Wednesday, February 28, 2001

By Jon R. Anderson
Stars and Stripes

Jon R. Anderson / Stars and Stripes The 1st Cavalry Division is a regular contributor to forces in Kuwait, for regular exercises like these manuevers near the Iraqi border last weekend as well as for what troops have dubbed the Annual Spool Ex to Kuwait in times of tension.

CAMP DOHA, Kuwait — Sgt. William Jacobson has been to Kuwait three times in the seven years he’s been in the Army. The first time was in 1993, which was also the first time the United States fired shots in anger against Iraq since its 1991 war to liberate Kuwait.

The next time came in 1996. Again, Iraq was threatening Kuwait and the United States was rushing thousands of troops into the region.

Now, Jacobson is here for the latest standoff with Iraq and as international goodwill for sanctions continues to erode, the United States continues its low-grade air war with four air strikes in as many weeks.

"Coming to Kuwait has become so routine it almost seems like a National Training Center rotation," said Jacobson, part of the Fort Hood, Texas-based 1st Cavalry Division contingent that has been here in Kuwait for the past two months.

Indeed, the United States has been rotating at least a battalion of troops through Kuwait since the war’s end, but as Jacobson has seen all too often, tensions rise and U.S. troops suddenly find themselves surging into the Kuwaiti desert.

In fact, commanders and soldiers alike have grown to call the perennial flashups the "Annual Spool Exercise," or just Spool Ex.

"With the air strikes and spool exercises, it almost seems like the war never ended," Jacobson said.

That’s hard to argue with. From the day Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait, the military has been forced to surge in and out of the region literally every year.

Here’s a rundown:

• August 1990: Saddam Hussein invades Kuwait. Within two weeks, the U.S. Army has deployed a battalion of 82nd Airborne Division paratroopers to Saudi Arabia, the first of what would become a more than 500,000-strong force in the region in what becomes known as Operation Desert Shield.

• January 1991: With Iraq refusing United Nations demands to withdraw from Kuwait, the United States and a massive international military coalition launch Operation Desert Storm, a six-week air campaign followed by a 100-hour ground war that ends with Iraq defeated on Feb. 28.

• April 1991: Saddam Hussein crushes a Kurdish rebellion in northern Iraq. Thousands of refugees flee to Turkey and the U.S. military responds with a massive relief operation dubbed Provide Comfort.

• August 1992: Iraq challenges coalition warplanes that are for the first time enforcing the southern no-fly zone. The United States responds by dispatching a contingent of 1st Cavalry soldiers to Kuwait falling in on pre-positioned war stocks there.

• January 1993: Iraqi troops surge along their southern border with Kuwait and the 1st Cavalry division again responds with a brigade of troops on land, backed by an aircraft carrier battle group off the coast. For the first time since the war, warships in the Gulf launch cruise missiles at targets in Iraq.

• June 1993: Another salvo of Tomahawk missiles is launched against Iraq after U.S. intelligence confirms Saddam Hussein tried to assassinate former President George Bush during a visit to Kuwait earlier in the year.

• October 1994: Iraq again masses troops, including two divisions of Republican Guards, along the Kuwaiti border. Under what becomes known as Operation Vigilant Warrior, the United States responds by deploying a heavy brigade from the 24th Infantry Division, an aircraft carrier and Air Force strike fighters into the region.

• September 1995: Detecting signs of another Iraqi muster, the United States launches Operation Vigilant Sentinel, again pouring thousands of troops into Kuwait and extending an aircraft carrier’s tour in the gulf.

• October 1996: With Saddam making incursions into Kurdish camps to the north, the United States sends a barrage of cruise missiles into the south in what is called Operation Desert Strike. An aircraft carrier, a brigade of 1st Cavalry Division soldiers and Air Force strike fighters also reinforce troops already in the region until tensions cool.

• February 1997: This time called Operation Desert Thunder, the United States goes to a war footing again around Iraq as tensions skyrocket over weapons inspections. With United Nations and Arab neighbors strongly condemning would-be air strikes, Operation Desert Lightning is called off.

• December 1998: Iraq refuses to allow United Nations weapons inspectors access to key facilities. The United States launches Operation Desert Fox — three days of air and cruise missile strikes — as a brigade of 3rd Infantry Division troops deploys from Fort Stewart, Ga., to the Iraqi border, supported by an aircraft carrier and Air Force warplanes.

Since Desert Fox, the United States has decided to keep the pressure on Iraq through a low-level air war that has seen strikes on a weekly basis. In fact, strikes have become so routine that most barely garner a mention in newspapers and broadcasts.

In the last year alone, there have been a total of 77 air strikes split evenly between the northern and southern no-fly zones. That’s more than six every month.

Typically, officials say, U.S. and British warplanes attack Iraqi sites only when they are targeted by air-defense radars or actually shot at by ground gunners and surface-to-air missiles.

But on Feb. 16 in the largest strike since Desert Fox, warplanes — about two dozen strike fighters — went after command-and-control bunkers around Baghdad. Whether military officials had run out of Desert (fill in the blank) titles for the operation or wanted to downplay the significance of the raids, the strikes were not given a name.

But while Pentagon and U.S. Central Command officials were quick to describe the attack as part of "routine enforcement of the southern no-fly zone," the strikes also were the first since Desert Fox that required presidential approval.

Clearly, Iraq has been probing the resolve of the new administration. Since President George W. Bush was sworn into office, the United States has responded with force 10 times to Iraqi targeting or attacks, including twice in one day on Jan. 28.

The latest, on Feb. 22, involved raids against Iraqi radar sites around the northern city of Mosul, according to the U.S. European Command, which manages the northern no-fly zone.

Many troops say they’re frustrated. For some, it’s the fact that U.S. forces didn’t "go in and finish the job," as many put it, when coalition forces were within striking distance of Baghdad before the ground war was called off and victory declared. For others, it’s been the hollowness of that victory in the 10 years since.

Over and over again, it seems, Saddam has yanked a chain, and over and over again, the United States has jumped.

Top leaders, however, say that at least Saddam Hussein has been contained, cut off from rebuilding his army through United Nations sanctions and kept in check through the daily no-fly-zone patrols in both the north and south of the country.

"No, I’m not really frustrated," said Col. David Lamm, commander of Army forces in Kuwait. "Sure we’ve had the Spool Exes, but the training here is better than anywhere else in the world."

Even this latest round of tension does little to faze the troops here.

"We saw the planes going over,"said Spc. Daniel Gilbert, a mechanic with the 1st Cavalry Division contingent here, talking about the strikes last week. "But we see that every day. The troops here only found out that strikes had happened that afternoon, when they saw it on the news.

"It was kind of a shocker."

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