Making of a dictator
Saddam Hussein came from humble beginnings. Born in 1937, he grew up in Auja, a village of mud-brick huts northwest of Baghdad. His parents were poor farmers, but inspired by his uncle Khayrallah Tulfah, an Iraqi army officer and crusader for Arab unity, Hussein became interested in politics as a teenager. He joined the socialist Baath party when he was 19. In 1959, he was involved in a failed assassination attempt against Iraqi Prime Minister Abudul Karim Kassim, and he fled the country for several years, first to Syria, then Egypt. In 1968 he helped lead the revolt that finally brought the Baath party to power under General Ahmed Hassan Bakr. Then, in the early 1980s, he used chemical weapons to crush a Kurdish rebellion in northern Iraq and invaded Iran, launching an eight-year war that ended in stalemate.

The road to conflict
One of the main catalysts for the Gulf War was the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Within days, the United States, along with the United Nations, demanded Iraq's immediate withdrawal. The US and other UN member nations began deploying troops in Saudi Arabia within the week and the worldwide coalition began to form under UN authority. By January of 1991, more than half-a-million allied troops were deployed in Saudi Arabia and throughout the Gulf region. On 16th January 1991, Allied forces began the devastating bombing of Iraq and her forces in Kuwait.

Desert Storm: masterminding an air war
General 'Stormin' Norman Schwarzkopf, the Commander-in-Chief of Central Command, masterminded a four-phase attack on Iraq. The elements were Phase I: Strategic Air Campaign, Phase II: Air Supremacy in the Kuwaiti Theatre of Operations, Phase III: Battlefield Preparation and Phase IV: Ground Offensive Campaign. The aim, now known throughout the globe as Operation Desert Storm, was total destruction of the Iraqi army on the ground from above.

Success?
In terms of military objectives conquered, allied casualties minimised and popular support on the home front sustained, the first Gulf War was declared an absolute victory. Just 148 Americans were killed in action, a body count far lower than commanders and armchair strategists alike had anticipated before the war started. As time went on it became apparent things were not 'fixed' and further steps would be needed.

Déjà vu
More than a decade later, history repeated itself, when the US and its allies invaded Iraq. This time Saddam Hussein's power base was dismantled and the man himself was eventually captured. Once again, it appears as though the fate of Iraq and the effects of the invasion will only become fully apparent with the passage of time.