The coalition was worried about a chemical attack. However, the air defence net of Patriot batteries from Kuwait to Saudi Arabia and Turkey was worth the money, and blew 100% of those missiles straight out of the air before they could do any harm.
![operation iraqi freedom operation iraqi freedom](https://images.macmillan.com/folio-assets/macmillan_us_frontbookcovers_1000H/9781429936309.jpg)
The immediate Iraqi response was to fire Theatre-Ballistic-Missiles and surface-to-surface missiles towards the invading force and into Kuwait. All throughout the country the explosions flared from the cruise missiles fired by warships in the Persian Gulf.
#OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM FULL#
The full might of the coalition air force descended on Iraq’s command centres, air defence systems and missile and artillery batteries. Armed with a minimal air force, they suffered terrible losses the night of ‘shock and awe’ – March 22. Most Iraqi soldiers stood by their colours initially, engaging the invaders with the weapons available to them, but there was only so much they could do with ancient T-62 tanks against modern A-10 warthogs and bunker busting battle tanks. Source: Perdika, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons The most effective Iraqi defences were placed along the highways and in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley, which the coalition forces would have to use to advance quickly. Instead, they had planned for a wide defence with dispersed strong points all over the Green Line, which ran straight through the country. Iraqi High Command was very much aware that they would stand no chance against American tanks in the open desert. Would the Iraqi forces sell themselves dearly with determined and disciplined resistance? Or would they surrender or run in the face of overwhelming opposition? This was all new.įirst blood was drawn at the Tallil Air Base and An Nasiriyah, close to the Euphrates River. Battlefields were observed through digital links, and units and missiles were guided by Global Positioning Systems (GPS). The classic industrial age had been overturned by the new age of information-based warfare. Surprise attacks by Tomahawk missiles to kill Saddam and his high command had failed in the nights before, but this was all just the beginning of a new age of warfare. On the 20th, US forces, supported by a coalition contingent from Australia, Great Britain and Poland, advanced.
#OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM FREE#
Operation Iraqi Freedom, with its rather lofty goal of establishing a democratic, peaceful and prosperous Iraq, free from the oppression of the Ba’athist regime, was to begin. By March 20, the ultimatum for Saddam Hussein and his sons to exit Iraq had expired. Since the Gulf War in the early 90s, the US military presence safeguarded Kuwait against Iraqi aggression, but by March 2003 it would be the jumping off point for a full invasion. Operation Iraqi Freedom Source: World Economic Forum from Cologny, Switzerland, CC BY-SA 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons But this was just a first step, and also served as a training ground for preparation and mobilisation, which the US would need to defeat Saddam Hussein’s regime in Iraq. The war in Afghanistan that began in October ended in the complete defeat of the conventional Taliban militia in a short time. The Bush Doctrine transformed the national military strategy from limited peacekeeping missions to full on war, with boots on the ground on foreign soil. Bush addressed the American nation, emphasising that the new war on terror would begin with those behind the attack – the terrorist groups of Al Qaeda – but it would not end until the those who harboured terrorists and assisted or enabled them had been defeated all over the world. The end of the Cold War had brought an illusion of lasting peace and security over the west, an illusion that was shattered as civilian planes were turned into weapons. September 11, 2001, changed the way the United States perceived its role in the world.