Gulf war studies

The military conflicts between Saddam’s Iraq and the US coalition in Gulf war I and in 2003 are usually assumed to have been completely one sided, with Iraqi forces abandoning their weapons and surrendering en mass.

The superior performance of Western weapons vs their Soviet equivalents is also easily countered by pointing out that Iraq had outdated versions of Soviet tanks and planes.

The reality was not as simple as people think. Even though Iraq had no chance against the forces of the West there are still reasons to study these conflicts in more detail.

Here are two interesting articles by academic Daryl G. Press:

Lessons From Ground Combat in the Gulf: The Impact of Training and Technology

The Myth of Airpower in the Persian Gulf War and the Future of Airpower

The Iraqi Perspectives Project has produced several very interesting studies of Saddam Hussein’s Iraq based on captured archival material and interviews of important personalities:

Saddam's War: An Iraqi Military Perspective of the Iran-Iraq War

Um Al-Ma’arik (The Mother of All Battles): Operational and Strategic Insights from an Iraqi Perspective

Iraqi Perspectives Project: a view of Operation Iraqi Freedom from Saddam's senior leadership