The infamous highway 80 that runs from Kuwait City to Iraq was desolated in 1991 when the US was able to attack the Iraq troops as they were attempting to retreat. It all started when the Iraq troops were slowly moving towards Kuwait. The United States believed that they needed to protect the oil supply in Saudi Arabia. We were afraid that they wouldn't stop even if they got Kuwait like they wanted. It would be just like when Hitler got the Rhineland. There would be no end to the greed. George H.W Bush decided to put the U.S into action. He sent troops to Kuwait to chase the Iraq army back. This was so successful that Bush was able to put an end to our involvement the very next day. The Iraq troops got backed up on freeway 80 which labeled themselves as sitting ducks for the U.S air force and Marines to strike. Only 292 members of the coalition were killed while 20000-35000 Iraq were killed. This was considered a huge success for America. 
Source:
http://nation.time.com/2012/05/03/highway-of-death-robbery/
I always find it interesting with how landscape plays into effect when wars and battles are fought. A great comparison would be the battle at Fredericksburg during the Civil War where the idea of higher ground being better was tested and proved successful. You can read more about it here:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.history.com/topics/american-civil-war/battle-of-fredericksburg
This post provides extra insight into the operation that we learned about in class. It raises questions about Iraq's plan going into Kuwait in such a way that they left themselves open to complete destruction. Had they not expected international involvement? Had they made a tactical blunder in their path of advance? Had they believed their outdated military would be capable of standing up to coalition forces?
ReplyDeleteNice post. This is something I have never heard about, but it's interesting to learn about smaller battles that show a lot about the war being fought as a whole. It shows that the United States was more concerned about getting oil than anything else for joining this war.
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