On This Day, August 2nd

1.The beginning of the Persian Gulf War.

Iraqi T- 72 tanks heading into Kuwait. Photo: wiki

Iraqi T- 72 tanks heading into Kuwait.
Photo: wiki

Photo: coutausse

Photo: coutausse

On this day in 1990 the Iraqi army led by Saddam Hussein invades its small oil-rich neighbor, Kuwait and take control of the entire country. Luckily the emir of Kuwait as well as his family and other key members of the government manged to seek refuge in Saudi Arabia just hours before Kuwait City was captured. On the same day the United Nations Security Council immediately came to the decision that denounced the invasion and required the immediate withdrawal from Kuwait. Not only did Hussein ignore the demands, but he increased his military presence in the area bringing the troop total up over 300,000. By late November the U.N. Security Council authorized the use of force if Hussein had not left Kuwait by January 15, 1991. He of course still refused to leave and starting the day after the deadline, the U.S. led a massive offensive coalition known as Operation Desert Storm which consisted of more than 700,000 allied troops. They bombed Baghdad, the capital of Iraq as the entire world watched on news stations in every language. Although the operation was led my the United States, there were as many 32 countries that stood against Hussein including Egypt, Saudi Arabia and of course Kuwait. The entire war lasted only a couple months and has been viewed to be one of the most one sided military conflicts in history.