“…eager to pull Kuwait back into Iraq (the two had been separated by Great Britain in 1913), desiring of its vast oil reserves, and perhaps itching to demonstrate his own immense military power, Saddam Hussein launched the invasion at 2:00 a.m. on August 2, 1990. More than 120,000 Iraqi forces participated in the operation, including armored, mechanized, and motorized infantry divisions, special commando forces, squadrons of helicopters and fighter-bombers, and members of the elite Republican Guard. Kuwait’s meager 16,000-man army was easily beaten and, after only two days of fighting, its monarchy was overthrown, its government dissolved, and Saddam Hussein announced that Kuwait was now Iraq’s nineteenth province.”
– Ricardo S. Sanchez with Donald T. Phillips, Wiser in Battle, Page 64