Persian Gulf War 1990-91

Canada deployed three naval vessels, 26 CF-18 fighter aircrafts, and 4,000 personnel to the Middle East during the first Gulf War. Canadians also oversaw a military headquarter in Bahrain.

Canada was among a handful of coalition members to engage its forces in combat. Initially part of a UN mandate, Canada’s military operations went beyond what the UN authorized. The UN resolution allowed for attacks against Iraqi establishments in Kuwait while the US-led forces bombed across Iraq.

Hawkish in the lead up to the conflict, Ottawa had little time or interest in waiting for sanctions or diplomacy to solve the crisis unleashed by Iraq’s invasion of Kuwait. George H. W. Bush wanted to deepen the US foothold in the region and Brian Mulroney’s Conservative government was prepared to contribute. The first Gulf War was largely designed to reverse the Middle East’s decolonization process—what Mark Curtis of Declassified UK described as the open “rehabilitation of colonialism and imperialism.”

Twenty-thousand Iraqi troops were killed and between 20,000 and 200,000 Iraqi civilians perished in the fighting. During the 1991 Gulf War aerial bombing campaign, the UN-sanctioned Coalition of the Gulf War dropped 88,500 tonnes of bombs over 100,000 sorties, demolishing military and civilian infrastructure. According to John Sweeney reporting to Media Lens, as a result of the campaign, over half of Iraq’s 20 power stations and over 100 substations were completely destroyed, while six major power stations suffered severe damage. By the end of the war, Iraq’s electricity production levels were at four percent of its pre-war levels, and its major dams, pumping stations, sewage treatment plants, telecommunications equipment, port facilities, and oil refineries were damaged—turning Iraq from one of the most advanced Arab countries into one of the most backward.