Definition of Recent U.S. Military Operations
Operation Urgent Fury (23 October - 21 November 1983) was the invasion of the island nation of Grenada by the United States, Canada, and several allied Caribbean nations with the objective of evacuating American students and at the same time to topple the regime of Bernard Coard, a pro-Soviet Communist dictator who had seized power earlier in October.
Operation Just Cause, was the December 1989 invasion of Panama by the United States to overthrow the government Manuel Noriega, who the U.S. accused of involvement with drug traffic between South America and the U.S. The safety of the Panama Canal, a strategic interest of the United States, and other factors contributed to the rationale for the invasion.
The term "Gulf War" refers to the period of time from 2 August 1990 when Iraqi forces invaded Kuwait to 27 February 1991 when a cease fire was declared. The term "Operation Desert Shield" refers to the period between 7 August 1990 when President Bush ordered U.S. forces to Saudi Arabia and 17 January 1991 when the coalition air campaign commenced. The term "Operation Desert Storm" refers to the period between 17 January and 27 February 1991.
Violence against ethnic Albanian civilians led to the 24 March 1999 NATO Operation Allied Force, with air strikes against targets in Serbia and Kosovo, to enforce demands on President Milosevic to end the repression.
After the 11 September 2001 attack on World Trade Center and on the Pentagon, the U.S. military waged war against terrorism worldwide. On 7 October 2001, an air campaign was begun to root out Osama bin Laden, the Al Qaeda network of terrorists and Taliban supporters from Afghanistan. the first actions of "Operation Enduring Freedom".
Under "Operation Iraqi Freedom", a U.S.-led coalition commenced action against Iraq on 19 March 2003 with several specific objectives: to end the regime of Saddam Hussein, eliminate Iraq's weapons of mass destruction, and to capture and drive out terrorists from Iraq. Coalition forces remain in Iraq in 2006: to help restore Iraq's degraded infrastructure, deliver humanitarian support, and to create conditions for a transition to a representative self-government for the Iraqi people.
| Military History -- Recent Conflicts |
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| Gulf War 1991 |
| Gulf War, 1991. A comprehensive site with Causes, Chronology, Results, Forces & Casualties, Commanders, Battles & Battle Honours, Order of Battle, Campaign Medals, Societies, Forums, Re-Enactors, Museums & Memorials, Bibliography, and External Links. |
| Gulfwar.com has a good listing of links about all phases of the war, its history, and the participants. |
| The Big Sandbox. Photos and stories from the Persian Gulf war. |
| Hoskinson's Gulf War Photo Gallery. A complete photo-illustrated history of the author's experiences in the First Cavalry Division during Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in Saudi Arabia, Iraq, and Kuwait from September 1990 to May 1991. |
| Desert-Storm.com is a site created by a student to honor those who participated in Operation Desert Storm. |
| Somalia |
| The Canadian Airborne Regiment -- A Soldier's Journals Somalia '93 . A ground level view of the peace keeping mission in Somalia and its tragic events. |
| Ambush in Mogidishu is a PBS Frontline report on the conflict in Somalia, the bloodiest fighting since Vietnam. |
| Afghanistan |
| High-desert Ambush: Hard Lessons Learned the Hard Way. Afghanistan is not Europe, yet the Soviet Army that occupied Afghanistan in late December 1979 was trained to fight NATO on the northern European plain. Consequently, the Soviet Army had to reequip, reform and retrain on-site to fight the insurgent mujahideen guerrillas. |
| Afghanistan and the Future of Warfare: Implications for Army and Defense Policy. In this monograph, Dr. Stephen Biddle, argues that Afghanistan offers important clues to warfare’s future, but not the ones most people think. The campaign of 2001-02 was a surprisingly orthodox air-ground theater campaign in which heavy fire support decided a contest between two land armies. The campaign also included new elements: precision firepower was available in unprecedented quantity and proved crucial for success while special operations forces served as the main effort in a theater of war. |
| Iraq 2003 and Later |
| CNN Special: The Iraq War. CNN covers the war, weapons and tactics on both sides, with text, photos and video. |
| Michael Yon's Frontline Forum. An alternative channel for compelling stories from those deployed in harm's way, the real stories about the ground situation. |
| Middle East Journal. Another alternative channel to the ground war in Iraq, this one by independent journalist Michael J. Totten. |
| General Resources |
| U.S. Military Deployments. This web page provides a table of U.S. Military Deployments/Engagements 1975-1997 from the evacuation of Saigon to Operation Silver Wake in Albania. It summarizes the forces used and the casualties in these operations and conflicts, many of which were little noted. |
