Operation Desert Storm demonstrated that a technologically-advanced military, able to choose the time and place of the attack, has an enormous advantage over an entrenched, but militarily backwards, enemy. This is especially true when the battlefield does not offer an environment suited to guerrilla hit-and-run tactics.
Add to the equation a massive edge in intelligence, overwhelming air superiority, and disinformation schemes which worked flawlessly, and the result is one of the most complete military victories in world history.
Then, with the Allied Armies advancing rapidly upon Baghdad, the politicians stepped in·and geopolitical practicalities took precedence over pure military strategies. Who knows, had the Allied forces overrun Baghdad in 1991 and removed the Iraqi leadership from power… perhaps there would never have had to be a Second Gulf War a decade later…
