Jan 17th marks the 28th anniversary of the brutal and destructive war the United States’ administration and allies waged on Iraq in 1991. A war that was waged with the pretext of getting the Iraqi Army out of Kuwait, while almost two decades later clearly shows the United States of America, NATO, and most of the allied armies in that gruesome war have continued a 17 year campaign of destruction in the Middle East with bases and troops on the ground, destroying, participating directly in regional destabilization through regime changes, mass killing and the displacement directly and indirectly of millions of the region’s citizens, to simply advance it’s declared and undeclared interests as a political colonial super power, with impunity to commit crimes globally without any accountability from the international community.
Looking back to what is known as Gulf War II in 1991, it is very clear today that it marks the first failed attempt of the United States administration to occupy Iraq, and then other oil rich countries in the Middle East region. After inflicting a cataclysmic proportion of destruction and death, the United States administration imposed harsh comprehensive economic sanctions on the Iraqi population for more than 13 years. Resulting in more than 1.5 million civilians dead, most of which being children, women, and sick people [1 ]. The criminal sanctions then ended with the illegal invasion of Iraq, another brutal military operation in 2003 that has only produced waves of increasing US aggression against the Iraqi population that has not stopped to date.
Destruction of Iraq’s population infrastructure by American Coalition in Gulf war II, 1991 [3]
During the 1991 war, excessive military power and a number of prohibited weapons were used to destroy civilian life sustaining servicesthat was in no way related tothe Iraqi troops withdrawing from Kuwait. The following data provides a comprehensive view of the destructive military power deployed by the American forces and that of its coalition during the bombing campaign of Iraqi cities within the first few days of Gulf war II[2 ].
- Number of American coalition troops: 670,000 mostly Americans
- Number of combat aircrafts: 2,250 mostly Americans (1800)
- Total sorties flown from Jan. 17- Feb. 28: 65,000 days and night
- Bombs dropped on Iraqi cities and withdrawing army: 88,500 Tons
- in addition to 297 Tomahawk missiles and 35 CALCMS.
- Number of Depleted Uranium projectiles fired: 940,000 plus 14,000 by British troops
- Number of bombs dropped on cities: 210,004
- Number of Cluster bombs dropped: 39,336
- Number of Smart bombs dropped: 9,342
- Air to ground missiles fired: 5,930
Destruction of Iraq’s population infrastructure by American Coalition in Gulf war II, 1991 [3]
As a result of this intentional campaign of destruction, the following Iraqi critical services and infrastructure were destroyed [3]:
Destruction of Iraq’s population infrastructure by American Coalition in Gulf war II, 1991 [3]
One statement proves that all this destruction was planned to end life of millions of Iraqi civilians is what was written by Barton Gellman wrote in Washington Post, Jan 23, 1991;
[In 1991 war, 700 targets were identified and bombed, 28 were “key nodes” of electrical power generation. The allies flew 215 sorties against the electrical plants, using unguided bombs, TC, and laser guided GBU-110 bombs. Between the sixth and seventh days of the air war, the Iraqis shut down what remained electrical grid “not an electron was flowing” said one target planner] [4].
Gellman also wrote that
“we have to emphasize here that the periling planning for the bombing campaign began before Iraq even invaded Kuwait last Aug.”] [4].
Destruction of Iraq’s population infrastructure by American Coalition in Gulf war II, 1991 [3]
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Notes
[1] Tyler Rogoway, 2016. Operation Desert Storm By The Numbers On Its 25th Anniversary. https://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/operation-desert-storm-by-the-numbers-on-its-25th-anniv-1753347671.
[2] Nicolas Davis.How Many Millions of People Have Been Killed in America’s Post-9/11 Wars? – Part One: Iraq. Consortium News March 22, 2018.
[3] Reconstruction Magazine, “Reconstruction Campaign, Statistics and Data”. Reconstruction Research Centre, College of Engineering, University of Baghdad, Volume No. 2, 1998. Baghdad, Iraq
[4] Barton Gelman. Washington Post, jan23, 1991.” Allied Air War Struck Broadly in Iraq”.
All images in this article are from the author
