Sunday 20 May 2012

Victory in Kuwait - First Gulf War

Today dated Wednesday 27th February 1991
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Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi Forces invaded the neighbouring country of Kuwait on the 2nd of August 1990 and the UN Security Council brought immediate economic sanctions against Iraq. President George H. W. Bush sent American forces to Saudi Arabia and soon 30 other countries, including the UK, joined the Coalition and also sent troops. The scene was set for the 1st Gulf War.

The action to expel the Iraqi from Kuwait began on the 17th January 1991 with an aerial bombardment followed by ground troops crossing into Kuwait from Saudi on the 23rd February. Between the 24th and 28th Operation Desert Sabre cleared Kuwait of Iraqis and pursued the retreating forces to within 150 miles of Baghdad, then President Bush made the decision that the Coalition’s objectives has been achieved and declared a ceasefire. The War officially ended on the 28th February 1991.

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Bush Senior’s decision not to carry on into Baghdad and topple Saddam Hussein seemed to have been based on a reluctance “to go get bogged down in the problems of trying to take over and govern Iraq”. Maybe he should have sat George W on his lap and explained what invading Iraq would lead to.
The United States hoped that Saddam Hussein would be overthrown by an internal coup, and the CIA used its influence in Iraq to organise a revolt, but it failed.

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From my own experience of what comes out of office coffee machines I am surprised it only took 3 cups for Michael Parkinson to realise he was drinking bleach and not strong white with extra sugar.

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Madonna and Andrew Lloyd Webber. The Beauty and the Beast. You decide which is which.

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Christian Brando, the eldest son of film star Marlon Brando, had shot and killed his stepsister’s boyfriend, Dag Drollet, in 1990. He claimed it was an accident but was finally charged with manslaughter. It would have been murder but the only witness, stepsister Cheyenne Brando, had been sent to an asylum in Tahiti by father Marlon and couldn’t be extradited.
The trial ended with Christian getting 10 years of which he served 5. Cheyenne committed suicide in 1995.
Christian was also implicated in the murder of film actor Robert Blake’s wife in 2001. He died of pneumonia in 2008 at the age of 49.

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Wrong. The Poll Tax or Community Charge introduced by Mrs Thatcher’s Government was scraped by John Major’s and replaced by the Council Tax, which was really the old Rates system under another name, and no-one minded except Nicholas Ridley.

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Apart from the obvious ‘if it’s too good to be true then it isn’t’ adage there are a couple of things that worry me about this advert. Does the alternative prize of £5000 cash imply that the house is only worth £5000? In 1991 that would have bought you a caravan. ‘Half an hour from the West End and City’ by what? Concorde? That could put the house in the middle of the Atlantic. A closing date 10 months hence – plenty of time to forget you parted with £9 and never heard another thing. Or am I being too cynical? Again.

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Now this is more like it! A New York apartment for $1? Probably overlooking Central Park. Woody Allen across the hall. Robert DeNiro 2 floors above. Where do I sign up?




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