Editing Saddam Hussein (section)

==== Operation Desert Storm ====
{{Main|Gulf War air campaign|Liberation of Kuwait campaign}}
[[File:Sadoun Al-Zubaydi with Saddam Hussein.jpeg|thumb|[[Willy Brandt]] and [[Sadoun al-Zubaydi]] with Saddam in 1990. ]]
Cooperation between the United States and the Soviet Union made possible the passage of resolutions in the United Nations Security Council giving Iraq a deadline to leave Kuwait and approving the use of force if Saddam did not comply with the timetable.<ref name="economist2004" /> The United States officials feared that the Iraqi retaliation against oil-rich Saudi Arabia, since the 1940s a close ally of Washington, for the Saudis' opposition to the invasion of Kuwait.<ref name="economist2004" /> Accordingly, the United States and a group of allies, including countries as diverse as Egypt, Syria and [[Czechoslovakia]], deployed a massive number of troops along the Saudi border with Kuwait and Iraq in order to encircle the Iraqi army, which was the largest in the Middle East.

Saddam's officers looted Kuwait, stripping even the marble from its palaces to move it to Saddam's own palace.<ref name="economist2004" /> Saddam ignored the Security Council deadline.<ref name="Pierson 2011" /> Backed by the Security Council, a U.S-led coalition launched round-the-clock missile and aerial attacks on Iraq, beginning 16 January 1991.<ref name="Pierson 2011" /> Israel, though [[Iraqi rocket attacks on Israel|subjected to attack by Iraqi missiles]], refrained from retaliating in order not to provoke Arab states into leaving the coalition.<ref name="Pierson 2011" /> A ground force consisting largely of U.S. and British armored and infantry divisions ejected Saddam's army from Kuwait in February 1991 and occupied the southern portion of Iraq as far as the [[Euphrates]].<ref name="Pierson 2011">{{cite web |url=http://milmag.com/2011/02/battle-at-rumaila/ |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110811182711/http://milmag.com/2011/02/battle-at-rumaila/ |archive-date=11 August 2011 |title=Battle at Rumalia |work=Military Magazine |last=Pierson |first=David S. |access-date=9 January 2017}}</ref>

On 6 March 1991, Bush announced "What is at stake is more than one small country, it is a big idea—a [[New world order (politics)|new world order]], where diverse nations are drawn together in common cause to achieve the universal aspirations of mankind: peace and security, freedom, and the rule of law."<ref name="Bush 2017">{{Cite web |url=http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=19253 |title=Address Before a Joint Session of the Congress on the State of the Union |last=Bush |first=George |work=The American Presidency Project |publisher=University of California |access-date=9 January 2017 |archive-date=29 January 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170129133253/http://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/ws/?pid=19253 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In the end, the Iraqi army proved unable to compete on the battlefield with the highly mobile coalition land forces and their overpowering air support.<ref name="Bush 2017" /> Some 175,000 Iraqis were taken prisoner and casualties were estimated at over 85,000.<ref name="Bush 2017" /> As part of the cease-fire agreement, Iraq agreed to scrap all poison gas and [[biological warfare|germ weapons]] and allow UN observers to inspect the sites.<ref name="Bush 2017" /> UN trade sanctions would remain in effect until Iraq complied with all terms.<ref name="Bush 2017" /> Saddam publicly claimed victory at the end of the war.<ref name="Bush 2017" />