The anniversary of the congressional mandate to go to war ... This is how America exploited Saddam’s miscalculations and destroyed Iraq

On this day, 30 years ago, the US Congress announced the authorization of President George Bush Sr. to wage war on Iraq and use force to remove his forces from Kuwait, and only a few days passed since the mandate until the international coalition led by Washington announced the launch of the second Gulf War on January 17, 1991. .

The US Constitution requires the president to obtain congressional authorization before launching war on any country that did not directly attack US interests, but Bush’s mission in Congress was not difficult, and he did not face much opposition before his mandate.

Bush Sr. (left) moments before announcing the start of the ground war on Iraq in 1991 (Reuters)

Delegation of force

The US Congress’s decision to use military force to expel Iraqi forces from Kuwait included giving Iraqi President Saddam Hussein a deadline until January 15, 1991 to withdraw his forces from Kuwait, according to the strategic expert, Dr. Faris Turki.

Turki shows to Al-Jazeera Net that Congress has approved the necessity of adopting all diplomatic and peaceful means to avoid war, and made clear that he will withdraw his support and approval if the war continues for a long time or causes heavy losses.

The United States sent half a million troops to the Gulf region before congressional authorization (French)

Turki points out that US President Bush Sr. did not wait for congressional approval. Rather, five months before he authorized the force, he sent about half a million soldiers to the Gulf region in preparation for war.

He attributes the reasons for the American intervention to the exceptional importance of the Arab Gulf region as the largest producer and exporter of oil in the world, as well as the relationship of interests between America and the Gulf countries, and Washington - which wanted to impose its absolute hegemony - will never tolerate an act of the size of the invasion of Kuwait and in a severe region. Sensitivity.

Jalloud believes that the Iraqi leadership helped Washington implement its plan with wrong calculations (Al-Jazeera)

The diplomatic option

After the Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait on August 2, 1990, and since the first day of the crisis, the United States was calling for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait, but according to strategic calculations it would like the opposite, and the Iraqi leadership helped it implement the strategy with miscalculations far from logic and reality, according to the head of the studies department. Political and strategy at the Center for Regional Studies at the University of Mosul, Dr. Mithaq Khairallah Jalloud.

Jalloud reveals to Al-Jazeera Net that on August 4, 1990, the Iraqi leadership decided to withdraw from Kuwait, after positive intervention from the then-King of Jordan, Hussein bin Talal, on the condition that no Arab decision was issued condemning Iraq. George Bush quickly condemned Iraq, which prompted Saddam Hussein to reverse his decision to withdraw.

Jaloud expresses his belief that the Gulf states at the beginning of the crisis wanted an Iraqi withdrawal only, and what confirms this is that the leadership in Saudi Arabia was reluctant to receive American forces at first.

He pointed out that Saddam showed in mid-October 1990 his readiness to conduct a dialogue with Saudi Arabia and the United States, and in a goodwill initiative, Iraq announced after 3 days that it would allow foreign nationals to leave the country, but the US administration did not respond to the Iraqi initiative.

Then Washington pushed the UN Security Council to issue successive resolutions against Iraq, which are the harshest in the history of this council, according to Jalloud, while the last opportunity efforts for a peaceful solution led to an agreement on a meeting between Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz and US Secretary of State James Baker on December 9, 1990. In Geneva, however, the meeting was nothing but a renewal of previous positions.

The international coalition targeted various military sectors, military research centers and warships (French)

Hit Iraq

The international coalition aircraft launched a day after the end of the deadline granted by the Security Council for Iraq to withdraw its forces from Kuwait, an intensive and large-scale air campaign that covered all of it from north to south, according to military expert Abdul Khaleq Al-Shaher.

Al-Shaher added to Al-Jazeera Net that the coalition launched 109 thousand and 867 air strikes during 43 days, an average of 2555 a day, during which it used 60 thousand and 624 tons of bombs, which led to the destruction of many Iraqi infrastructure.

The international coalition launched nearly 110 thousand raids on Iraq (Reuters)

Al-Shahir went on to say, "After the coalition destroyed aircraft, air defenses and Iraqi call centers, the raids began targeting Iraqi Scud missile launchers, military research centers and warships, the military sectors in Kuwait, electric power generation centers, telephone call centers, oil refining and distribution centers, Iraqi ports, and bridges." Railways, water filter centers. "

The Iraqi military expert believes that expanding the strike to include many sites was aimed at paralyzing any institution that could serve the military action in order to weaken the Iraqi armed forces and affect the morale of the Iraqi people, thus reducing the losses of the invading forces and destroying the country.

Al-Mayali considered that the Congress’s decision paved the way for the catastrophe of Iraq, weakening its army and demolishing its infrastructure (Al-Jazeera)

Decision implications

Professor of political science in Baghdad, Dr. Ahmed Adnan Al-Mayali considered the Congress’s decision the beginning of the catastrophe of Iraq and the Iraqis, the weakening of the Iraqi army, the demolition of state institutions and structures, and economic sanctions.

Al-Mayali believes during his speech to Al-Jazeera Net that it is not possible to separate the phase of 1991 and the post-2003 phase, because they are two related phases in terms of failures and setbacks, pointing out that they form the basis for the process of demolishing the Iraqi state and its continuation until after 2003.

Al-Mayali believes that what happened since 1991 was a systematic process of the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and the country was completely finished as they wanted, and the Iraqis are still paying the price of January 11, 1991, and the situation may continue for a longer period.