Lessons the West must learn from the Gulf War, 25 years on

A military alliance with Saudi Arabia was vital to defeating Saddam in Kuwait. The same is true of the fight against Isil

An abandoned Iraqi tank sits abandoned in an oilfield in Kuwait. In the background an oil well has been set alight by retreating Iraqi forces

at a time when Western politicians are struggling to devise a coherent strategy to defeat the fanatics of Islamic State (Isil), the 25th anniversary of the First Gulf War - which I covered as a correspondent for the Telegraph titles - is a timely reminder of what can be achieved when the West forms an effective partnership with its Arab allies.

Saddam Hussein’s decision to invade Kuwait in August 1990 constituted a global security threat every bit as challenging as that posed today by Isil’s murderous zealots.

After Iraq’s elite Republican Guard units had conquered Kuwait – which Saddam claimed as Iraq’s 19th province – there was genuine concern that the Iraqis might continue their blitzkrieg into all the Gulf states, thereby placing the West’s vital oil supplies under the undisputed control of the Iraqi tyrant.

But in launching the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait, Saddam had badly underestimated the resolve of the West to resist his aggression. Coming a year after the collapse of the Iron Curtain, the Iraqi leader believed the West was too preoccupied with establishing its so-called New World Order to concern itself with the fate of a tiny sheikhdom like Kuwait. He was wrong.

Cajoled by the indefatigable Margaret Thatcher, President George H. Bushset about building a truly global military coalition to confront Saddam’s aggression. Western leaders found willing allies in Saudi Arabia and the other Gulf states which, after some initial hesitancy, agreed to commit their own forces in support of the U.S.-led coalition. Even the Syrians under President Hafez al-Assad – the father of the current Syrian dictator - committed troops to the campaign.

Britain, meanwhile, contributed an estimated 50,000 members of the Armed Forces to the 500,000-strong force which, in February 1991, eventually succeeded in defeating Saddam’s forces and liberating Kuwait.

Twenty-five years later, and with Isil fanatics today posing another major threat to the stability of the Middle East, what lessons can we learn from the success of Operation Desert Storm (or Operation Granby, the more whimsical name allocated to the British campaign)?

The first lesson is the importance of strong and effective leadership on the part of Western leaders, a quality that has been woefully lacking in Washington under President Barack Obama.

The first President Bush is still regarded in some Republican quarters as something of a wimp, not least because of his refusal to continue the military campaign into Iraq and overthrow Saddam Hussein, an achievement that would have spared the West of removing him in 2003 in altogether more controversial circumstances.

But from the outset of the Kuwait crisis Mr Bush, benefitting from Mrs Thatcher’s unstinting support, was able, by demonstrating effective leadership, to win global support for his military campaign to liberate Kuwait.

The allies’ other impressive achievement was to build a wide-ranging coalition that comprised both Western and regional forces, another factor that has been badly lacking in the current effort to defeat Isil.

Two years after Isil set up its so-called Caliphate in northern Iraq and Syria, the West is still struggling to find effective coalition partners on the ground(unlike during Operation Desert Storm, Western leaders now get cold feet whenever you mention putting “boots on the ground”).

Bombing Isil positions, as American and British warplanes are doing on a regular basis, is all very well, but the fanatics will never be properly defeated without an effective ground component.

In 1991 the support provided by the Saudis and their Arab allies proved vital to the military campaign’s ultimate success and, 25 years later, the possibility exists of establishing a similar coalition to fight Isil.

This month, troops from 20 mainly Muslim countries began military exercises in northeastern Saudi Arabia, exercises the Saudis are calling “Thunder in the North”, part of the Saudi-led coalition’s attempts to improve their ability to respond to the threat posed by Isil and other Islamist terrorist groups. Troops from Pakistan, Malaysia, Turkey, Egypt, Morocco, Jordan and Sudan are among those taking part in the biggest military exercise undertaken on Saudi soil, which includes a mixture of ground, air and naval forces.

If the West is serious about finding effective regional partners to help defeat Isil, why not form a new coalition with the Saudis and their allies? If it worked so well in 1991, then why not now?