The Myth of Air Power in the Persian Gulf War and the Future of Warfare

Abstract

The coalition victory over Iraq in the 1991 Persian Gulf War was a historic rout. According to the conventional wisdom, the use of air power—primarily by the United States—assured the coalition's unparalleled success. Daryl Press of Dartmouth College takes a different view. Using detailed evidence from the four-day ground campaign, Press concludes that air power was "neither sufficient nor necessary" in defeating Iraq and that "its role has been exaggerated and misunderstood." Press argues that other factors, including the overwhelming superiority of U.S. and British ground troops in both training and equipment and Iraq's poor timing of the invasion of Kuwait, better explain the lopsided outcome.