18 Responses

1. Sara Papp says:

   30 November 2012 at 11:28 am

   I really enjoyed this story. I liked how it was something that we all somewhat knew of and could relate to !

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2. Justin Shureb says:

   30 November 2012 at 12:35 pm

   Operation Desert Storm, popularly known as the first Gulf War, was the successful U.S.-Allied response to Iraq’s attempt to take over Kuwait. On August 2, 1990 Saddam Hussein ordered the army, armor, and tank units of the Iraqi invaded Kuwait and took control of that country. The invasion triggered a United States response, Operation Desert Shield. On August 7, the U.S. forces began to deploy into Kuwait. United Nations Security Council Resolutions 660 and 662 condemned Iraq’s invasion and called for the immediate withdrawal of Iraqi forces.

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   • deanbuck05 says:

     30 November 2012 at 7:22 pm

     The war is also known for a few other names, such as the Persian Gulf War, First Gulf War, Gulf War I, or the First Iraq War. U.S. President George H. W. Bush deployed American forces into Saudi Arabia, and urged other countries to send their own forces to the scene. The United States made up the majority of the coalition forces. Saudi Arabia paid for about 36 billion of the 60 billion cost.

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3. Muna Dakka says:

   1 December 2012 at 12:58 pm

   BBC news reported an interesting case of Gulf War Syndrome suffered by Veteran Kerry Fuller from England. Veteran Fuller suffers from heart problems and severe pain in his muscles and joints. Because he fell ill after receiving a dozen vaccines, he believes that his symptoms were a direct result of them. The soldiers had been given these vaccines by their own government in order to protect them from Saddam Hussein’s chemical or biological weapons. However, these vaccines were experimental and had not yet been tested. He was hospitalized due to chronic fatigue a week after he was given the vaccinations. After returning from the war, Veteran Fuller was re-hospitalized and also suffered a stroke at the age of forty.

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4. Angela Charbeneau says:

   2 December 2012 at 12:47 pm

   The United States helped Kuwait in the early 90’s due to several factors. One of them was the oil that Kuwait had and the trade they have had since the 1930’s. Kuwait was also the 111th country to join the United Nations in the 60’s. The United States built an american hospital in Kuwait. Another has to do with the first United States Embassy being created in the early 1950’s. Also my fiancee was in the recent war and his father was in the original Gulf war. Both of them stated that they had to recieve the Antrax shot and all of them come in several doses. Both stated that there are some that do have reactions to the shots, but for a majority it had no affect on them personally. They both stated that the military does give them A LOT of shots when they go over seas and feel like they are ginny pigs when it comes to shots.

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5. James Key says:

   2 December 2012 at 8:19 pm

   In 1932 the Public Health Service gave roughly 400 black men syphilis while they were at the Tuskegee Institute. The men where never told they had syphilis and after penicillin was proven to cure syphilis, the treatment was withheld from the men. This experiment ran silently for 40 years, until 1972 when public health officials leaked the information. The government officially apologized in 1997 Bill Clinton acknowledged the government’s “shameful” actions.

   During the Vietnam war, the military used Agent Orange to destroy enemy crops. The herbicide has caused approximately 500,00 birth defects according to the WHO, severely affecting the Vietnamese population, as well as soldiers who were exposed.

   Today, veterans suffer from PTSD and the military sadly reports a steady rise in infantry suicide and suicide attempts.

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6. Adam Zimmer says:

   4 December 2012 at 12:22 am

   The Gulf War, in a way like the Vietnam war was the first war with live new coverage. People back at home were able to see things happening over in the field not the next day, or even on the nightly news, but right when they were happening. When the allied forces commenced their initial air attack on Baghdad there were multiple American and British news crews there when the bombs and tracer rounds started flying. CNN’s Broadcast of the war is one of the most famous of its history. CNN had convinced the Iraqi government to let them establish a permanent audio circuit in their makeshift new station in a hotel. When the bombs started falling and all other western news telephone lines were destroyed, CNN was the only station that was still able to give blow by blow audio commentary of what was going on outside. This broadcast changed television and news history, never before had the American public been able to hear bombs being dropped and planes flying overhead as it was actually happening hundreds of miles away.

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7. Breana Damron says:

   5 December 2012 at 11:26 am

   What I found particularly interesting was that my father was still in the Army at this time and was actually heavily involved in Operation Desert Storm. Because of the close relation this war holds to me, I read up on some of the different things that the Green Berets, specifically did, because that’s the position my father was in.

   I found out that the Green Berets actually trained “friendlies” (as my dad still refers to them) behind enemy lines. They trained these “friendlies” to do things to help the United States in the war like sabotaging, intelligence collecting (finding out helpful information for the US troops), and in some cases taught them the same guerrilla warfare tactics the Berets themselves had been using. Although this may seem like small enhancements, it helped other troops come into the zones with less casualties because of the help of the friendlies.

   The Green Beret’s were not only involved with training the friendlies, they were also involved in reconnaissance, which is gathering information while blending into the environment undetected, of course. If anyone has seen the movie Red Dawn (either the original, or 2012 remake), you can recall the various scenes where the young adults go through the city finding out information on how to take down the new placed enemy government. That isn’t just for the big screen, soldiers have had to do that in the past, as well as today. The Green Beret’s had to work to break down the computer systems so that the enemy had a harder time communicating with each other.

   Of course, the Green Berets also took part in physical and firefights, which is what most people think of when they hear Green Berets. Not only did the Green Berets fight against the Saudi Arabian Army, they also took some operations into their own hands and conducted their own attacks, which is where the commonly used guerrilla tactics was put into action.

   Although most people just think of the military as one giant entity, it is broken into many different parts, and those parts are broken into even more parts. However, they all work together like a clock to defeat the enemy. Due to the Green Beret action, and of course, as well as other Army, Marine and Navy soldiers, Desert Storm ended much early than anticipated.

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8. William Khleif says:

   5 December 2012 at 3:33 pm

   The Gulf war ended up killing thousands of soldiers. Although less than 300 U.S. soldiers were killed during this war thousands of veterans still suffer from Gulf War Syndrome. We don’t know very much about this illness, but some reports show that former veterans short term memory loss as well as birth defects. As a country we should respect those soldiers that risked their lives to help protect a country from Saddam Hussein. As of recently Sclerosis is known to be more common in Gulf War veterans, which makes many wonder what caused this illness. Thankfully the Gulf War ended without many Americans killed, but there are still many that suffer to this day. The man that caused this war in first place will never invade another country or kill again.

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9. Adam Rababeh says:

   6 December 2012 at 11:52 am

   This article was very interesting, and made me wonder what was the first military coaliton in the modern era. I found out that it was “The War of the First Coalition” (1792-1797). In this war against revolutionary France, during the Napoleon era, Great Britain, Prussia, and Austria basically teamed up and attacked France at the same time. France eventually won, and placed many burdens on Austria, and the Belgium area was now France’s. Although, Great Britain was still fighting France, and eventually beat them at Waterloo, years later.

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10. Courtney Kihn says:

    6 December 2012 at 2:34 pm

    While Operation Desert Storm was the first Gulf War, it was most certainly not the first battle in the world. Wars, battles, and confrontations have been happening since the beginning of time. As with the thought of Saddam’s power changing things, small actions also changed the battles of the past. For exmaple, one can look at the Battle of Thermopylae. Ephialtes brought the Greek forces to their final demise by telling the Persians of an unknown road that would lead them to an attack from behind. While it was almost certain that the Greeks would lose the battle, there is still an unknown chance that by the work of a miracle, they could have succeeded. Because of Ephialtes, the world will never know.

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11. Taylor Joseph says:

    6 December 2012 at 5:02 pm

    Since the Gulf War ended in 1995 there has been a wide range of chronic symptoms linked to the war. Many soldiers came home not realizing that the consequences from the war could last a lifetime. Many deployed veterans who served in The Gulf War came home with acute symptom of fatigue, muscle pain, cognitive problems, rashes and diarrhea. Some veterans experienced functional impairment and required clinical visits or hospitalization to combat these problems. Many of the veterans also experience post traumatic stress syndrome causing them to have anxiety, loss of sleep and other nervous conditions. Believed causes of these conditions are either siren gas, burning of oil wells,or vaccinations.

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12. Kenneth Lyons says:

    7 December 2012 at 1:07 pm

    CNN really picked this war up more then previous conflicts and become known as the “Video Game” war

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    • Jonny Bannoura says:

      9 December 2012 at 3:56 pm

      This video game you refered to was the second video game published with the Bungie (famous for the Halo series). The game was programmed by Alex Seropian in 1991, who published and duplicated the game himself. It sold roughly 2,500 copies and was based on Operation Desert Storm, the conflict we are now currently refering too in this thread.

      The game featured only twenty levels, featured in the city of Baghdad with the final enemy being a giant Saddam Hussein head. I have had the chance to play the game; it was a cornerstone in military based video games to come.

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13. alex mott says:

    9 December 2012 at 6:49 pm

    This was very interesting. The thing i found most interesting was that Saddam could be considered an ally of America up until 1991. He started gaining interest after the Iraq/ Iran war which left the region in turmoil. He also spoke outwardly about the Soviet invasion of afghanistan. Another player in the soviet afghani war was osama bin laden, who fought with the mujihadeen which were islamic fighters that received some funding from America. It is interesting that these two men who we helped turned out to be some of the greatest known American enemies in the 21st century.

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14. Cedrick Cole says:

    9 December 2012 at 7:44 pm

    I find it interesting how many countries we end up in war with we generally put their leaders in power. This just doesn’t end with Saddam who we’ve supported since 1982, and had given him power for more than 15 years, but also ranges from Batista to Noriega. Each dictator in some way, shape, or form had acted positively with united states government and eventually turned on the hand that fed it. The most apparent of theses cases I think was Noriega who accused the United States of meddling in a presidential election which he himself actually did. This snow balled which eventually led the United States invading panama which is really similar to the invasion of Iraq which took course in 2003. I find it funny how even after 14 years the united states hasn’t learned from the events of Noriega.

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15. Mike Leon says:

    9 December 2012 at 11:53 pm

    I think its interesting to think about what if we stayed and never had the ceasefire? Would the problems that the middle east are facing today be much different. Would the war with the Syrian government and the rebels not be taking place? Would the overthrown government of Libya ever have happened? All of this is so fascianting to comprehend because it shows how much power the U.S. truly has. If by this one decision of pulling out of operation desert storm had caused a different outcome in our world today do you think our government would have taken the other route.

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16. Steve Barnhart says:

    12 December 2012 at 6:19 am

    Osama Bin Laden to the rescue?
    There is a little known fact that surrounds this war. The events surrounding 9/11 can trace their roots to a general that was scorned and embarrassed during the beginning of The Gulf War.
    Osama Bin Laden was a general in Afghanistan during the Russian invasion in 1979. Bin Laden was trained and financed by the US to help defeat the Russians. Osama viewed the invasion as holy war, and declared Jihad. Jihad is an act that has many different meanings, but in this case it meant a defense of Islam and a physical war. Bin Laden viewed this conflict as an opportunity to raise an army that was loyal and absolute. The Taliban was formed, and after ten years of struggle, they took control of Afghanistan.
    After the conflict with the Russians, Osama returned to Saudi Arabia where he was from, and took up console with the Royal Family.
    Osama Bin Laden warned many times that Saddam Husain was going to make a military move toward the Persian Gulf. He delivered many speeches around The Kingdom that spoke out against Iraq. When the invasion of Kuwait took place in August of 1990, it was Bin Laden who went to the Royal Family of Saudi Arabia and asked that he be named as the person to take care of this conflict. (Saudi Arabia feared that they would be invaded by Iraq next, and so financed most of the defense of Kuwait.) The Family had a better offer from the United Nations, and the US, some 500,000 troops!
    After Osama Bin Laden was rejected by his own people in the defense of his country he re-focused his efforts in the mountains of Afghanistan. He would go on to raise a large, well trained army that now had a new target, the United States.

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