2nd August '91 in Frankfurt / Germany

I was 16 when one fine day the news channels all reported that Hussein is staging his Army close to the borders to Kuwait with the intention to hold some training... none of us really believed it.
Then it was official! He did invade Kuwait!
There where not a lot of pictures... at least I don't remember any! But we where all outraged!!
To be totally honest... I didn't even know about Kuwait or where it is before it was all over the news.
My school was very liberal and left wing... so when ever something happened that screamed for a demonstration ... most of our students where there screaming the loudest!
So we did go on the streets of Frankfurt and let everybody know that this is not OK...
What was our solution??? We where all hoping for some U.N. resolution that would force Iraq to withdraw. Very quickly it became obvious that the U.S. wanted to lead a coalition of various Armies into war to free Kuwait.

Please don't stone me for this, I was young and full of ideals, but I thought that this would be even more terrible then what the Iraqis did! We figured that the U.S. had no real reason to go there but to save the steady flow of oil and to strengthen their position in the middle east... (at least with this we where right).

Not that we didn't consider the Kuwaitis and the Expats suffering who where remaining in Kuwait (and even the ones that made it out of Kuwait and left family and home behind) but starting a war against the 4th or 5th biggest Army at that time seemed no option since many many more casualties on all sides would be the result. We seriously thought that it could be solved on a table with all parties sitting together and talking reasonable...


Then the U.S. lead coalition attacked... I still see those night shot pictures from Baghdad... I was glued to the T.V. in the middle of the night... I had the feeling that this will be the night when the Americans will attack, thats why I saw the first pictures on air! The next morning in school we where all super tired since we all called each other at night to switch on TV to see the attack. Big discussions broke out since the Iraqis showed pictures of civilian casualties and this was why we didn't want the war to break out in the first place! Again we where on the streets protesting: "NO BLOOD FOR OIL" ...

A lot of blood was shed... on all sides...

My country, Germany, stayed neutral at all times... at least in the news...
In fact we supported the Coalition Forces with logistics in Germany... gave them water treatment systems... water tanks... fuel... Ammunition... MONEY (shit loads in fact)... and we gave them a tank that can operate under chemical/biological and nuclear wasted environments.
It was scary to see what happened in Frankfurt Airport at that time... Hundreds of U.S. Air Force planes came and left to Saudi or Kuwait. i never seen so many military aircraft in my whole life!!
I seriously do not remember any pictures from Kuwait... only the 'Shock and Awe' pictures from CNN... and later the tanks moving towards Baghdad and the smart bombs hitting the AC shafts of buildings and stuff... but nothing about Kuwait... until... the burning oil fields!
That's when my mood swung and I thought that Saddam is a bigger son of a *%^& then I could have ever imagined!
Well ... I guess anyone writing about this time could go on and on about it ... specially the ones that where directly involved in it...

Just one more though.... Why the hell didn't they go all the way to Baghda to capture Saddam in 91/92?!? Why wait for another 11 years?!?