ABSTRACT
On August 2, 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, largely in order to control that nation's oil supply. The United States and a coalition of international allies immediately began preparations to defend Kuwait. By February 28, after a sustained bombing campaign and just a few days of ground operations, the Iraqis had been pushed out of Kuwait. This conflict became known as the Gulf War, the Persian Gulf War, or, eventually, the First Iraq War. The Iraq War initially caught the American public's attention through events like the kidnapping and rescue of Jessica Lynch in 2003, which fore grounded the presence of women serving in the military, and the torture of Iraqis revealed through the photographs leaked from Abu Ghraib prison in 2004. In 2012, Kevin Powers, who served as a machine gunner in Iraq in 2004 and 2005, published the award-winning novel The Yellow Birds.
