Lessons from the Gulf War: Why Trump Shouldn’t End the Iran Campaign Soon
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President Donald Trump He has proven time and again that tactical and tactical skills in conflict depend on surprise and on the military professionals who advise him. Now, however, he faces the decision of when to end the war with the Islamic Republic of Iran or which regime will fall.
In making that decision, he should take into account the events of 35 years ago.
The US-led international coalition assembled to oust Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces from Kuwait began that war on January 17, 1991, with a massive aerial and naval bombardment of Saddam’s forces in Kuwait and some targets in Iraq. The first phase was the first phase. First Gulf War It lasted five weeks. The second phase, the ground invasion of Kuwait, began on February 24, 1991 and ended after the famous (or infamous) 100 hours.
Serious military professionals long debated the decision to end military operations by then-President George HW Bush, Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell. A huge strategic success was achieved and the strategic advantage of such a show of overwhelming force and almost certainly few Americans alive today would not have survived the extended campaign to oust Saddam Hussein 35 years ago.
But..
Iraq’s “Marsh Arabs,” the Shiite Muslim population that inhabits the marshland around the confluence of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers in the south of the country, remain under Saddam’s control after a 100-hour campaign, which tried to wrest their independence from the rest of Saddam’s forces. A 1992 Human Rights Watch report concluded: “After trying to recapture cities and consolidate control, loyalist forces killed thousands of unarmed civilians by indiscriminately firing into residential areas; killing young people on the streets, in homes and hospitals; rounding up suspects, especially young people, arresting them, shooting them without house checks, conducting house raids. and using helicopters to attack unarmed civilians fleeing the city.”
Adding to that carnage, Saddam began another decade of brutalizing his people that did not end until 2014 Second President BushAt this time Dick Cheney as Vice President and Colin Powell as Secretary of State ordered the military to invade Iraq and overthrow the dictator. In the dozen years between the two wars came the cost and danger of two “no-fly zones” authorized by the United Nations and enforced by the United States.
A friendly fire incident – a US F-15 accidentally shoots down two American Black Hawk helicopters, killing 26 military and civilian lives.
The June 25, 1996 terrorist attack on the Khobar Towers, a residential complex in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, is believed to have been caused by the expanded deployment of US forces in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Nineteen airmen were killed and more than 400 US and international military members and civilians were injured in the attack, which has been attributed to both al-Qaeda and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The towers were home to troops and civilians supporting Operation Southern Watch, a no-fly zone operation in southern Iraq.
Counter-objectisms are not useful for debate. – American officials Make the toughest decisions with limited information, some of which we don’t know yet — but real history after the 100-hour war could inform President Trump’s earlier decisions.
If the first Gulf War had not been arbitrarily halted for 100 hours, instead extending to the ground campaign in Iraq to oust Saddam Hussein in 1991, it would be an entirely different history. Middle East It would have gotten rid of the Iranian nuclear and missile programs that have fueled this conflict. But the coalition assembled by the first President Bush may be falling apart. American casualties in that battle may have been 300 dead and 450 wounded. Again, conducting the “what might have happened” debate is ludicrous. We cannot know.
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But President Trump and his advisers can reflect that, and no doubt, the Islamic Republic at his side, with little in the way of protection, but still a formidable force, can persevere in the ongoing battle between the United States and a new set of free rulers of medieval theological inspiration. The now deceased Ayatollah Khamenei are in place.
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It is not for citizens to make war plans, but presidents should study the decisions of their predecessors. A premature end to this war will almost certainly lead to another battle, perhaps without the benefit of the tactical surprise of this weekend’s attack. After President Trump ordered the killing of Qassem Soleimani in January 2020, and then once again refused to stop the nuclear program, missile program and export of terrorism, we can make a fair guess. Operation Midnight Hammer was destroyed The Islamic Republic’s nuclear weapons program. Instead, the fanatics at the top of this barbaric regime began to rebuild their killing capacity, and in January displayed their true colors with a stunning massacre of more than 35,000 of their own citizens. This system is incapable of change. The regime must change.
Persistent President Trump. Dying at the hands of Americans This evil regime Since coming to power in 1979. Several more have died this week. Don’t live to kill again.
Hugh Hewitt is a contributor and host of Fox News “The Hugh Hewitt Show“Heard weekdays from 3pm to 6pm ET on the Salem Radio Network and simulcast on the Salem News Channel. Hugh brings Americans home to the East Coast and lunch on the West Coast on more than 400 affiliates nationwide and on all streaming platforms where SNC can be seen. He is a frequent guest on the newscast. Bret Baier weekdays at 6pm ET and a graduate of Harvard College and the University of Michigan Law School, Hewitt since 1996 A professor of law at Chapman University’s Fowler School, Hewitt launched his eponymous radio show in the 1990s. The debate, his national security program, focused on politics and the Cleveland Browns and the Guardians previewed 40 years of broadcast coverage from Democrats Hillary Clinton and John Kerry to Republican Presidents George W. Bush and Donald Trump.
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