William Heck
Dr Milam
Americans in the Desert
1991 was one of the most prominent moments in American military times of the post-Cold War era, though it was only a six week siege, it is comparable to the wars in Afghanistan, Korea, and Vietnam. It 's shortness in duration does not take away from the incredible magnitiude of absolute destruction and size of the war itself. This is the Gulf War, and America was going to dominate. To this day people wonder if the Bush Administration at the time had just cause to go to war with Iraq, who was under Saddam Hussein at the time. Through this paper I will be justifying that America was probably not in the right in starting this war, only going in for it 's best interest. Many different
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To give you perspective, World War II lasted three hundred and 10 weeks and that war was known for aereal bomb droppings. In just two weeks of being in combat with Iraq, Coalition forces dropped more explosives in two weeks than all of World War 2. We were giving Saddam and his troops a complete display of shock and awe. At the peak of troop numbers we had 430,000 and every day American forces were moving 6 million pounds of supplies daily. The bottom of the line is that the Coalition, mainly America, was going to win this war via superior technology and man power. Before this war, the Republican Guard was seen as the greatest military force in the Middle East and no one was going to beat them. We see in the six week campaign that this was not to be the case, as casualty reports for the Iraq side to be 20,000 all the way up to almost 35,000. Whereas US forces had 148 KIA throughout the entirty of the seven month event including both operations.
America might have no lost many soldiers, but the amount of finances used during this war was staggering. The US forces were paying $17.9 billion dollars for the war where as the rest of the coalition forces of 35 other countries were a combined $43.1 billion. This does not include the massive amount of subsidies that Saudi Arabia had given the allies, amounting to $43 billion by the time it is all said and done. Kuwait, who had already been riddled by the burning of 640 of their oil wells paid $22 billion
“For the Common Defense, a military history of the United States from 1607-2012” is a military historic book written by Allan R. Millet, Peter Maslowski, and William B. Feis. Millet is a historian and a retired colonel of the Marine Corps. Maslowski is a professor at the University of Nebraska. Feis is a professor at Buena Vista University. This book was published in September 2012. It focuses on chronologically describing the changes of the United States military for over 400 years. Even though that is the main purpose, it does include political information. Although this book does not have an exact thesis, its purpose is to inform readers of the creation and enhancements of the US military. At almost 700 pages, this book educates about
The disbanding of the Iraqi army and “debathification” or dismantling of the government in place only served to increase the casualties of American troops and Iraqi civilians as the radical Sunni insurgency expanded. This point of cause and effect, clash of two distinct political and cultural worlds, defined this war for the generation serving, at home and the future generations. The threat of increasing terrorism after the attack of September 11, 2001 was one of the driving force of invasion of Iraq. However, in one analysis the increase of global terrorism today is told to be well contributed by the conflicts that were fueled by the western presence in Iraq and the surrounding
The U.S. Government was responsible for Little BigHorn. In the Textbook, it describes how the Sioux were the cause of the war and how they brutally slaughtered all of the U.S Troops without mentioning the actions of the U.S. It presumes that the us troops wanted to hide the truth so the America doesn't look bad. This also happens in Document A: J.D Cameron Report. He's gives a report to the president saying that the Indians were attacking the settlers but without a reason. Both texts made it out to be the Sioux at fault. Having this evidence points towards the U.S. Government being at fault for starting the war.
One may ask the question, “Why did small countries want to start wars with countries that were world powers?” Grant it, the U. S. become an independent country by starting a war with the world’s largest empire, Britain, during the 1700s. One may see it like a small boy picking a fight with the biggest boy in school, maybe the individual wanted respect or he did not want others to bully him. So, why did Japan start a war with the U. S.? Japan definitely had a large enough military, about 1,000,000 to 2,000,000 soldiers willing to die for their Emperor. Japan also welcomed any type of ground invasion, it was their homeland and obviously they knew the terrain. Japan understood that they would have the upper hand if the U.S. invaded and there would
The United States savage bombing campaign caused most of the Iraqi deaths. The air campaign of the United States was very successful in terms of doing what it set out to do and that was to bomb everything that supported Iraq's war. This even includes some civilian facilities. Nothing was safe; Radar installations, military airfields, bunkers, electric power plants, highways, water treatment facilities,
The Iraqis tried to prevent and split the growing international coalition through several means. They made it clear that their adversaries would pay heavily if war broke out, and they hinted they would use chemical weapons and missile attacks on cities. Iraq also held citizens of coalition countries who had been in Kuwait at the time of the invasion and said they would be held in militarily camp areas in effect using them as human shields to prevent coalition attacks. Iraq finally released the last of the foreigners in December 1990 under pressure from several Arab nations. The coalition's greatest military concern during the closing months of 1990 was that Iraqi forces would attack before coalition forces were fully in place, but no such attack took place.
Since the war on Iraq began on March 20, 2003, at least 1,402 coalition troops have died and 9,326 U.S. troops have been wounded in action. This is no small number and the count grows daily. One would hope, then, that these men and women were sent to war with just cause and as a last resort. However, as the cloud of apprehension and rhetoric surrounding the war has begun to settle, it has become clear that the Bush administration relied on deeply flawed analyses to make its case for war to the United Nations and to the American people, rushing this country, and its soldiers, into war. This is not to say that this war was waged against a blameless regime or that our soldiers have died
enough to accept federally produced ammunition. “ In all more than four hundred and thirty-six thousand of the Enfield pattern were purchased by the United States government during the war” (Davis 59). Those purchased came in two different forms machine made and handmade models coming mostly from Birmingham and London. The effect of this production on English gun makers was an expansion of wages twenty pounds became the common wage per week increasing from three prior to the war. “ In some instances barrel makers had earned as much as fifty pounds in a single week” ( Edwards 247).
The amount of money spent during the Iraq War is a number that is not easily understood. The initial cost of the Iraq War has totaled up to be somewhere around 1.7 trillion dollars as of 2013 (2). While this is a staggering number, it has only become worse. A study has shown that the expenses over the next four decades could total up to be around 6 trillion dollars not to mention the interest rate which could add another 4 trillion (2). These numbers do not even make a dent in what the U.S. is paying. In addition to the initial cost, there is also a price to be paid to the veterans that served our country. A 2011 study found U.S. medical and disability claims for veterans after a decade of war totaled $33 billion. In 2013, that number had risen to $134.7 billion (2). The War in Iraq brought devastation to their
The Iraq war was a devastating war against americans and Iraqs. Many people that fought in the war were very wounded and barely survived. Most people don’t realize that the Iraq war was a major turning point in history because because many people died and many people were wounded very badly.
America is under attack, not from an enemy in a faraway land, but here at home, by our own government. In the current year 2010, almost 7 years after "shock and awe" campaign that officially started the war in Iraq, the U.S. government fails to recognize that our efforts in the Middle East have plateaued, and it is time to bring our troops home. The surge campaigns in recent years were felt by many, to be an unofficial recognition that the war is not going well, and several top generals have had high hopes for this military strategy, but compelling evidence concludes this was a short-lived success. No one can deny the financial toll the Iraq war has had on America, for America is in the middle of one of the worst economic crisis in recent
In excess of 600 billion dollars has been spent on the war in Iraq since it began in 2003, plus over four thousand U.S. troops have died because of this war, and despite a struggling economy the US government is keeping our troops in Iraq with no end in sight. The war in Iraq is a current military operation that began, without a declaration of war, on March 20, 2003 and is still taking place today in 2009(Rogalski). Americans have been shielded from this war and have forgotten why we went to war in the first place. Thus clarification is needed by the American public on why the invasion on Iraq was baseless, how the mismanagement is affecting our soldiers and what the overall end result could
The first major take away from the Gulf War is the ineffectiveness of sanctions. The use of sanctions by the United States with cooperation from the international community completely failed in its goals of driving Saddam out of Kuwait. Studies have shown that sanctions only cripple infrastructure and primarily impact the middle class and not the leadership that needs to be deterred. The second major implication is how effective a military coalition can be in achieving its goals. The unipolar landscape that was brought forth by the end of the Cold War played a major role in shaping intervention policies. With Iraq being unable to fall back to the USSR if events took a turn for the worse for Iraq, the US led coalition was
The first battle in Fallujah during Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF) is known as Operation Vigilant Resolve. This battle is regarded as one of the biggest single defeats that the United States Military has suffered throughout all its campaigns during OIF. The United States and international media outlets exploited this defeat, which in turn, bolstered Al Qaeda recruiting in Fallujah. This offensive failure and retreat was backed by a huge public outcry for troop withdrawal and successful exploitation of recruiting propaganda by the insurgents.
The Reason for Going to War Since the beginning of the war on Iraq, over 8243 civilians, 11000 Iraqi soldiers and 642 Coalition soldiers have died. There has not been one day since a US soldier was killed and since the beginning of the occupation, 39750 bombs have been dropped and $117 billion dollars have been spent. And no weapons of mass destruction have been found.