30 years since Desert Storm

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

Jan 17th 1991, US-led coalition forces began attacking targets in Iraq, in what was dubbed the "Video Game War" as so much of the operation was live on TV news with footage from the actual planes and tanks.

I remember being in my halls as a student, and a brief moment where it was reported that Iraq had launched nukes against Israel, and we all thought WW3 was kicking off.

How do you remember it 30 years on?

[jwdd27]

They interrupted the Spurs v Chelsea highlights on Midweek Sports Special, but it finished 0-0 anyway.

[elguapo4]

They interrupted the Spurs v Chelsea highlights on Midweek Sports Special, but it finished 0-0 anyway.

That's how I remember it as well.

[beak]

it finished 0-0 anyway.

I know a lot of people said the lad Hussein'd be out a job in the morning if he lost this one, but when I look at it I'm sat here thinking to myself "well the independence of the Kuwaiti state has been reaffirmed, there's a programme of embargoes set up that will lead directly to the deaths of hundreds of thousands, and UN Security Council Resolution 687 allows for future war at the drop of the hat". Not sure I can call this one a draw, Brian. As little time as I have for the Americans here - as far as I see it there's a right and a wrong way to play the game - I've got to see this one as Bush Senior going home satisfied with all three points in the bag.

[Rogin the Armchair fan]

It was also our introduction to the concept that Americans pronounce Colin "Coe-lin".

[ursus arctos]

The Powells are in the definite minority in that respect, even among USians

[The Awesome Berbaslug!!!]

A lot of people pronounce that name Pole as well. The Anglo Irish, and those whose families transitioned to english rather late in the day.

[G-Man]

Two days after the start of Desert Storm, I started going out with the woman who'd become my wife. That's my main memory.

And the war marked the rise of CNN as a worldwide source of news. I'm pretty sure that this is where I became aware of Wolf Blitzer, whose great name I'm envious of.

[Satchmo Distel]

I remember that the BBC still had journalistic integrity when they covered it, especially Charles Wheeler. I shudder to think how they would cover it now.

The "Video Game War" was a crucial moment in the distancing of audiences from the consequences of bombing; a deliberate policy of ensuring that the TV footage from Vietnam was not repeated. A more compliant US media after 10 years of Reaganism and Cold War triumphalism.

[Satchmo Distel]

"Fun Fact": The attack on Iraq started on Muhammad Ali's 49th birthday, which I doubt he would have been pleased about.

[NickSTFU]

I know it as Op Granby.

I was full kitted out in NBC gear, with my respirator handy.

I had a bout of mainly diarrhoea and a bit of vomiting, it was going around, which made things a bit awkward in a NCB suit.

[NickSTFU]

I know it as Op Granby.

I was full kitted out in NCB gear, with my respirator handy.

I had a bout of mainly diarrhoea and a bit of vomiting, it was going around, which made things a bit awkward in a NCB suit.

War did seem like hell.

[Evariste Euler Gauss]

I don't particularly remember the events of 17 Janurary 1991.

I do have one strange memory from the previous summer, probably a few weeks after Saddam had invaded Kuwait. On a trip to Germany, I heard on the radio some god-awful "patriotic" American song effort, to the tune of Eric Clapton's "Cocaine", with a chorus along the lines of "He invaded Kuwait, now it's getting too late, for Hussein". No idea who it was by. I can't find it now.

[NickSTFU]

I appear to have hit quote, instead of edit....

[Gangster Octopus]

I was full kitted out in NCB gear, with my respirator handy.

Hadn't realised that the Coal Board were involved...

[Paul S]

Hadn't realised that the Coal Board were involved...

I think he means NBC suit, Nuclear, Biological and Chemical weapons. NCB is more fun though.

[NickSTFU]

Hadn't realised that the Coal Board were involved...

Ha.

I always fancied one of those Donkey Jackets.

Would have been easier to go for a shit too.

[jwdd27]

Looking back now, the gap between the invasion in August 1990 and military action in January 1991 seems a long time, I feel like nowadays there would be a much shorter gap for diplomatic efforts and UN resolutions to be exhausted.

[ad hoc]

I was living in Bangkok when it kicked off. My memories were of groups of people outside TV shops watching it on CNN. Me included.

[San Bernardhinault]

I remember everyone in my student house sitting round the TV watching on the first day of it. Which, retrospectively, is very odd behaviour. And then I think we all kind of got bored. Before that I remember lots of people apparently thinking "Free Kuwait. With every Happy Meal." was a funny joke. I remember the Living Marxism twats on the steps of the Student Union having very odd takes on why Kuwait should remain in Iraqi hands although I can't now remember their argument. It was all a bit weird.

[anton pulisov]

I remember green snots being shot into the night sky live on TV.

[Belhaven]

In Norway the king died on the same day as the first Iraq war started. It was a busy day in news rooms.

[Logan Mountstuart]

I remember working in some god forsaken warehouse in Holland, in my first attempt to coexist with the woman who would eventually fuck my life up.

I remember being friends there with an absolutely wonderful Greek bloke who made it all bearable, and with whom I really should have stayed in touch.

Dutch radio poured out "solemn songs" all day. Oorlog in de golf. I think this is when the western media started regarding war as spectacle rather than something where innocent people die horribly.

[scratchmonkey]

It was my first protest, there was a mass walkout at school and we marched and chanted and sang, there was a brief bit where we sat in an intersection and there was loads of angry honking.

[wingco]

This was the real End of History war, the "new world order" in the offing and, being a touch more centre-right and gullible in those days than I like to think I am now, I bought into it; the sanitised "surgical strikes" in which military installations rather than civilians were taken out, disabling the dreadful Saddam Hussein's malign infrastructure piece by piece, leaving the road clear for his removal and the establishment of democracy in Iraq. It took weeks for the inefficacy of the bombing campaign to become clear and the high price paid by ordinary Iraqis.