In 1991, when the United States gathered 660,000 troops into the Middle East, Saddam Hussein waved a big hand and organized 1.2 million people to fight.
However, just when everyone thought it was a protracted war, the US military led only 42 days to kill Saddam Hussein's million troops and even kill and wound 100,000 Iraqi troops, while their own side only died 148 people.
What is this concept?
The equivalent of the Iraqi army paying the price of 1,000 lives to barely kill 1.5 American troops, so small that less than 0.15% of the casualties shocked the world. Because in human wars, such small numbers are extremely rare.
It also makes one wonder why Iraq lost so badly and how did the United States do it?
To understand these problems, we must understand how Saddam Hussein provoked the United States.
In 1980, a major event occurred in the Middle East, Iraq and Iran went to war, the two sides fought for 8 years, although Iraq won, but did not gain any benefits, but paid 400,000 casualties and 350 billion US dollars of economic losses, but also owed 80 billion US dollars in debt.
At first, Saddam Hussein's idea was to increase oil production and exchange oil for foreign currency to pay off debts. At that time, a number of oil-producing countries in the Middle East did not buy Saddam Hussein's account, and they produced oil with full horsepower, so they engaged in a sharp decline in international oil prices, Iraq had no income, played a bad mind, and did not let me make money, then you don't want to live well.
So Saddam Hussein began to pick persimmons, see the country is good bullying, and after half a day of deliberation, he set his sights on Iraq's biggest creditor: Kuwait.
As a result, Iraq occupied all of Kuwait in just 10 hours, which provoked the United States.
Because if Iraq annexes Kuwait and allows it to develop, the next step is to occupy Saudi Arabia, so that Iraq can control more than half of the world's oil resources, which directly stuck the neck of western industrial countries.
On the other hand, Iraq's pursuit of regional hegemony is undoubtedly challenging the hegemony of the United States and causing a conflict of interests in the United States in the Middle East, so the United States will intervene whether it is for political or economic factors!
Why, then, did Iraq, which is known as the "world's third power," lose so quickly and completely after the United States struck?
First of all, the first point is that the gap between the two countries' combat concepts and weapons is too large!
At that time, the Iraqi military's top management's understanding of the war was still stuck in the traditional tactics of relying on steel torrents and seas of people to crush opponents, playing a war of attrition. Therefore, Iraq did not intend to make a quick decision with the US-led multinational coalition at the beginning, but instead opened up a posture and put up a million troops, ready to kill its opponents alive.
But Iraq's concept of warfare has become obsolete, and America's understanding of the war has long since changed dramatically. Emphasis is placed on precision strikes, paralyzing and destroying local command, control, communication and intelligence gathering systems, playing information warfare, and making efficient and quick decisions.
In this context, the United States first sent electronic warfare military aircraft to interfere with and suppress Iraq's communication system, so that the orders of Iraqi generals could not be conveyed to the soldiers below.
Then the US military used electronic warfare to interfere with the Iraqi army's early warning mine, pretending to be a large-scale offensive posture of the US military. The Iraqi army was indeed hit, the air defense system was wide open, and high-value targets such as missile bases, military airfields, arsenals, and command posts were all exposed to the US military.
Under the precision strikes and repeated bombing of US fighters and bombers, the air defense force of the Iraqi army was almost completely destroyed, and the entire army became blind, or did not know where the US military suddenly dropped a bomb from.
Either you know or you can't, because the US military always launches an attack outside the Iraqi air defense fire network, and the Iraqi army can only watch, but there is no force to fight back.
The fundamental reason for this situation is that the weapons and equipment of both sides are not in the same level.
On the shells, the United States is a precision-guided bomb, which refers to where to hit, and Iraq is still using ordinary bombs to cover the target by relying on the number of shells.
On the fighters, the US fighters have F-15, F-16, F-18 and other fighters, which are like no man's land in Iraqi airspace. Although Iraq also has MiG-25, MiG-29 and other fighters that can compete with one. However, in the case of losing the right to control the air, Saddam Hussein also ordered the fighters to be buried in the sand in an attempt to dig them out after the war, and the consequences could be imagined.
Even the most promising fighters could not defeat the U.S. military, and the Iraqi Air Force lost a mess in the face of electronic warfare aircraft and high-end cargo such as the F-117A.
In the Navy, the Iraqi army is even more powerless, the United States has mobilized 6 aircraft carrier formations, and Iraq is a missile boat such a small guy, naturally can not beat the aircraft carrier such a big hunk.
Overall, Iraq was defeated, but only 148 casualties were inflicted on the United States, which is simply outrageous.
The second point of Iraq's fiasco is that it is internationally isolated and economically unharmed.
Throughout the Gulf War, no country has stood up for Iraq, not even solidarity.
As for the United States, it gathers a group of thugs such as britain and Australia, and behind it stands a group of trumpeters who are waving the flag and shouting.
The more countries, the more countries there are to share the risks with the U.S. military.
In the Gulf War, in addition to the 500,000 US troops, other countries also dispatched more than 100,000 troops, and all of them were elite. As for Iraq's claimed 120 troops, except for Saddam's concubine troops, most of them were temporarily recruited miscellaneous troops, which were not highly effective and scattered as soon as they were hit.
Therefore, on the surface, it seems that the multinational coalition forces are stronger with less, but in fact, the multinational coalition forces have deceived the iraqi army with several times the strength of the Iraqi army.
In addition to sharing the risk of injury in numbers to U.S. troops, the multinational coalition also shares the economic pressure.
Public data show that the U.S.-led multinational force spent $113.3 billion in the Gulf War, a money shared by saudi arabia, Kuwait at $18.5 billion, Japan at $13 billion, Britain at $12 billion, Germany at $8.8 billion, and France at $6 billion. These 6 countries alone share more than 72% of military spending, the United States has not paid much money, and The Us arms dealers have taken the opportunity to make a big profit.
Iraq's situation can be miserable, the US military aircraft bombing specifically picked important transportation hubs, industrial bases, oil companies and other high-value targets in Iraq, causing direct economic losses of $200 billion to Iraq in one go, and the subsequent reconstruction and development costs directly soared to trillions of dollars.
There are not as many Americans and as much money as there are, and Iraq naturally cannot defeat others, but it is not that there are many casualties.
The third biggest reason for Iraq's fiasco was the economic and medical conditions.
When the Gulf War broke out, only 3 years after the end of the Iran-Iraq War, in the 8-year war with Iran, Iraq fought out the country's financial, material and manpower, the elite almost exhausted in this war, and valuable enterprises, can sell all bought, can be described as four walls.
After the war, the only thing Iraq could count on was selling oil. However, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia have increased oil production abroad to hit oil prices, and under the pressure of heavy debt, Iraq's economy has become even worse and cannot return to blood.
In addition, after Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, Western countries led by the United States imposed comprehensive economic sanctions on it and froze its overseas assets.
Iraq at this moment is like an island orphan, with no money and no choice but to fend for itself. When the weapons are finished, they are gone, and when the soldiers are injured, they are thrown in the makeshift hospital, and if they can be saved, they can only be blamed for their lives.
The United States is completely different, with a steady supply of weapons and ammunition, and aircraft and artillery. The most important thing is that the United States has a complete medical system, and professionally trained doctors can treat soldiers accurately and in a timely manner. Nurses can provide careful care, advanced medical equipment ensures that soldiers' physical health is monitored at all times, and hospitals in neighboring countries can be requisitioned.
If you think about it, how can a small clinic on the street be compared with the top three hospitals in the city, and it is not surprising that more people die in Iraq than the US military.
The reason for this situation in Iraq has a lot to do with the style of its president, Saddam Hussein.
This is the fourth reason, president Saddam Hussein is self-conscious, resulting in increased casualties.
The fiasco of an army is often closely related to its commander, and Saddam Hussein himself, who controls all of Iraq's armed forces, has several very fatal character flaws.
When he was young, Saddam Hussein participated in assassination operations many times, and later ascended to the presidency, often suppressing opponents, promoting credulity, etc., so as to enjoy great achievements, which also led to his self-absorbed personality.
So when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and the UN Security Council asked him to withdraw his troops, Saddam hussein dismissed him, thinking that everyone was afraid of him.
Even so, Saddam Hussein still had a chance, because in more than five months of thinking, the Soviet Union and middle Eastern countries urged him to withdraw his troops, and this man just wouldn't listen.
When the Gulf War broke out and the American army attacked, he still did not listen, and ordered the soldiers to fight with their lives, until the American soldiers were about to hit his base camp when the American soldiers came to the city to hit his base camp, and Saddam Hussein bowed his head and conceded defeat.
It can be said that it was Saddam's paranoid ideas and wrong command strategies that accelerated the fiasco to a certain extent.
On the other hand, the COMMANDER of the US military is much wiser in judging the war situation and using tactics, which can effectively reduce their own casualties.
Of course, there is a final reason, the terrain and climate that limit the movement of the Iraqi army.
The main site of the Gulf War is the Mesopotamian plain in Iraq, the terrain is flat, and it is a tropical desert climate, and the Iraqi army has no geographical conditions that can be used to cover up its movements.
Imagine that in a bare desert or plain, people and weapons cannot be hidden at all, and the US military's reconnaissance aircraft and satellites have a clear grasp of the whereabouts of the Iraqi army.
However, the Iraqi army has no idea about the whereabouts of the US troops, just like headless flies scurrying around, the enemy is dark and we are clear, and it is strange not to eat defeat.
In addition, the war took place in January, the weather was cold, and the logistics of the Iraqi army were not enough to provide sufficient food, medicine, and clothing. Fighting with the US troops who were fully fed, clothed, warm and air-conditioned, could not take advantage of it at all, and it was fortunate that the whole army was not destroyed.
In the end, the performance of the US and Iranian armies in the Gulf War was a triple squeeze of external, internal and natural conditions, and the fiasco of the Iraqi army was inevitable, and the US military's great victory was expected!