On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait. The United States government acted
very quickly. Ships were dispatched to the Persian Gulf, and oil prices shot up as and oil
embargo was placed against Iraq. The U.S. government told us that Saddam Hussein was
poised to invade the neighboring countries, including Saudi Arabia, and the worlds oil
supply was threatened. George Bush launched operation "Desert Shield" in which a
coalition of many nation's armies gathered in the deserts of Saudi Arabia bordering Iraq
As the war began, the coalition of national armies assembled in Saudi Arabia took
a few SCUD missile shots fired from Iraq. When the troops started moving in, Sadam's
army turned and tried to get out of Kuwait. The Iraqi "Republican Guard" stayed safely
back, far from the fighting. Several hundred U.S. troops died in the brief battle, and ten's
of thousands of Iraqis died. Many, if not most, of the U.S. deaths were the result of
At this point, George Bush decided to bring the troops home. UN weapons
inspectors converged on Iraq and the coalition armies dispersed. Perhaps the most hyped
war in history was now over. It was almost certainly the war most orchestrated for the
media. All the troops had been drilled for months in preparation for a tremendous battle
and possibly chemical and biological weapons. Suddenly it was over. They were sent home
and returned to their normal everyday lives. Memories of the threat of chemical and
Years pass before rumors begin to surface, a veteran suddenly died for no known
cause there was a veteran who developed an enormous tumor and there was a veteran
who's new child is severely malformed. The threat of chemical and biological weapons
returns to everyone's memory. People start thinking that perhaps this is the cause of all
The threat seemed very real. If it could be demonstrated that Gulf War
veterans are suffering from the effects o...