At midnight in Iraq, the United Nations deadline for the Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait expires, and the Pentagon prepares to commence offensive operations to forcibly eject Iraq from its five-month occupation of its oil-rich neighbor.
At 4:30 p.m. EST, the first fighter aircraft were launched from Saudi Arabia and off U.S. and British aircraft carriers in the Persian Gulf on bombing missions over Iraq. All evening, aircraft from the U.S.-led military coalition pounded targets in and around Baghdad as the world watched the events transpire in television footage transmitted live via satellite from Baghdad and elsewhere. At 7:00 p.m., Operation Desert Storm, the code-name for the massive U.S.-led offensive against Iraq, was formally announced at the White House.
The operation was conducted by an international coalition under the command of U.S. General Norman Schwarzkopf and featured forces from 32 nations, including Britain, Egypt, France, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. During the next six weeks, the allied force engaged in a massive air war against Iraq’s military and civil infrastructure, and encountered little effective resistance from the Iraqi air force or air defenses. Iraqi ground forces were helpless during this stage of the war, and Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein’s only significant retaliatory measure was the launching of SCUD missile attacks against Israel and Saudi Arabia. Saddam hoped that the missile attacks would provoke Israel to enter the conflict, thus dissolving Arab support of the war. At the request of the United States, however, Israel remained out of the war.
On February 24, a massive coalition ground offensive began, and Iraq’s outdated and poorly supplied armed forces were rapidly overwhelmed. Kuwait was liberated in less than four days, and a majority of Iraq’s armed forces surrendered, retreated into Iraq, or were destroyed. On February 28, President George H.W. Bush declared a cease-fire, and Iraq pledged to honor future coalition and U.N. peace terms. One hundred and twenty-five American soldiers were killed in the Persian Gulf War, with another 21 regarded as missing in action.
On March 20, 2003, a second war between Iraq and a U.S.-led coalition began, this time with the stated U.S. objective of removing Saddam Hussein from power and, ostensibly, finding and destroying the country’s weapons of mass destruction. Hussein was captured by a U.S. military unit on December 13, 2003 and was executed three years later. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found.
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Israel, the gift that keeps on giving.
The Role of the Israel Lobby in Jon Ossoff’s Ascendance
The Jewish Forward reports that Ossoff “was in charge of foreign policy issues in the office of Georgia Rep. Hank Johnson. As such, he worked on legislation improving military funding for Israel and mandating tougher inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities.” (Keep in mind, Israel has received far more US tax money than any other nation, and Iran has long been targeted by Israel and its advocates.)
Partly through emphasizing his pro-Israel credentials, Ossoff was able to raise $33 million for his 2017 campaign, and the race became the most expensive House race in American history up to that time.
On his list of priorities, Ossoff emphasized his support for Israel. Below is a sample (the whole document is here):
Jon is committed to Israel’s security as a homeland for the Jewish people and to strengthening the historic, unbreakable bond between the United States and Israel.
Jon has traveled twice to Israel — once while a graduate student at the London School of Economics and once after his Bar Mitzvah. Jon has deep personal relationships with family who live in Jerusalem and many friends who live in Israel.
As a national security staffer in Congress, Jon worked closely with talented Israeli diplomats to strengthen diplomatic and military ties between the U.S. and Israel.
While working in Congress on military and counterterrorism programs, Jon drafted a Congressional resolution demanding the inspection of Iran’s secret nuclear facilities. He also worked on defense authorization bills that helped fund the Iron Dome and David Sling’s defense systems, which are essential to protecting Israel from missile and rocket attack… read more
Ossof’s statement ignored many significant facts. For example, Palestinian rockets from Gaza had begun only after Israel had invaded and shelled the region extensively. Moreover, in all the years the rockets have been used, they’ve killed a total of about 30 people; Israeli air strikes have killed thousands of Gazans.
In 2020, Ossoff posted a similar, even longer document detailing his support for Israel. (In both races, Ossoff’s Republican opponents also pledged unquestioning support for Israel.)
Ossoff’s position statements indicate that, despite positioning himself as an expert on international relations, Ossoff seems significantly uninformed on Israel-Palestine.
For example, his statements fail to note that Israel was established, in the words of an Israeli historian, by ethnic cleansing. In addition, he seems unaware of the current situation.
Although Ossoff also positions himself as a progressive, he virtually never appears to mention Israel’s long record of human rights violations as documented by Human Rights Watch, Christian Aid, Amnesty International, the International Red Cross, and numerous other respected groups, including a number of Israeli NGOs.
https://www.unz.com/article/the-role-of-the-israel-lobby-in-jon-ossoffs-ascendance/
Kinda like herpes. It keeps coming back and there’s no cure.
Our m8 chemical detector alarms went off that morning just before daybreak. We went to mopp4. I was a little slow as the cloud rolled in and carried the effects of exposure on my feet for the next four years. A thick red ‘rash’ that oozed puss, and was soft and mushy. Good times. The visions of burned bodies and ssg bleeding out as i did first aid have lasted considerably longer.