ABSTRACT
The year 1991, marked by defeat in the Gulf War and by civil war, was the most turbulent year in the history of modern Iraq. Aware of his military inferiority vis-a-vis Allied air power, Husayn relied on a combination of political moves and propaganda in order to divide the Allied coalition from within and create public pressures in the West to end the war. Husayn’s defeat elicited a mass uprising during March 1991 by the long-oppressed Shi‘is in the south and Kurds in the north. Husayn’s major strategy after the war was to bide for time during the Allied withdrawal from Iraq, in order to overcome the external and internal challenges to his rule. Iraq intensified its efforts to mend fences with Iran in preparation for the military conflict.
