1991 Gulf Peter and Dan Snow: 20th Century Battlefields



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Contains scenes which some viewers may find disturbing.

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In 1991, the small Arab state of Kuwait

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was at the centre of the last major war of the 20th century.

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Saddam Hussein's Iraq had invaded Kuwait,

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putting nearly half the world's oil within his reach.

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Virtually everyone agreed he had to be stopped.

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Over 1 million troops faced each other across the battlefield.

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Revolutionary new technology like stealth bombers,

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cruise missiles and precision guided bombs would make this

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a battle unlike anything anyone had seen before.

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I'll be getting to grips with some of the challenges faced

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by the men and women on the front line in this new era of warfare.

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And I'll show how the commanders chose their tactics in a war

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dominated by cutting-edge technology and ruthless political calculation.

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With his seizure of Kuwait,

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Saddam Hussein threatened to hold the whole world to ransom.

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He warned that the fight that would follow would be

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"the mother of all battles".

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Everything would now depend on the outcome of Operation Desert Storm.

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A battle for Kuwait.

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In the early hours of August the 2nd, 1990,

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Iraq's army shocked the world by invading its neighbour, Kuwait.

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They smashed through the defences on the border

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and headed straight down this road towards the capital, Kuwait City.

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Kuwait's tiny army was unable to mount any serious resistance.

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Thousands of Iraqi troops were soon swarming through the capital.

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At around 4.30am, just hours after the start of the invasion,

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Iraqi troops arrived here at the Parliament Building.

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The guards were taken completely by surprise and, within minutes,

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Kuwait's Parliament had been captured.

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The ruler of Kuwait, the Amir,

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along with most of the royal princes, abandoned their palaces and fled.

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By the end of the day, the entire country of Kuwait was completely overrun

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as thousands of Iraqi troops continued to pour across the border.

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And they were all obeying the orders of one man - Saddam Hussein.

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Saddam Hussein was the President of Iraq and a brutal dictator.

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For 11 years, he had enforced a violent regime

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that murdered and tortured without hesitation.

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He'd built up the fourth largest army in the world with over a million troops.

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But his regime was in serious trouble.

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Not least because an eight-year war with his neighbour Iran had left him with a mountain of debt.

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Iraq was bankrupt.

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Saddam had to come up with a solution to his cash crisis

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and it lay across the border, here in Kuwait.

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This is Iraq and here is Kuwait.

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Kuwait is almost floating on oil.

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Outside the capital, Kuwait City, oil wells cover much of the country.

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To the north, there are oil fields on the border with Iraq.

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Here in the centre, the Burgan Oil Field

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is the second largest in the world.

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Altogether, Kuwait held 10% of the world's oil,

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and it was this vast wealth that Saddam had captured.

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Together with the Iraqi oil fields that Saddam already owned,

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he now had control of over a fifth of the world's oil reserves.

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Saddam gambled that Western leaders did not have the stomach

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for a Middle East war and would have to accept his occupation of Kuwait.

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But he was in for a rude shock.

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This will not stand.

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This will not stand, this aggression against Kuwait.

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What has happened is a total violation of international law.

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Please raise their hand.

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The United Nations condemned the invasion and called on Saddam to withdraw his troops from Kuwait.

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But far from withdrawing, there were signs that he might be planning something even bigger.

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Thousands of Iraqi reinforcements were moving into Kuwait.

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Some set up defensive positions along the coastline.

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But most worrying for global leaders

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was the large number of troops and tanks

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driving down through the country and massing on its southern border.

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The question was, would they stop there?

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200 miles south of the border

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was the richest concentration of oil wells in the world -

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the oil fields of Saudi Arabia.

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The Saudi army was small -

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if Saddam chose to attack now, there was nothing to stop him.

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If he seized Saudi Arabia's wells,

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he would control nearly half the world's oil.

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President Bush Senior, and British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, were determined to stop him.

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They were convinced that the only way to protect Saudi Arabia and its oil

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was to put US and British troops in on the ground.

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But there was a huge problem.

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Saudi Arabia is the spiritual home of Islam.

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It contains the cities of Mecca and Medina, the most holy sites in the Muslim world.

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Its royal family ran the country according to strict Islamic laws.

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Any attempt to fly in tens of thousands of troops

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from the non-Muslim armies

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of Britain and America was a political minefield.

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On August 6th, 1990, just four days after Iraq had invaded Kuwait,

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a top-rank White House team flew to Saudi Arabia to meet King Fahd.

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They offered to fly in thousands of US troops to defend the kingdom.

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King Fahd knew his meagre forces couldn't stop Saddam Hussein if he chose to invade,

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and so, despite the risk of huge anger from devout Muslims,

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he immediately gave the Americans the invitation they wanted.

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Within hours, one of the biggest deployments of troops

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since World War II was underway.

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More than 250,000 American and British troops

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from bases in the US and Europe

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headed for the deserts of the Middle East.

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The Americans and British were determined that their stand

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against Saddam Hussein should be seen as an international operation,

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and not as an American-led attack on an Arab country.

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In the coming months, troops from over 30 countries would take their place

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alongside the Americans and British in the Saudi Arabian desert.

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It was an extraordinary coalition, that even included several Arab states, like Egypt and Syria.

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But it was the Americans that dominated.

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The man in charge was called General Norman Schwarzkopf.

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He was a giant of a man with a keen intellect.

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He also had a fiery temper and he set the tone

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with one of his first public comments about Saddam Hussein.

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But if he dares, he dares come across that border and come down here,

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I'm completely confident that we're gonna kick his butt when he gets here.

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Schwarzkopf was a tough talker, but he knew he faced a mammoth task.

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Many of the troops had been trained to go into battle

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on the green, rolling hills of Europe.

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They arrived to find a scorched, barren desert like this one.

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It was a place few of them had ever imagined

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they'd have to fight over.

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The sand clogged their engines. It got in their food.

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And no one was even sure it was stable enough

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to take the weight of the big American combat vehicles.

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But the biggest problem by far was making sure the Western troops

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did not offend their Muslim hosts.

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Even apparently innocent behaviour like female American troops

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wearing short sleeves could cause huge offence in a country

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where women are expected to cover up completely.

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Troops were issued with instructions on how to behave appropriately in a devout Muslim country.

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US Army chaplains were even renamed "morale officers"

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so as not to cause offence.

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But it remained a fragile co-existence.

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An Iraqi attack on Saudi Arabia remained a constant fear for the coalition.

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But it was the stories about the actions of Saddam's army inside Kuwait that outraged world opinion.

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They brought a reign of terror to Kuwait,

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including summary executions in the street.

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Saddam's men were looting shops, houses and factories across the city.

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Torture and punishment beatings became commonplace, as the Iraqis

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tried to crush any sign of Kuwaiti resistance.

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Some resistance fighters were even shot dead in front of their own families

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as a warning to everybody else not to get involved.

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Western civilians living in Kuwait and Iraq had been rounded up

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and taken to Baghdad as hostages.

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Saddam appeared with some of them on television in a clumsy attempt

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to show that they were being treated well.

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-TRANSLATOR: You are British?

-British.

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At the moment, yes.

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SPEAKS IN ARABIC

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-TRANSLATOR: Does Stewart get his milk?

-Yes, he does.

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'Meanwhile, his grip on Kuwait was tightening.'

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Saddam Hussein had turned Kuwait into a defensive fortress.

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Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi troops were in and around Kuwait,

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many of them dug in down here on its southern border.

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They built very heavily defended positions with great sand ramparts

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close to the frontier with Saudi Arabia.

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Behind them was a second line of defence with thousands of troops.

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And then, about a hundred miles further back, just inside Iraq,

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were Saddam's elite troops, the Republican Guards, waiting in reserve.

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By November 1990, world leaders had run out of patience with Saddam.

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Although he hadn't attacked Saudi Arabia, he showed no signs of withdrawing from Kuwait.

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So the UN Security Council passed a new resolution

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that changed the coalition's mission dramatically.

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Twelve votes in favour,

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two votes against,

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one abstention.

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No longer would the coalition just defend Saudi Arabia.

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If Saddam's troops had not withdrawn from Kuwait in six weeks,

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the coalition will attack and force the Iraqis out.

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The countdown to war had begun.

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For the US military, it was a daunting prospect.

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They were haunted by the memories of the United States' last major conflict

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and knew that they could not afford to make the same mistakes again.

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If one American soldier has to go into battle, that soldier will have

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enough force behind him to win and then get out as soon as possible.

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This will not be another Vietnam.

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But Saddam was determined that that was exactly what it would be.

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He calculated that if the Americans attacked,

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his best hope was to inflict massive casualties on the US troops.

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Saddam believed that, after the Vietnam War, it was not something the US public would tolerate.

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And in 1990, he had the weapons to cause thousands of casualties in seconds.

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Just two years earlier, in March 1988, the Iraqi Army had attacked

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a Kurdish village in Northern Iraq

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using a mixture of mustard gas and the nerve agent sarin.

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5,000 people were killed,

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and thousands more suffered terrible injuries.

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Throughout the coalition, every soldier lived in fear of an Iraqi chemical attack.

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Day after day, they practised the drills that would save their lives if nerve gas was used against them.

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To understand more about what this meant to the coalition troops,

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I joined a British Army training exercise.

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My job was to help unload equipment

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until the instructor launched a gas attack drill.

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Gas! Gas!

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Get up!

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Nine seconds, come on. Think about the drills.

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OK, let's go. Well done.

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If a soldier couldn't get their mask on this quickly in a real attack,

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the gas could be lethal.

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Two minutes, let's go!

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I then had to carry on with my task

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exactly like the troops would in a combat situation.

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Come on, work hard! Well done.

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Come on! Come on!

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'But gas masks make it impossible to breathe properly,

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'as I was finding out.'

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I can't actually speak.

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I'm not getting enough air in here.

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Two minutes!

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HE PANTS

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Excellent. Good. Well done. Stop!

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Stand still.

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Unmask.

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Good. Well done.

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-PANTING:

-There's just... no air in there at all.

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And...the idea of...

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fighting something like a battle under those conditions...

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is absolutely unimaginable in that.

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A lot harder than what I was just doing there, those shuttle runs.

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The idea of spending hours on hours in this get-up,

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charging across hills, is extraordinary.

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HE PANTS

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But in 1991, soldiers feared they really would have to fight

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while under chemical attack.

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Some of them were already suffering heat exhaustion

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just from wearing gas masks in training.

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Schwarzkopf knew that, if it came to war,

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the greatest threat to his troops was Iraq's chemical weapons,

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and he also knew he would have to minimise American and coalition casualties.

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The key would be to keep his ground troops out of the battle for as long as possible.

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INAUDIBLE

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Schwarzkopf's plan was to launch a colossal air attack

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on Iraq itself and on its forces on the ground,

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to try and force Saddam to abandon Kuwait.

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But if this didn't persuade Saddam to leave,

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Schwarzkopf knew that he would have to take a far more risky step -

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he'd have to order his forces to fight their way into Kuwait.

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And some of the experts predicted that this would cost thousands of American lives.

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His strategy would call upon the full might of the United States armed forces.

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More and more of the world's most sophisticated aircraft, tanks and weapons were arriving in the Gulf,

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and six American aircraft carriers, with over four hundred planes,

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would be positioned within striking distance of Iraq and Kuwait.

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One week before the UN deadline expired, 750,000 coalition troops

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waited on the battlefield as the politicians made one last attempt to find a diplomatic solution.

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The US Secretary of State, James Baker, met Iraq's Foreign Minister, Tariq Aziz, in Geneva.

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Both men knew that tens or even hundreds of thousands of lives were at stake.

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And James Baker warned the Iraqis not to use chemical weapons,

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reminding them that America had nuclear bombs.

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But seven hours of talks ended in failure.

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If Iraq should choose to continue its brutal occupation of Kuwait,

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Iraq will be choosing a military confrontation which it cannot win

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and which will have devastating consequences.

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But Saddam remained as defiant as ever and promised his people a great victory.

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He warned that the Americans depended too much on technology.

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He boasted that Iraq could rely on the bravery and experience of its soldiers.

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Their faith would defeat the enemy.

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At midnight on January the 15th, 1991, the UN deadline expired.

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Across the world, people watched and waited.

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Everybody knew it was just a matter of time before the war began.

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In the early hours of January the 17th, 1991,

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hundreds of coalition aircraft took to the skies and headed for their targets.

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Operation Desert Storm had begun.

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British RAF pilots in low-flying Tornado aircraft carried bombs designed to crater Iraqi runways.

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The Americans' first target was Iraq's capital.

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From the rooftops of Baghdad, 3,000 anti-aircraft guns fired into the night.

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Flying straight into this wall of fire were eight American bombers.

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They were so sophisticated that the Saudis had nicknamed them "ghosts".

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The F1-17 Stealth Bomber was designed to be invisible to radar,

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but this was its first test in major combat.

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The Stealth's first target was the main communications tower in Baghdad.

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At exactly 3am, the pilot in the lead aircraft pushed the button

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and a 2,000 pound, laser-guided bomb descended on its target.

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Across the city, the ground shook as 14 more bombs from other Stealths hit their targets.

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The aircraft turned for home.

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Cruise Missiles launched from US warships

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knocked out the power stations and plunged the city into darkness.

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The air campaign unleashed by the coalition against Saddam's Iraq

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was codenamed Instant Thunder.

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It was the most powerful and focused use of air power in the 20th century.

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On the first night, coalition aircraft flew over a thousand sorties.

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They hit power stations, radar and communication networks,

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airfields and chemical weapons facilities.

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The aim was first to gain control of the skies above Kuwait and Iraq

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and destroy Saddam's ability to coordinate his forces,

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and then to target the forces themselves.

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Guided in by laser, a bomb launched from planes like these

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could explode within three metres of its target,

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even from a range of seven miles.

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The bombing campaign had badly damaged Iraqi radar stations,

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and gave Iraq pilots little chance to respond.

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Rather than fly blind against the most sophisticated air force

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the world had ever seen, most of them opted

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to leave their aircraft inside hardened hangars

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and try and sit it out.

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Throughout that night and into the following day,

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American and coalition aircraft continued to attack Iraqi targets,

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including Saddam Hussein's palaces.

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Saddam Hussein was in fear for his life.

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He moved between safe houses to avoid the coalition attacks,

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but in public, he would not be cowed.

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On Baghdad radio, he declared that

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"the mother of all battles" had begun.

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And in secret, he ordered his army to launch the weapon

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that he hoped would blow the coalition apart.

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Its target was a country over 700 miles from Kuwait.

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At 2am on January the 18th, 1991, air raid sirens sounded across Israel.

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They warned of a Scud Missile attack from Iraq heading for Tel Aviv, Israel's biggest city.

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Moments later, the first Scud hit this factory

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near a housing estate in a residential suburb of the city.

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Initial reports from the Israeli Army suggested that Israel was under chemical attack.

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In the confusion and panic, people all over the city put on their gas masks.

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Some even injected themselves with the antidote to nerve gas.

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Saddam Hussein's attack on Israel was an act of ruthless calculation.

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He hoped Israel would retaliate.

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If it did, Israel would then appear to be on the same side as the Arab nations in the coalition.

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Saddam's hope was that the Arabs' hatred of Israel would make this unthinkable for them.

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They'd withdraw from the coalition and the coalition would collapse.

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From Washington, senior White House officials called

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the Israeli Defence Minister, urging him to show restraint.

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For hours, the whole world held its breath, waiting to see how the Israelis would respond.

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Eight Scuds had been fired at Israel that night, and by daybreak, residents were still on alert.

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But reports of a chemical attack had turned out to be a false alarm,

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and, remarkably, nobody had been killed by any of the missiles.

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Under huge pressure from the White House,

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the Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir,

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agreed not to retaliate, at least for the time being.

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In return, the Americans promised to make the destruction

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of the Scud Missile launchers inside Iraq their top military priority.

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The Scud hunt was on.

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Coalition aircraft began flying around the clock,

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searching thousands of square miles of empty desert,

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hoping to spot Iraq's estimated 20 mobile Scud launchers

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and then destroy them.

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For the American commander, General Schwartzkopf,

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it was a tough challenge.

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Finding the mobile launchers is like finding a needle in a haystack,

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as you can well imagine.

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Scuds continued to hit Israel,

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and Washington ordered Schwartzkopf to step up the search.

0:29:510:29:55

By January the 24th, 40% of the coalition's air sorties

0:29:570:30:01

were diverted to Scud hunting,

0:30:010:30:03

and special forces like Britain's SAS were sent into Iraq

0:30:030:30:08

to try and destroy the launchers from the ground.

0:30:080:30:11

The Scud attacks on Israel went on, but still they failed to break up the coalition as Saddam hoped.

0:30:150:30:22

In a further attempt to weaken public support for the war,

0:30:270:30:31

British pilots John Nichol and John Peters, shot down on the first night, were paraded on Iraqi television.

0:30:310:30:37

They had been tortured and were forced to denounce the war.

0:30:370:30:40

This war should be stopped, so we can go home. I do not agree on this war with Iraq.

0:30:400:30:45

The pictures provoked condemnation across the world,

0:30:470:30:51

and only inflamed Western public opinion against Saddam.

0:30:510:30:56

Saddam was unable to prevent the air campaign systematically destroying his army.

0:30:560:31:01

So, two weeks after the air war began,

0:31:010:31:04

he ordered an attack that would force the Americans

0:31:040:31:08

into the risky ground combat they wanted to avoid.

0:31:080:31:11

At around 8.30pm, Iraqi troops broke cover from their positions here in Kuwait,

0:31:240:31:29

and headed down there towards the Saudi border.

0:31:290:31:33

Their movement was watched by an unmanned American spy plane feeding pictures back to its operator.

0:31:370:31:43

What do we have?

0:31:430:31:45

Let's see what they are.

0:31:450:31:48

Hey, this is something.

0:31:480:31:49

Here we go.

0:31:520:31:55

Closer. Closer...

0:31:550:31:57

And, er...

0:31:580:32:01

2200 and 53 hours, they have crossed the border.

0:32:010:32:05

They are in Saudi Arabia.

0:32:050:32:07

King Fahd's gonna be pissed. Fahd baby's gonna be pissed.

0:32:070:32:09

He's gonna be hot.

0:32:090:32:11

The coalition had complete control of the skies over Kuwait,

0:32:110:32:15

but not a single aircraft was close enough to stop the Iraqis.

0:32:150:32:19

Where's our air? This is ridiculous.

0:32:190:32:21

Frickin' bomber couldn't ask for a better target than that.

0:32:210:32:25

The Iraqis took the coalition by surprise.

0:32:270:32:30

They met little resistance and seized the Saudi town of Khafji about ten miles down the road.

0:32:300:32:36

Troops from America, Qatar and Saudi Arabia

0:32:470:32:50

now had to fight their way into the city to regain control.

0:32:500:32:53

Missile launcher downrange - take that bad boy out.

0:32:550:33:00

When air support finally arrived, they had a decisive advantage.

0:33:080:33:14

I certainly would not want to be an Iraqi troop there.

0:33:140:33:17

Aircraft are swarming over that battlefield like gnats.

0:33:170:33:20

After two days of fighting, coalition troops finally regained control.

0:33:230:33:28

An estimated 38 Iraqis were killed and hundreds more captured, but the coalition had suffered too.

0:33:300:33:38

In their first taste of ground combat, 43 coalition troops,

0:33:380:33:42

including 25 US Marines, were killed.

0:33:420:33:46

For some, it had been a sobering experience.

0:33:460:33:49

I never expected that kind of fear, but you have to overcome it,

0:33:490:33:54

because if you don't overcome it, it's...

0:33:540:33:57

it's just like being defeated without actually

0:33:570:34:01

being killed or anything like that.

0:34:010:34:03

But with Khafji back in coalition control,

0:34:110:34:14

world attention turned once again to the air campaign,

0:34:140:34:17

which was now in its fourth week.

0:34:170:34:19

Television audiences across the world had become hooked

0:34:280:34:31

on the extraordinary footage

0:34:310:34:33

being beamed into their homes around the clock.

0:34:330:34:36

It was all part of the public relations war.

0:34:390:34:42

After their experiences in Vietnam, American commanders knew that

0:34:430:34:47

unfavourable coverage might damage public support for the war.

0:34:470:34:52

So they carefully managed what was actually seen by the watching world.

0:34:520:34:56

-Splash.

-Good.

0:35:000:35:02

That was an excellent splash.

0:35:020:35:03

The American general who commands all the Allied forces in the Gulf

0:35:090:35:12

has said that Operation Desert Storm has been going according to plan.

0:35:120:35:17

The aim was to portray the war as clinical and bloodless,

0:35:170:35:22

with so-called smart bombs making surgical strikes.

0:35:220:35:26

I'm now going to show you a picture of the luckiest man in Iraq

0:35:260:35:29

on this particular day. Keep your eye on the crosshairs.

0:35:290:35:33

Right through the crosshairs.

0:35:350:35:36

And now, in his rear-view mirror...

0:35:380:35:41

LAUGHTER

0:35:410:35:42

But the laughter was about to end.

0:35:480:35:50

In the early hours of February the 13th, 1991,

0:35:520:35:56

two Stealth bombers flew towards the Amiriyah bunker

0:35:560:35:59

in the suburbs of Baghdad,

0:35:590:36:02

on what was supposed to be a routine mission.

0:36:020:36:05

Shortly after 4.30am, they released two laser-guided bombs.

0:36:050:36:11

Exactly as planned, the bombs dropped down a ventilation shaft

0:36:140:36:18

and exploded deep inside the bunker to maximise destruction.

0:36:180:36:22

The trouble was, it was packed with over 400 civilians.

0:36:220:36:27

Americans are criminals!

0:36:270:36:29

For what?! Why?!

0:36:290:36:33

For what the war? For what the war?!

0:36:330:36:37

Hundreds had been killed, many of them children.

0:36:420:36:45

Pictures of the disaster were broadcast around the world.

0:36:450:36:49

I lost my wife and my children.

0:36:520:36:55

Is that fair?

0:36:550:36:56

Nobody, nobody say something to stop this massacre.

0:36:560:37:02

It was a terrible mistake.

0:37:050:37:07

Coalition air planners had believed that the Amiriyah bunker

0:37:090:37:13

was being used by Iraqi commanders, not civilians.

0:37:130:37:16

These images of so many dead civilians and their distraught relatives shattered the myth

0:37:200:37:25

that this was a bloodless war and it forced Schwarzkopf

0:37:250:37:29

to curtail the bombing of Iraqi cities, for fear of causing more civilian casualties.

0:37:290:37:35

But the Iraqi Army got no such reprieve.

0:37:440:37:48

The air campaign had battered Iraqi targets for over a month,

0:37:500:37:55

and still, Saddam had not withdrawn his army from Kuwait.

0:37:550:37:59

Schwarzkopf knew coalition ground troops would soon have to drive them out

0:37:590:38:04

and, in preparation, he intensified the air strikes against the Iraqi front line.

0:38:040:38:09

There was nothing "smart" about this bombardment.

0:38:170:38:21

Old-fashioned planes, like the giant B52s that had flown over Vietnam,

0:38:210:38:25

dropped old-fashioned explosives and napalm on the Iraqi positions.

0:38:250:38:30

When a canister of napalm hit the ground, it exploded in a mass of burning jelly,

0:38:300:38:35

which incinerated anything it touched

0:38:350:38:37

and sucked the air out of everyone's lungs within 50 metres.

0:38:370:38:41

Coalition airmen flew around-the-clock bombing missions,

0:38:410:38:44

attempting to destroy 50% of the Iraqi armour.

0:38:440:38:47

We're trying to get ready for the ground troops going in,

0:38:470:38:50

we're trying to hit them hard to clear it up for the ground troops.

0:38:500:38:53

We sent out three or four hundred, five hundred bombs today.

0:38:560:38:59

Some of them weigh 1,000 pounds apiece, so it's...it's just unreal.

0:38:590:39:03

In retaliation for the coalition's continuous aerial bombardment,

0:39:150:39:21

Saddam Hussein unleashed a new kind of destruction.

0:39:210:39:25

He ordered the Iraqi Army to blow up the oil fields of Kuwait.

0:39:270:39:32

It created scenes of apocalyptic devastation.

0:39:360:39:40

It looks like what I envision hell would look like.

0:39:400:39:43

The country of Kuwait is burning.

0:39:430:39:46

Hundreds of wells were blown up, sending a wall of flame and smoke thousands of feet into the air.

0:39:470:39:53

Pipelines were ruptured, storage tanks exploded, and huge lakes of oil pooled in the desert sand.

0:39:570:40:04

Choking black clouds filled the air and day turned to night as the smoke blocked out the sun.

0:40:090:40:15

This piece of environmental vandalism

0:40:300:40:33

only increased the pressure on Schwarzkopf

0:40:330:40:36

to launch the ground campaign.

0:40:360:40:38

His plan was a masterpiece of strategic deception.

0:40:380:40:42

The main attack would appear to come down here -

0:40:420:40:45

across Kuwait's southern border.

0:40:450:40:48

40,000 American Marines would thrust up into the Iraqi defences.

0:40:500:40:55

Alongside them, troops from other coalition countries, including large forces from Syria and Egypt.

0:40:550:41:02

Their job was to make Saddam think they were just the start of a much larger attack from here in the south.

0:41:020:41:09

But Schwarzkopf's main blow would come not from the south, but from the west.

0:41:090:41:16

Under the cover of the air war,

0:41:160:41:19

he had secretly shifted the bulk of his army -

0:41:190:41:22

1,500 tanks and nearly 300,000 men up to 300 miles off to the west -

0:41:220:41:30

to launch a giant left hook.

0:41:300:41:33

His main heavy tank force,

0:41:330:41:35

with Britain's men and tanks on their right flank,

0:41:350:41:38

were waiting for the signal to burst into Iraq and swing east

0:41:380:41:42

into Saddam's Republican Guard divisions,

0:41:420:41:45

dug in on the Kuwait-Iraq border.

0:41:450:41:48

Schwarzkopf's men had a double mission -

0:41:480:41:51

to liberate Kuwait and to so weaken the Republican Guard and the Iraqi Army

0:41:510:41:56

that they could never cause trouble in the area again.

0:41:560:42:00

On the 24th of February, 1991, the ground attack began.

0:42:000:42:06

Out in the Gulf, the big guns of the US warships

0:42:130:42:16

began a massive artillery barrage onto the Kuwaiti coastline.

0:42:160:42:20

But the real attack would come from the ground troops.

0:42:330:42:37

And the first to go in would be the US marines.

0:42:490:42:52

This is it, have fun.

0:42:520:42:54

Got an American flag in this pack we're gonna raise in Kuwait.

0:42:540:42:57

The Marines had to bulldoze gaps in huge banks of sand, like this one,

0:42:590:43:03

so the tanks and artillery could advance.

0:43:030:43:05

As the first troops went in, none of them knew what would happen.

0:43:180:43:22

The fear of a chemical attack was so great

0:43:250:43:28

that the US troops wore chemical protection suits and gas masks.

0:43:280:43:32

In front of them, they expected vast minefields

0:43:360:43:39

and tens of thousands of Iraqi troops in heavily defended, entrenched positions.

0:43:390:43:45

Coalition commanders expected the marines to be able

0:43:480:43:51

to penetrate just a few miles into the heavy Iraqi defences

0:43:510:43:54

with as many as one in three of the marines being killed or injured.

0:43:540:43:59

But as the marines crossed into Kuwait, they were amazed at what happened.

0:44:010:44:05

Everywhere, Iraqi troops had either abandoned their positions or were raising the white flag in surrender.

0:44:050:44:12

Most of them were conscripts and, after the devastating five-week air bombardment,

0:44:120:44:16

they were sleep deprived, shell-shocked and dehydrated -

0:44:160:44:20

they were in no position to fight.

0:44:200:44:23

MAN SOBS

0:44:230:44:26

It's OK, it's OK.

0:44:260:44:28

HE SPEAKS IN ARABIC

0:44:280:44:31

It's OK, it's OK, it's OK. You're all right.

0:44:320:44:38

Hey, let's go, get up here!

0:44:410:44:43

The marines continued forward into Kuwait.

0:44:470:44:50

There was little resistance and, nearly everywhere,

0:44:520:44:55

their progress was unopposed.

0:44:550:44:57

Right now, I feel sorry for the people remaining on the enemy side, cos we're gonna wipe them out.

0:45:000:45:05

The marines were scoring a major success

0:45:080:45:11

in their thrust up here into Kuwait.

0:45:110:45:14

Almost too successful.

0:45:140:45:15

They and the Arab forces to the east and west of them

0:45:150:45:19

were fast heading for Kuwait City.

0:45:190:45:22

There was now a risk that some of the crack Iraqi units,

0:45:220:45:26

like the Republican Guard up here,

0:45:260:45:28

might retreat before Schwarzkopf's army could destroy them.

0:45:280:45:33

So he brought forward the timetable for his main attack.

0:45:330:45:37

He ordered his big left hook, including Britain's tank force,

0:45:370:45:42

to go in 15 hours ahead of schedule.

0:45:420:45:45

The British would go for Kuwait

0:45:450:45:47

and the US tanks would head for the Republican Guard.

0:45:470:45:50

Ten hours into the ground war, at 2.30pm,

0:46:000:46:04

British and American troops began a massive artillery barrage

0:46:040:46:08

onto the Iraqi positions in front of them.

0:46:080:46:11

One of their key weapons was the multiple launch rocket system.

0:46:180:46:22

As each of the rockets burst in the air above the Iraqis,

0:46:380:46:41

it scattered 644 bomblets over them.

0:46:410:46:45

It was as if they were being showered by hand grenades.

0:46:450:46:48

In just over 30 minutes, more than half a million of these bomblets landed on the Iraqi troops.

0:46:480:46:54

As the artillery died down, more than 150,000 coalition troops

0:47:000:47:05

and over 1,500 tanks began their advance.

0:47:050:47:10

Saddam knew he couldn't keep Kuwait much longer,

0:47:100:47:13

but he was still determined to show the Americans

0:47:130:47:17

he had the capacity to hit them where it hurt.

0:47:170:47:20

He ordered his troops inside Kuwait

0:47:230:47:26

to counter-attack against the US marines.

0:47:260:47:29

But they couldn't match the Americans' firepower

0:47:360:47:40

nor halt their relentless drive towards Kuwait City.

0:47:400:47:44

However, Saddam still had one last sting in his tail.

0:47:460:47:53

Iraqi troops fired a Scud missile

0:47:580:48:01

towards a coalition base in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia.

0:48:010:48:05

The resulting explosion killed 28 Americans and 100 were left wounded.

0:48:100:48:15

It was their biggest single loss in the war so far.

0:48:170:48:21

Despite this incident, the British and American troops

0:48:280:48:31

had to keep up the speed of their advance.

0:48:310:48:34

Saddam's army was collapsing by the minute, and every minute counted

0:48:340:48:38

if Schwarzkopf was to be able to destroy

0:48:380:48:41

the bulk of Iraq's military equipment before it escaped.

0:48:410:48:44

Schwarzkopf's main armoured thrust had swept across

0:48:490:48:52

100 miles of Iraqi desert west of Kuwait

0:48:520:48:56

and closed in on Saddam's elite Republican Guard.

0:48:560:49:00

Finally, at 4pm on the 26th of February,

0:49:000:49:04

they came face to face.

0:49:040:49:06

A gunner in one of the lead vehicles spotted a line of Iraqi tanks on the horizon.

0:49:070:49:12

The US tank commander realised that he was heading straight

0:49:120:49:15

for a major Republican Guard position.

0:49:150:49:17

The gunner in the lead American tank

0:49:200:49:23

quickly fired off a shot at one of the Iraqi tanks.

0:49:230:49:26

Seconds later, the American Commander watched

0:49:280:49:30

as the shell landed directly on the target.

0:49:300:49:33

The Iraqi tank exploded,

0:49:330:49:35

throwing a man out through the hatch engulfed in a ball of flame.

0:49:350:49:39

Within seconds, the other American tanks had opened fire.

0:49:420:49:46

In just a few minutes,

0:49:460:49:48

the Republican Guard's position had been obliterated.

0:49:480:49:52

The Iraqi tanks had been utterly outgunned.

0:49:560:50:00

The American tanks could score a hit on the move from over 2,000m away.

0:50:000:50:06

Iraqi tanks were only accurate below 1,700m and had to be stationary.

0:50:060:50:11

Within a couple of hours,

0:50:130:50:15

over 50 Iraqi armoured vehicles were destroyed with few American losses.

0:50:150:50:19

Throughout the night, the Americans pursued the Republican Guard.

0:50:230:50:27

By daybreak, they'd smashed an entire division,

0:50:270:50:29

leaving over 100 tanks and armoured vehicles smoking on the battlefield.

0:50:290:50:34

The remaining Republican Guard divisions made a desperate retreat,

0:50:340:50:38

and the Americans continued to hunt them down.

0:50:380:50:40

It looked like the Americans now had the Republican Guard at their mercy.

0:50:440:50:50

But something had happened inside Kuwait that would help save them from destruction.

0:50:500:50:56

Iraqi troops had been fleeing from Kuwait City

0:51:010:51:04

in any vehicle they could get their hands on.

0:51:040:51:07

American commanders were determined to stop them.

0:51:110:51:14

It led to one of the most controversial episodes of the war.

0:51:160:51:20

Using laser-guided bombs, pilots attacked Iraqi vehicles

0:51:220:51:26

along a stretch of this road leading north from Kuwait City.

0:51:260:51:30

This created a road block and, behind it,

0:51:300:51:32

hundreds of vehicles became trapped in a giant traffic jam.

0:51:320:51:36

This made them totally vulnerable to the American aircraft overhead.

0:51:360:51:41

Some of them were so desperate to escape

0:51:410:51:43

that they drove off across the desert.

0:51:430:51:46

Every available American aircraft was ordered into the attack

0:51:490:51:54

with devastating results.

0:51:540:51:56

For mile after mile, charred vehicles and human corpses

0:52:030:52:07

littered the desert and choked the two main roads going towards Iraq.

0:52:070:52:12

An estimated 2,000 vehicles were destroyed.

0:52:150:52:19

Only very few of them were tanks or armoured personnel carriers.

0:52:190:52:23

Most were civilian vehicles

0:52:230:52:26

stolen by the Iraqi Army as they fled Kuwait City.

0:52:260:52:29

Nobody knows how many hundreds or thousands of Iraqis died in the attacks.

0:52:290:52:35

The American leadership realised that pictures like these

0:52:370:52:40

would soon be on television around the world

0:52:400:52:42

and they feared it would look like a massacre.

0:52:420:52:46

This would become a key factor in deciding when to end the war.

0:52:460:52:51

36 hours later, coalition troops,

0:52:560:53:00

led by units from Kuwait's own army, arrived in Kuwait City.

0:53:000:53:05

The streets soon filled with vehicles

0:53:180:53:20

as people celebrated the end of the Iraqi occupation.

0:53:200:53:24

Welcome in Kuwait! Welcome, Mr Bush, welcome!

0:53:260:53:29

Alongside them were American troops, greeted as heroes,

0:53:350:53:39

as liberators of a country that had been subjected to months of horror by the Iraqi regime.

0:53:390:53:44

They don't have any civilisation, they kill not by guns only, by torturing.

0:53:460:53:51

They brought them over here in this space and they just shot them

0:53:550:54:00

and killed them and left them for five days, just like a garbage.

0:54:000:54:05

They want to put, er, name Saddam in my hands and they tell me

0:54:080:54:13

to remember it, er, even when you are old man.

0:54:130:54:16

With the liberation of Kuwait, the main political goal of the war had been achieved.

0:54:270:54:32

But the Republican Guard had not yet been destroyed.

0:54:320:54:35

However, President Bush feared that continuing to bomb a retreating enemy

0:54:350:54:40

might give the impression that America was behaving like a bully,

0:54:400:54:44

and, so, on February the 28th, 1991, Bush declared a cease-fire.

0:54:440:54:51

'I am pleased to announce

0:54:530:54:55

'that, exactly 100 hours since ground operations commenced

0:54:550:54:59

'and six weeks since the start of Operation Desert Storm,

0:54:590:55:04

'all United States and coalition forces'

0:55:040:55:07

will suspend offensive combat operations.

0:55:070:55:12

CHEERING 'The Gulf War was over.'

0:55:120:55:15

Within weeks, tens of thousands of coalition troops began the long journey home,

0:55:270:55:34

all of them grateful that the mass casualties they'd feared had never materialised.

0:55:340:55:40

In total, 248 coalition troops were killed,

0:55:500:55:54

far less than anyone had dared hope.

0:55:540:55:57

Nobody knows how many Iraqis died, though some estimates put the figure

0:55:570:56:02

at over 30,000, including 3,000 civilians.

0:56:020:56:06

Despite the pre-war fears of the coalition, it had turned out to be

0:56:060:56:11

one of the most one-sided battles in modern history.

0:56:110:56:15

FANFARE PLAYS CROWD CHEERS

0:56:150:56:18

Schwarzkopf and his men returned home to a hero's welcome.

0:56:220:56:26

The allies could have chased Saddam all the way to Baghdad,

0:56:480:56:52

but they had no authority from the UN and no wish to become mired in Iraq.

0:56:520:56:57

Instead, they hoped that Saddam would now be too weak to be a threat.

0:56:570:57:01

But Saddam's regime did not crumble as the Americans hoped.

0:57:060:57:11

He crushed two uprisings that followed the end of the war

0:57:110:57:14

and remained in power for another 12 years.

0:57:140:57:18

Several thousand US forces remained in Saudi Arabia

0:57:210:57:25

to keep watch on Saddam's army.

0:57:250:57:27

Osama Bin Laden has claimed that it was this presence of US troops

0:57:300:57:34

in the Muslim holy land of Saudi Arabia

0:57:340:57:37

that motivated him to launch

0:57:370:57:39

a series of attacks against American interests.

0:57:390:57:43

This culminated in the events of September the 11th, 2001.

0:57:430:57:48

President Bush's son, George W Bush, was now in the White House

0:57:500:57:55

and, in response to the 9/11 attacks, he declared a global war on terror.

0:57:550:58:00

As part of this war,

0:58:000:58:03

he launched a US- and British-led invasion of Iraq in 2003,

0:58:030:58:08

which ousted Saddam Hussein from power.

0:58:080:58:11

Thousands of British and American troops remain in Iraq to this day, dealing with the consequences.

0:58:110:58:18

No-one knows when they will return home.

0:58:180:58:22

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