Standing Down after Victory
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Defense Imagery DN-ST-91-08410
Barbed wire, mines, and other obstacles were erected along the shoreline during the Iraqi occupation of Kuwait to prevent or slow attacks by sea.
was established under U.S. Central Command in August 1992 to enforce a no-fly zone over southern Iraq, which also lasted until Operation Iraqi Freedom began in 2003. Marine aircraft from land bases and aircraft carriers flew often in support of Operation Southern Watch. In 1998, Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 312— commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Stephen M. Pomeroy and flying off the USS Enterprise (CVN 65)— flew strike missions into Iraq as part of Operation Desert Fox, a four-day bombing campaign conducted by the United States and Great Britain in response to Iraq’s defiance of the United Nation’s resolutions.30
Reflections Liberating Kuwait from the Iraqi forces occupying it was not a victory free from cost. During Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm, 383 American servicemembers lost their lives in the theater of war. Of those, 68 were Marines: 44 non-battle-related deaths and 24 battle-related deaths. A further 92 Marines were wounded in action. Five Marines, as mentioned above, were captured and repatriated following the conflict.31 There are no reliable estimates of Iraqi losses
during the campaign. Iraqi records are unclear, for example, on exactly how many Iraqi troops were in Kuwait when the liberation began. Most estimates indicate that 20–30 percent of each Iraqi division had deserted or been given leave prior to the invasion; it is thus very difficult to determine how many Iraqis were slain in the fighting. Tens of thousands of Iraqis surrendered to Coalition forces, and thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, were slain resisting the liberation. And, of course, Iraqi casualties in the invasion of Kuwait are unclear, though they were not heavy. Saddam believed that if he could achieve a ratio of one American slain for every four Iraqis slain, he would win the war. He does not seem to have achieved that ratio, but he believed he won the war anyway.32 Indeed, Saddam was convinced that he won the Gulf War, that the tenacity and stubborn defense of Iraqi forces under fire persuaded the Americans to end the conflict earlier then they intended. As Kevin Woods notes in his examination of the Iraq side of the conflict, The Mother of All Battles, Saddam declared that I am very sure the criminal Bush did not ex-
