Desert Storm 25th Anniversary: Part 1 – The Gulf War Begins Published Dec. 29, 2015 By Senior Airman Sean D. Smith Minot Air Force Base Public Affairs MINOT AIR FORCE BASE, N.D. -- Operation Desert Storm was the combat phase of the Gulf War. It began Jan. 17, 1991, and lasted until Feb. 28 -- but Desert Storm was only one part of a larger conflict. While the issues leading to war had been building for some time, the incident that set the Gulf War in motion was Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. Saddam Hussein's invasion was the culmination of several factors, the most immediate being economic tension. Iraq's relations with its neighbors had been deteriorating and the country had a considerable amount of debt, most of which it owed to Saudi Arabia. Meanwhile, the United States was concerned with Iraq's human rights issues, its policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and the fact that Iraq was on the American list of State Sponsors of Terrorism. A dispute arose between Iraq and Kuwait over oil revenues; when Kuwait refused to pay the money Iraq demanded, Iraq invaded immediately. Kuwait's armed forces weren't ready to fight, and they were relatively few in number, while Iraq was fielding what was at the time, the fourth largest military in the world. Iraqi commandos were extremely effective in securing strategic targets during the brief invasion; after only 12 hours, Iraq had control of most of Kuwait. The United Nations Security Council immediately met and condemned the invasion, and at the same time the Arab League made its own resolution for an internal solution to the conflict, a resolution without intervention from the West. Economic sanctions on Iraq and a naval blockade followed as the United States continued to demand that Iraq withdraw from Kuwait. Saddam countered with the demand that Israel withdraw from occupied territories across the Middle East. He also wanted U.S. troops out of Saudi Arabia. Saddam was determined to connect the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait to the contentious state of affairs between Israel and Palestine, but the administration of President George H.W. Bush and its allies wanted to deal with the invasion as a separate matter. Furthermore, Bush refused to negotiate with Saddam as long as his forces were still in Kuwait, believing that giving up any ground would send the message that Iraq had profited from the invasion. The Security Council passed a resolution giving Iraq approximately two months to withdraw from Kuwait, while failure to do so would result in military action. Next time: Operation Desert Shield