The Mother of All Battles: Saddam Hussein's Strategic Plan for the Persian Gulf War

This book, based upon many sources (including interviews with Iraqi officers and quotes from Ba'athist officials involved in the 1990 invasion of Kuwait), outlines Saddam's original plan for taking over Kuwait, as well as planning that took place after the United States and Coalition allies stepped forward to confront him over his occupation of that country. It portrays Saddam's strategic mindset and his "doublethink" of how brutally invading Kuwait would unify the rest of the Arab world behind him.As a Desert Storm veteran I recall how many of the decisions made by the Iraqis seemed to make little or no sense. However, The Mother of All Battles puts the war in context. The documents and other information we now have available to us makes the overall strategy clear, as well as the limitations presented by Iraq's intelligence services (they didn't even have good maps of Kuwait!). Saddam's Air Force, recognizing that it could contribute little against the numerically- and qualitatively-superior Coalition air forces concentrated on preparing for a strike against Israel (!) while Iraqi scientists tried to find a way to defeat cruise missiles.The only disappointment I had with the book was the way it would throw out suppositions and "facts" found in Iraqi records ("we shot down 50 American planes today!") but would not refer back or refute the claims with known losses or events from Coalition records.This book includes great information regarding the Battle of Khafji (a large-scale raid into Saudi territory), a systematic look at the planned Iraqi invasion of Kuwait and its actual execution (which highlighted weaknesses which would later prove to be Saddam's undoing), and contingency plans for defeating various possible Coalition plans of action. Khafji was later used as an example of a "victory" in the Iraqi Army's staff training and the overall war as a "draw". Absolutely fascinating and a great book to have if you're interested in the First Gulf War. Well-illustrated with captured graphics and contemporary photos.

THE MOTHER OF ALL BATTLES is a missing link in the story of the 1991 Gulf War. Much of the information was gathered from documents collected immediately following 2003'S OPERATION IRAQI FREEDOM. After reading this book three things were made very clear. First that the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait was a well planned and executed. Second was that the Iraqi armed forces were quite capable of making DESERT STORM much more costly than it eventually tallied. Thus the third point is that the Iraqi military and political leaders were so cowed by Saddam Hussein that they ignored their extensive battlefield experience and every other shred of common sense and allowed their forces to be destroyed. If it is true that Adolf Hitler was living in cloud-cuckoo-land during the last year of European World War Two, Saddam Hussein also took up residence after the 1990 invasion of Kuwait.The book references, and often provides portions of transcribed notes, from many of Hussein's meetings with senior military and political officers. After the 1991 war the Iraqis hosted their own lessons-learned discussions. Throughout these meetings one Iraqi theme is constantly repeated. This theme is the notion that no matter what the outcome of the war the Iraqis will be considered the victors if for the solitary reason that they stood up to the United States. At one point Saddam Hussein boasts that the greater number of Iraqi soldiers killed the bigger the victory.One of the things that I admire about this volume is that it clearly describes the events leading up to the invasion of Kuwait. Though the Iraqi leadership claimed, with some justification, that Kuwait was a lost province of Iraq (though it was actually separated from the Ottoman Empire by the British and treated as a protectorate); the real basis for the invasion was money. Following the Iran-Iraq war, Iraq was on the verge of financial collapse. In terms of loans Iraq owed more to its Arab neighbors than it could ever hope to repay. Saudi Arabia forgave most of its loan to Iraq. Kuwait was not so generous and demanded an immediate payment plan to replenish the ten billion dollars borrowed. In typical fashion Saddam and his henchmen countered by presenting the Kuwaiti officials with a 20 billion dollar demand for various services rendered and alleged Kuwaiti infractions. From that point onward it was only a matter of time before the invasion force assembled.Even the Iraqis were surprised by the coalition assembled across their borders. Despite some excellent tips from Iraqi intelligence that coalition units were moving westward, Iraqi leaders refused to shift forces to meet the coming threat. After January 17th the argument became academic because the Coalition air forces gained air superiority. Still the Iraqi high command, i.e. Saddam Hussein, stuck to the belief that the Coalition forces would attack through Kuwait or along the Wadi Al Batin in areas that were heavily fortified. Essentially it was a situation where so much time and resources were devoted to building defensive works in Kuwait that any hint of an attack in another zone would have been considered heresy.As Iraqi forces were being soundly defeated in DESERT STORM, for some reason Saddam Hussein decided to preserve the remains of his air force and navy by dispatching them to Iran. Afterward he could not fathom why the Iranians refused to return the ships and planes. Worse was that in typical dictator fashion, and knowing that he was losing the operational battle, he turned to a scorched earth policy of destroying oil wells, oil facilities, flooding the Persian Gulf with crude oil, and launching SCUD missiles at Israel.By the conclusion of the war the Iraqi military had taken a severe beating and lost more than half of its heavy warfighting materiel. Only the United Nations decision to halt saved Baghdad. Even then Hussein paraded around and declared himself the victor.THE MOTHER OF ALL BATTLES is a welcome addition to references about the 1991 war. As a participant of that campaign I was disappointed in the shallow amount of printed material available in the years immediately following the war. Most were either picture books or overviews devoted to discussing the changes in the US Army from Vietnam to DESERT STORM. Slowly more credible volumes, including General Frederick Franks' book INTO THE STORM (with Tom Clancy) appeared. THE MOTHER OF ALL BATTLES is one of the better books on the subject as it ignores much of the fluff revisited in earlier books. In reading this book I was amazed at Saddam Hussein's total disinterest in the events unfolding, as well as the cowardice of his military advisors who chose to parrot Hussein's fantasy world.

Although a long read, it will provide you a lot more information on Hussein and his regime than you've ever received via the media.Interesting disclosures on inside details of the Desert Storm battles.

An excellent insight into the Iraqi regime. Essential to getting a real understanding of the 1990-91 Kuwait war and its aftermath.