Comment: On its 25th anniversary it鈥檚 worth talking about the Gulf War Published on: 18 January 2016 Writing for The Conversation, Dr Martin Farr explores what makes the first Gulf War a significant global event. , There鈥檚 something of a tendency in Britain to want to remember modern conflicts that 鈥� whatever else they may also be 鈥� can be presented as triumphs (such as World War II and the Falklands), disasters (which would certainly include Suez and Iraq), or conflicts so profound as to be both (World War I, pre-eminently). It鈥檚 25 years since , Britain鈥檚 contribution to : the of Saddam Hussein鈥檚 Iraqi forces and the restoration of Jaber Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah as Emir. For many in this country at least 鈥� and despite 鈥� the Gulf War is a 鈥渇orgotten war鈥�. One reason for this relative lack of prominence is that the objective for the operation was clear, the mission straightforward, the combatants mismatched and the whole thing over in a month. It was a mechanised engagement on broad open battlefields, with none of the hand-to-hand fighting or of other conflicts. There were also, given the size of the deployment, relatively few British casualties. That鈥檚 no comfort to those who knew the 47 who did die, but a number dwarfed by the losses in Palestine, Malaya, Korea, Cyprus, or Northern Ireland. Britain was, moreover, one of 33 other participants in a grand coalition. (As a senior NCO in the war told me last month, 鈥渨e were a pimple on the backside of the Americans鈥�.) Another reason is that the operation was ultimately overshadowed by a much more controversial, deployment in the same region some years later. Granby came in between the Falklands and the wars of 鈥渓iberal interventionism鈥� (for some an oxymoron, for others an enduring principle) at the end of the century. In the most significant of those, , Britain was more than a pimple, and the scars commensurately deeper. The last reason was Britain鈥檚 war leader. Just as 鈥淕eorge Bush鈥� means for most people the president who oversaw the overthrow of Saddam rather than the who kept him in power, John Major has slipped from collective memory. Despite his being Prime Minister for seven years, the shadow of Thatcher (whose own appearance in a tank is much better known) and the glare of Blair have been hard to avoid. When we do remember When the Gulf War is remembered 鈥� and 鈥� it鈥檚 for the eponymous syndrome. A variety of symptoms (from fatigue, rashes and memory loss to stress), have been claimed to have a variety of causes (including pesticides, oil fumes, even munitions used by Coalition forces themselves), but the most politically sensitive was self-administered: the drugs given to troops to protect them against Saddam鈥檚 feared use of nerve gas. Legal cases continue but the condition has proved too nebulous for satisfactory redress. British troops outside the liberated British Embassy in Kuwait in 1991. PA/David Giles
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