Today in 1991, along the Iraqi eastern and southern frontier

Operation Desert Storm began.

American and Allied air power controlled the skies over the battlefield.

Desert Storm began when aircraft from British, American, Kuwait, French and Saudi bomb military and strategic targets in Iraq, including an oil refinery and Baghdad airport. 

Iraqi armored units were decimated.

Defending Iraqi Army units, most of which had dug into fixed positions, were ill-prepared for the ferocity of the onslaught that was being unleashed against them.  In the aftermath of the attacks, it was hard to believe how quickly the war was concluded, how light had been the Allied casualties (the feared chemical and biological weapons had not been used by the Iraqi's), and how complete was the the victory against the defending armed forces that had sacked Kuwait weeks earlier. However, the long sought and effective peace the Allies had envisioned proved elusive and it wasn't long before a second war was underway.

[January 17, 1991]