“On January 17, 1991, soon after the UN deadline [for Iraq to leave Kuwait] expired, U.S.-led forces attacked Iraq and Kuwait. Most troops were American, with support from Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, and Egypt. More than 30 countries took part in the coalition. The operation was called Desert Storm. It was the beginning of […]
1/17/1991
In The Iraq War Reader, Kenneth Pollack wrote: “Starting on January 17, 1991, the U.S.-led coalition unleashed the forty-three days of Operation Desert Storm.” – Eds. Micah L. Sifry and Christopher Cerf, The Iraq War Reader, Page 81 […]
1/17/1991
“The air campaign against Iraq began at 0400 on January 17, 1991. Operation Desert Shield became Desert Storm. And around the clock for weeks, American, British, French, Italian, and Arab planes pounded the Iraqi army and Command and Control targets in and near Baghdad.” – Tommy Franks with Malcolm McConnell, American Soldier, Page 151 […]
1/17/1991
“On January 17, 1991, Operation Desert Storm officially began with massive air strikes on Baghdad and other key military positions across Iraq. More than 1,000 sorties per day were flown, and thousands of Tomahawk cruise missiles were launched from Navy ships in the Persian Gulf. The destruction that rained down on Iraq was astonishing–and it […]
1/16/1991
Following his order that launched Operation Desert Storm the previous day, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney spoke at a Pentagon briefing on January 16, 1991. ” ‘At seven tonight, as you all know by now, Eastern Time, three Thursday morning in the Gulf, the armed forces of the United States began an operation at the […]
1/16/1991
Operation Desert Storm began “At 7 p.m. Wednesday [January 16, 1991]–3 a.m. Thursday in Baghdad–the Iraqi night exploded on television screens at the Pentagon with the unleashed force of more than seven hundred U.S. and allied combat aircraft and the impact of dozens of cruise missiles launched from ships in the Persian Gulf.” – Karen […]
1/16/1991
“When the Gulf War began on January 16, 1991, much of the country stood behind President [George H.W.] Bush. Night after night, millions of people were spellbound by the high-tech spectacle on CNN, unaware that Osama bin Laden’s jihad against America had begun. In [the assassination of Rabbi] Meir Kahane, Al Qaeda had already claimed […]
1/16/1991
“The [first Gulf] war began on January 16, 1991. …To many Saudis, the presence of the foreign ‘crusaders,’ as bin Laden characterized the coalition troops, in the sanctuary of Islam posed a greater calamity than the one that Saddam was already inflicting on Kuwait.” – Lawrence Wright, The Looming Tower, Page 182 […]
1/15/1991
President George H.W. Bush in White House National Security Directive 54: “Access to Persian Gulf oil and the security of key friendly states in the area are vital to U.S. national security. Consistent with NSD 26 of October 2, 1989, and NSO 45 of August 20, 1990, and as a matter of long-standing policy, the […]
1/15/1991
“…the United Nations had given Iraq a deadline of January 15, 1991, to withdraw peacefully from Kuwait. The [H.W.] Bush administration had also built a strong coalition of thirty-five nations that had agreed to participate in removing Iraqi forces by military force, if necessary. Approximately 660,000 troops had been assembled (74 percent, or 500,000, were […]