Human Shields and the Gulf War

Abstract

Abstract From late August to early December 1990, Iraq held hundreds of Western and Japanese civilians at strategic sites as “human shields” against the Gulf War coalition. While there is a consensus that these foreign nationals would have influenced the coalition’s offensive had they not been released before the onset of hostilities, their impact remains poorly understood. This note draws on newly available archival records, among other sources, to throw new light on this old question. The record shows that leaders were reconciled with the prospect of hostage casualties and the expected political fallout. Military necessity and limited intelligence about the hostages’ whereabouts precluded avoiding every shielded target. At the same time, public opinion was divided on the hostage problem, especially in the United States. In response, leaders planned to take special precautionary measures and mount a rescue operation in Kuwait City. These measures, overall, appeared to exceed those employed for other targets, and exposed coalition forces to additional risks. US decision-makers may also have been motivated by the belief that proceeding undeterred could discourage others from resorting to the same stratagem in the future. The findings advance research on the Gulf War and the problem of human shields in war.