Street scene Tehran 1977

After restoring the monarchy in 1953, the Shah, to his credit, continued the progressive reforms started by Mossadegh. As part of his White Revolution, the Shah broke up large estates and gave land to small farmers, started a school meal program for poor children, built new…

Iraq, from the Arabic “araqa,” meaning “deeply rooted, well-watered,” did not come into being until the end of World War I, courtesy of Sykes – Picot, which created the British Mandate of Mesopotamia. But truth be told, Iraq should not even be a country, and…

Featured Image: E. Ou / ICRC / Getty Images

September 22, 1980, Iraq invaded Iran, starting a horrific war marked on both sides by missile attacks and artillery barrages on cities, and by Iraq’s use of chemical weapons. When it ended eight years later, as many as a million combatants…

Featured Photo: Sovfoto

Polytechnic University – Kabul, 1977

Notwithstanding the idyllic Kabul described in the opening pages of The Kite Runner, an island of privilege and modernity with prosperous businessmen in western suits, educated women with their hair uncovered, meticulously kept parks, even an American school, pre-1978 Afghanistan was mostly a very backwards place,…

The glorious tale has been told and retold. On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded and annexed its oil-rich neighbor, Kuwait. Just over four months later, on January 16, 1991, a U.S.-led multi-national coalition launched a massive assault, Desert Storm, first from the air, pummeling Iraqi infrastructure and air defenses for…

Republican Guard tank column

August 2, 1990. Iraq invaded Kuwait. Four mechanized divisions of Iraq’s elite Republican Guard, supported by helicopter gunships, rolled down Highway 80, all six lanes of it, and Iraqi commando units assaulted Kuwait City from the Gulf. 

Despite months of saber-rattling by Saddam Hussein, Kuwaiti…

On the January 15, 1991 deadline for unconditional withdrawal, Saddam’s forces in Kuwait were still dug in, and two days later, January 17, the U.S., with its coalition partners in tow, went to war against Iraq. 

One hour before the air assault was to begin, James Baker…

The Coalition’s bombing campaign ended February 23, 1991. It was the eve of a massive ground assault, code name “Desert Sabre,” to drive Saddam Hussein’s occupying forces out of Kuwait. Saddam called it the “mother of all battles,” which he borrowed from the Quran….

First week of March, 1992. After 37 days of strategic bombing and a blitzkrieg 100-hour ground war, Saddam’s forces were utterly defeated and out of Kuwait. Mission accomplished. Now what?

Seeking a second-term, with the November election only eight months off, George Bush said, “We…

On August 6, 1990, four days after Saddam Hussein’s forces invaded Kuwait, the U.N. Security Council passed Resolution 661 imposing economic sanctions on Iraq, a full-blown trade embargo by all U.N. member states, followed by resolutions for naval and air blockades “to halt all inward and…