leave.

18. Ground attack day three of the war saw the largest tank battle in history. The American armoured forces engaged the tank forces of the Republican Guard, Iraq's elite force. American tanks complete destroyed over 500 Iraqi tanks and other heavy armour without losing a single tank. During the third day, the Iraqi army began a headlong retreat from Kuwait and southern Iraq in doing so set over 400 Kuwait oil wells on fire. Their retreat being cut off by allied aircraft and with their vehicles being destroyed from the air the Iraqis fled on foot. That night allied troops freed Kuwait City.

19. The fourth and last day of the war saw the American and allied troops continuing the destruction of much of the Iraqi army. A decision had already been made in Washington to end the war at 100 hours. It was thought that an assault on Baghdad was impractical, and the best that could be done was to destroy as much Iraqi equipment as possible. At 8:01 a.m. after 100 hours of battles a conclusion of the war was declared.

20. Saddam Hussein was born in Tikrit, Iraq in 1937. Saddam Hussein was dictator of Iraq from 1979 until 2003, when his government was overthrown by a United States-led invasion. Hussein had joined the revolutionary Baath party while he was a university student. He launched his political career in 1958 by assassinating a supporter of Iraqi ruler Abdul-Karim Qassim. Saddam rose in the ranks after a Baath coup, and by 1979 he was Iraq's president and existing dictator. He led Iraq through a decade-long war with Iran, and in August of 1990 his forces invaded the neighbouring country of Kuwait. A U.S.-led alliance ran Hussein's forces out of Kuwait in the Gulf War, which ended in February of 1991 with Saddam still in power. After losing the second Gulf War in 2003, Saddam was put to death by hanging in Baghdad on the morning of December 30, 2006. Saddam Hussein Ab al-Majid al-Tikrit 4-23-1937 to 12-30-2006

22. In 1988, he was promoted to General and was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the U.S. Central Command which is responsible for military operations in the Persian Gulf. While he was commander, Schwarzkopf prepared a detailed plan for the defense of the oil fields of the Persian Gulf against an invasion by Iraq. When Iraq invaded Kuwait, Schwarzkopf's plan was as the basis for Operation Desert Storm. His operational plan was the "left hook" strategy that went into Iraq behind the Iraqi forces who were occupying Kuwait He was widely credited with bringing the ground war to a close in just four days. General H. Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr.

23. AFTER THE WAR At the end of the 100 hour-ground war in the gulf, America's leaders and military leaders basked in what appeared to be a success. Certainly in comparison with the gloomy predictions to the pre-war period, the military victory seemed good. Although, American leaders remained unclear about their positions for postwar Iraq. They had failed to destroy Saddam's Republican Guard Divisions, which immediately set about destroying Shiite rebels in the south and they were uncertain about Saddam's potential to threaten his neighbours America's allies. Even in defeat, widespread destruction, no fly zones and economic sanctions Saddam Hussein tried to convence the other Middle East counties that Iraq had in fact, they won the war. During the months and years following cease-fire Saddam's army continued to violate the no fly zones by firing anti-aircraft missiles at U S aircraft, used the United Nations Oil for Food program to purchase weapons and put bounties on the killing United Nation inspectors.

24. After September 11, 2001 there was public debates in the United States as to whither or not terrorist were be trained in Iraq, was Saddam Hussein developing weapons of mass destruction such as chemical, biological or nuclear bombs. On March 19, 2003 President George W. Bush ordered the invaded of Iraq. Called Operation Iraqi Freedom, lead to the overthrow of Saddam Hussein’s government. The installation of a new government approved by the Iraqi National Assembly and general election in December 2005. Saddam Hussein was captured and after a trial for crimes against humanity by an Iraqi court he was hanging on December 30, 2006. At the present time U.S. troops still occupy Iraq.

25. picture of Saddam Hussein when captured and his trial Pictures of overthrow of Baghdad

26. Williamson Murray and Major General Robert H. Scales, Jr., in a book titled The Iraq War: A Military History , was one of the PRIMARY SOURCES of the events of the Gulf War used in this presentation.