The Gulf War was triggered by Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. Historically, due to various reasons, Iraq and Kuwait have disputes over sovereignty and border issues. In the late 1980s, with the end of the Iran-Iraq war and the disintegration of the world bipolar system, the dispute between Iraq and Kuwait became prominent again. As far as Iraq is concerned, the main reason is that it hopes to realize the rapid development of the country under the new international situation, specifically, to solve the problem of seaport that has plagued it for a long time, to forgive the huge debts owed in the Iran-Iraq war and to become a big country in the Gulf region. 1990 In July, after a series of demands to Kuwait were rejected, Iraq made up its mind to annex Kuwait by force.
1 990 On the morning of August 2nd1(Kuwait time), after careful preparation, three Iraqi divisions and the National Guard crossed the Iraq-Kuwait border and launched a surprise attack on Kuwait. At the same time, a special operations force carried out a helicopter attack on Kuwait City from the sea. At dawn, two opposing forces began to attack the targets in the city. The Emir of Kuwait, Jaber Al-Sabah, and some members of the royal family fled to a nearby American warship in a hurry. Amir's brother Prince Fahd was killed in the battle to defend the palace. At 9 o'clock in the morning, the Iraqi army basically controlled Kuwait City. At 4 o'clock in the afternoon, Iraqi troops occupied all the territory of Kuwait.
Iraq's invasion of Kuwait shocked the world. The United Nations has repeatedly passed resolutions against Iraq's invasion of Kuwait and imposed sanctions on Iraq. The strongest reaction is the western countries headed by the United States, which have great economic interests in the Gulf region. On August 2 and 3, US President Bush presided over a plenary meeting of the National Security Council to study countermeasures. The meeting finally decided to take large-scale military deployment to force Iraq to withdraw its troops and prepare for military strikes when necessary. According to this spirit, the central headquarters of the U.S. military, which is in charge of defense in the Middle East, has formulated the "Desert Shield" action plan. At 2 am (Eastern Time) on August 7, President Bush officially approved the plan.
The "Desert Shield" action plan is to deploy troops to the Gulf region in two stages. In the first stage, 240,000 troops and their organizational equipment will be deployed within three to four months (17 weeks), so that the troops of the US military and other troop-contributing countries in the region are roughly equal to those of the Iraqi army. In the second stage, we will continue to increase our troops according to the development of the situation, so that our troops can reach a level sufficient to drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait. In the first stage of deployment, according to the situation that the Iraqi army may launch an attack on Saudi Arabia in a short time, the rapid reaction force and air strike force will be deployed in Jubail and Dharan in Saudi Arabia to establish mechanical defense, and the strategy of "exchanging space for time" will be adopted to block the possible attacks of the Iraqi army and ensure that the follow-up troops will arrive and deploy one after another.
After the plan was determined, the US military formulated a specific deployment plan to maximize the dispatch of strategic transportation tools under the jurisdiction of the Transportation Command, mobilize reserve and civilian transportation forces, and recruit and organize reserves. Other troop-contributing countries have also initiated their own deployment operations. After intense action, the two stages of provincial offices ended on June 8 +0 1 respectively. At that time, the total strength of the US military in the Gulf region reached 430,000, including 260,000 in the army, 50,000 in the navy, 40,000 in the air force and 80,000 in the marine corps. The main weapons and equipment are: 1200 tanks, 2,000 armored vehicles, 1300 combat aircraft, 1500 helicopters and 100 warships.
The total number of troops sent by other countries reached 500 thousand. Some non-troop-contributing countries provided weapons and equipment, ships, planes and medical teams. With the deployment of national armies, it is increasingly necessary to establish a unified and coordinated command organization. In mid-August, a coordinated operational command organization was established at the highest level of the multinational force through consultation. In principle, all the troops in the theater are under the unified command of Lieutenant General Khalid, commander of the Saudi Arabian Armed Forces, and General schwarzkopf, commander of the US Central Command. However, the armies of various countries receive orders and instructions from their highest authorities.
Faced with the invasion of troops by the United States and other countries and the economic sanctions imposed by the international community, Iraq has taken corresponding countermeasures. The overall strategic guiding ideology is to delay the outbreak of war, make the Gulf conflict prolonged and complicated, and then divide the military camp led by the United States, break various sanctions against Iraq, preserve vested interests, and at the same time prepare for military defensive operations. To this end, under the banner of "jihad" in diplomacy, it linked the withdrawal issue with Israel's withdrawal from the occupied Arab territories in order to shift the fingers of Arab countries; Economically, adopt the policy of internal austerity and external breakthrough; Militarily, we will step up the expansion of the army and prepare for war, and resume the construction of 24 divisions, bringing the total strength of the army to 77 divisions, with 65,438+200,000 people. At the same time, the deployment of troops in the theater has been strengthened. According to the three lines of defense, 43 divisions, about 540,000 men, 4,280 tanks, 2,800 guns and 2,800 armored transport vehicles were deployed.
When the US military began to implement the "Desert Shield" plan, it had predicted that Iraq would refuse to withdraw its troops and drew up a military strike action plan code-named "Desert Storm". On February 20th, 65438, US Secretary of Defense Cheney and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Powell approved the plan. The main point of the plan is to carry out offensive operations to achieve: 1. Paralyzing the Iraqi national command; 2. Drive Iraqi troops out of Kuwait; 3. Destroy Iraq's * * * and National Guard; 4. Trying to destroy Iraq's ballistic missiles and nuclear, chemical and biological weapons; 5. Help restore the legitimate government of Kuwait.
Based on this recognition, the following operational plan is drawn up: to carry out a multi-country, multi-directional, coordinated attack by sea, air and ground, first destroy Iraq's important military targets by air combat, and then gradually shift the focus of air combat, carry out ground combat in Kuwait theater, destroy the Iraqi National Guard, and liberate Kuwait City with Arab troops. The whole battle process is divided into four stages, namely 1. Strategic air strikes; 2. Seize the air superiority; 3. Air strikes against ground forces; 4. Ground offensive operations.
165438+1On October 29th, the United Nations Security Council adopted resolution 678, which set199115 as the deadline for Iraq's withdrawal. 199111On 9 October, US Secretary of State Baker and Iraqi Foreign Minister Aziz held their last meeting in Geneva before the war. However, both sides agreed that there was no room for compromise and the talks failed to achieve results. At 65438+1October 16 am EDT 10: 30 am, President Bush signed a national security directive to schwarzkopf, commander of the US Central Command, ordering the US military to go to war against Iraq.
In the early morning of 65438+ 17 10, American air strikes began. The whole air raid includes the first three of the four stages of the "Desert Storm" plan, which the US military calls air combat. According to the plan, the three stages will be started at the same time, and work together to achieve the set goals one by one. The usual air attack mode is that the electronic warfare planes such as EF-11,EA-6B, EC- 130h open the way first. F- 1 17, f-11daeaf, A-6, A- 10, AV-8B, F- 15E. This is the reason for the attack. The daily number of sorties is 2,000 to 3,000. According to U.S. military statistics, when the ground attack began, more than 25% of the 540,000 Iraqi troops in Kuwait War Zone suffered casualties and 30-45% of heavy equipment losses.
In order to carry out ground offensive operations, the army of the US Central Command has also formulated a specific campaign plan, which is the "Desert Saber" plan. The plan is actually part of the "Desert Storm" plan. The plan decided that five military teams would carry out ground combat missions. The U.S. 18 Airborne Forces launched an attack in the west of the whole line, which was responsible for cutting off the contact between Iraqi troops in the war zone and the rear. The seventh army of the United States undertakes the main tasks in the middle of the front line, focusing on the elimination of Iraq and the National Guard; The right wing of the Seventh Army is followed by the Northern Joint Forces, the Marine Corps of the US Central Command and the Eastern Joint Forces. They will surround Iraqi troops behind Kuwait and in Kuwait City, and contain Iraqi tactical and combat troops. The Arab forces of the northern and eastern joint forces will be responsible for the liberation of Kuwait City. After the plan was drawn up, the multinational force made a large-scale deployment adjustment from June+10/October 17, 65438 to February 24. Hundreds of thousands of people from the two armies of the United States moved more than 200 kilometers and more than 300 kilometers from the original station to the new attack starting point respectively.
199 1 At 4 am local time on February 24th, multinational forces launched a large-scale joint attack on Iraqi troops, pushing the Gulf War to the final stage. The multinational forces first launched an attack in the middle of the front line to attract the attention of the Iraqi army headquarters. Subsequently, the east and west ends began to act, causing the west end to "close the door" and the east end to "drive away". In this case, the US Seventh Army, which was in charge of the main attack, launched a decisive attack. First go north, then east, and destroy the main force of the Iraqi army. Facing the attack of multinational forces, the Iraqi army stubbornly resisted, and then gradually retreated to the north and west, and ignited a large number of oil wells in Kuwait oilfield. On the morning of 28th, Kuwait City was completely controlled by Arab forces, and most of the multinational forces completed their respective tasks. In view of this, President Bush issued a temporary ceasefire order at 8: 00 local time. The whole ground attack lasted 100 hour.
After the temporary ceasefire, Iraq indicated that it accepted the ceasefire conditions proposed by the United States and was willing to implement the relevant resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council. On this basis, on April 3, the United Nations Security Council adopted the formal ceasefire resolution in the Gulf, namely resolution 687, with a vote of 12 in favour and 1 against, with 2 abstentions. The Gulf War is over. According to postwar statistics, in this war, 38 of the 43 divisions in Iraq were seriously damaged or annihilated, 62,000 people were captured, 3,847 tanks, 1.450 armored transport vehicles and 29 17 guns were destroyed or captured. 107 aircraft was shot down, destroyed or captured. As for the multinational force, 126 people were killed (including 74 Americans), more than 300 people were injured, and 12 people were missing.
The Gulf War is the first large-scale local war after the collapse of the world bipolar system and the end of the Cold War. It profoundly reflects the changes of various contradictions in the transition of the world to a new pattern, which is the result of the local intensification of these contradictions. It embodies the revolutionary changes in the characteristics of war caused by the development of human social productive forces, especially science and technology, mainly as follows: equipping weapons on the basis of highly intensive technology; The attack mode is no longer based on mass killing, but on the basis of relatively reduced destructive power, highlighting the accuracy of the attack; The scope and process of the whole war are regarded as a complete system, and the synergy and timeliness of the war are unprecedented. It also shows many new characteristics of the combat style produced by the application of new combat means and operational ideas to war, including: air combat has become an independent combat style; Mobile operation is the basic way of offensive operation; Long-range firepower warfare is the main means of engagement; Electronic warfare is an indispensable combat mode of "hard killing"; Night fighting is a new way of fighting. -The Gulf War is a modern high-tech local war with the largest number of participating countries, the largest number of one-time troops, the most advanced weapons, the largest scale of air strikes, unprecedented intensity and rapid development, and the disparity in casualties between the two sides after the Second World War. Although the battle lasted only 43 days, it provided many fresh experiences and lessons of modern local wars. In particular, the "military technology revolution" demonstrated by the operational application of a large number of high-tech weapon systems has attracted the attention of military theorists all over the world and triggered people to explore the theory, guiding laws and operational methods of modern local wars in a new way of thinking. The Gulf War is a peephole for future high-tech wars.
I. Causes and background of the outbreak of war
The outbreak of any war has its specific reasons and background. The main reasons and background leading to the outbreak of the Gulf War are:
(1) Iraq's occupation of Kuwait
1 990 On the morning of August 2nd1(Kuwait time), with the close support and cooperation of the air force, navy, amphibious combat troops and special operations forces, three Iraqi divisions and the National Guard crossed the Kuwaiti border and launched a surprise attack on Kuwait. The main force composed of 1 mechanized infantry division and 1 armored division attacked along the axis of Safwan-Abdali-Kuwait City. Guided by more than 350 tanks, they first captured the Jahra Pass to the south, and then turned east to attack Kuwait City. The auxiliary forces, composed of another 1 armored division, attacked south on the west side of the main attack force, joined the main attack force at the Jahra Pass, continued south, and established sniper positions on the main passage leading to the Saudi border. At 5: 30, the main attack force and the special operations force meet in Kuwait City. After about 14 hours of urban fighting, at 7 pm, Iraqi troops completely occupied the capital of Kuwait. Then the attack continued to develop and the follow-up troops continued to enter Kuwait. At noon on August 3, Iraqi troops occupied the whole territory of Kuwait. By August 6, about 200,000 Iraqi troops had entered Kuwait, with more than 2,000 tanks. On August 8, Iraqi President Saddam Hussein announced the annexation of Kuwait and designated it as the "No.1 19 province" of Iraq, saying that it "will always be an inseparable part of Iraq".
Kuwait fought alone, unprepared for the sudden attack of the Iraqi army, and only made a weak resistance. Of the 20,000-strong KLA, only over 5,000 were evacuated to Saudi Arabia, and the rest of the troops were dispersed or surrendered. Kuwaiti Emir Jaber Al-Sabah and some members of the royal family fled to Saudi Arabia by helicopter.
The main purpose of Iraq's occupation of Kuwait is to write off the huge debts owed to Kuwait by seizing Kuwait and use this "treasury" to solve the serious crisis brought to the national economy by the eight-year Iran-Iraq war; The occupation of Kuwait can extend its coastline from 50 kilometers to 265,438+03 kilometers, thus greatly improving the activities of its navy and the sea passages for oil export and other foreign trade; Through the annexation of Kuwait, the long-standing border dispute between the two countries and the oil development dispute in the border areas caused by it can be solved; Taking Kuwait as an example can also serve as a deterrent to Gulf countries and other countries in the Middle East, paving the way for them to compete for leadership in the Arab world and dominate the Middle East.
Iraq's armed occupation of Kuwait triggered the Gulf crisis and became the direct fuse of the Gulf War.
(b) The interests of the United States and other countries in the Gulf region
The Gulf region touches the nerves of the United States and many other countries mainly because of its extremely rich oil and gas resources. By the end of1990,65438+10, the proven oil reserves in the Gulf region were 651700 million barrels, accounting for 65% of the world's proven oil reserves (1001500 million barrels), and natural gas was 24 trillion cubic meters, accounting for. The daily oil output is about14.5 million barrels, accounting for about 23% of the world's daily oil output (63.6 million barrels); About120,000 barrels of oil are exported every day, accounting for 43% of the world's daily oil exports (28 million barrels). The five major oil-producing countries in the Middle East (Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iraq, Iran and United Arab Emirates) are all in the Gulf region. Of the 20 super-large oil fields in the world, 1 1 is in the Gulf region.
The oil produced in the Gulf region is mainly used for export. A considerable part of the oil imported by the United States, Western Europe and Japan comes from the Gulf region. According to American energy statistics, in the first quarter of 1990, the daily net oil import of the United States was 76 1 10,000 barrels, of which 2.064 million barrels came from the Gulf region, accounting for 26.9%. Western Europe imports 8.235 million barrels of oil a day, of which the Gulf region imports 4.276 million barrels, accounting for 51.9%; Japan imports 5.48 million barrels of oil every day, of which 3.54 million barrels are imported from the Gulf, accounting for 64.6%.
Oil is the "blood" of the world economic development, and it is also the driving force of the modern army. If Iraq annexed Kuwait and then occupied Saudi Arabia, it would control more than half of the world's oil resources, which would be like blocking the throats of major western industrial countries. Saddam can use his oil weapons to manipulate the economic development of western industrial countries, and then he can tell them what to do. This is absolutely intolerable for the United States and other major industrial countries.
In addition, Kuwait is a rare rich country in the world. Its overseas assets exceed $654.38 billion, and it also holds tens of billions of dollars of shares in important western industries. If these assets are taken away by Iraq, it will also cause huge losses to the western economy.
(c) The relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union has eased, and the shadow of opposition between the United States and the Soviet Union in regional conflicts has disappeared.
For more than 40 years after the war, due to the opposition between social system and ideology and the need of hegemony, people can see the shadow of struggle and opposition between the United States and the Soviet Union in almost all regional conflicts. After Gorbachev came to power, he carried out reform and new thinking, actively moved closer to the west, and gave up his opposition to the United States in politics, military affairs and diplomacy. Iraq's actions invisibly further promoted the desire for contact between the Soviet Union and the United States. Although Iraq is one of the few close allies of the Soviet Union in the Middle East for many years, in order to avoid confrontation with the United States and other western countries on the Iraq issue, the Soviet Union would rather sacrifice Iraq, a former ally. On the issue of Iraq, the attitude of cooperation between the Soviet Union and the United States made President Bush feel "very satisfied" and called it "the first alliance between the United States and the Soviet Union in a regional conflict after the war". The agreement between the United States and the Soviet Union on the basic position of the Gulf crisis enabled the United Nations Security Council to successfully adopt a series of resolutions on sanctions against Iraq. Although the Soviet Union did not directly send troops to participate in the war against Iraq, it supported the United States to organize multinational forces to send troops to the Gulf, enabling the United States to take various military actions without scruple.
(4) The international community is generally strongly opposed to aggression.
International relations have always been an issue of interest to people. On the first day of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, US President Bush made a speech, denouncing Iraq's behavior as "naked aggression" and "posing a real threat" to the national interests of the United States, and announced the freezing of all assets of Iraq and Kuwait in the United States. At the same time, a strong military response was made. Less than 1 hour after Iraq invaded Kuwait, two aircraft carrier battle groups were ordered to sail to the Gulf.
The Soviet Union changed its normal position of opposing the United States in regional conflicts in the world for 40 years after the war. On August 3, the United States and the Soviet Union reached an understanding and issued a joint statement demanding that Iraq "unconditionally withdraw its troops from Kuwait" and "fully restore Kuwait's sovereignty, legitimate regime and territorial integrity". This is completely consistent with the US policy objectives towards Iraq. On the same day, the Soviet government stopped the supply of weapons and military assistance to Iraq.
Most other countries or international organizations in the world reacted quickly to Iraq's invasion and generally strongly resisted and condemned Iraq's aggression.
The United Nations Security Council and Member States responded to the Gulf crisis with unprecedented speed and almost unanimous opinion. On August 2nd, the UN Security Council adopted resolution 660 condemning Iraq's violation of the UN Charter and demanding its withdrawal with 14 votes in favour, 0 votes against and 1 abstention. From August 2nd to1October 29th, the UN Security Council adopted 12 resolutions condemning and sanctioning Iraq. These resolutions put Iraq in an extremely isolated position politically, economically, militarily and diplomatically. Among them, Resolution 678 stipulated that the deadline for Iraq's withdrawal was199115. If Iraq does not withdraw its troops before the deadline, the resolution authorizes UN Member States to use "all necessary means" to implement the resolution adopted by the UN, which provides a way for 38 countries led by the United States to form a joint force to send troops to the Gulf and solve the crisis by force.
Before the "deadline" came, the international community made great efforts to solve this crisis. The leaders of many countries mediated and designed various mediation schemes. The Secretary-General of the United Nations also personally went to Baghdad to do the work in Iraq, hoping that Iraq would withdraw its troops from Kuwait. But all these efforts failed to make Iraq change its position. War is inevitable.