Our nation has been led through two large operations in the Persian Gulf, Operation Desert Storm and Operation Iraqi Freedom, by both father and son. When President George H. W. Bush failed to put Saddam Hussein's power and leadership to rest, his son, the President George W. Bush, succeeded in capturing Hussein and ending undisputed control over Iraq and Kuwait. The first Gulf War was mainly the U.S. stepping into the middle of a conflict between Iraq and Kuwait, which led to President Bush despising Saddam Hussein. The second Gulf War was an attempt to stop Hussein's control over the Iraqi nation, because President Bush believed that Hussein had ties to Al Qaeda, as well as possessing weapons of mass destruction.
Operation Desert Storm began in August of 1991. August 8, was when the United States" soldiers actually pushed through to Kuwait and Iraq. Also on this date, Hussein declared that he was annexing Kuwait as part of Iraq. Previously, Hussein had been trying to set up a government in Kuwait that thoroughly supported Iraq and all of its views. This was obviously too much for Hussein to handle because Kuwait would still be a separate nation from Iraq, and it would be harder for Hussein to control, even if he did place his armies in Kuwait to quell the insurrections that would be imminent (King, 22-3).
Saddam Hussein tried to use his quick wit on the United States and the rest of the world, especially the Middle East. On August 12, Hussein proposed his own peace plan that involved the withdrawal of all U.S. forces, and replacement of them by a much smaller and weaker Arab force. He also called for the withdrawal of many other countries" forces from the nations that he wished to invade and control. Everyone saw through this clever rouse however, because all of the nations that he wished to withdraw refused to follow through with his plans for domination of the Middle East. This was the point that Hussein began to realize that he was no longer in control of much of the Middle East.
