The Gulf crisis of 1990–1991 marked a new chapter in the long story of the Australian peace movement. Given the brevity of the crisis— less than eight months elapsed between Iraq's invasion of Kuwait on August 2, 1990, and the expulsion of Saddam Hussein's forces from that country in late February 1991—opposition within Australia to the use of military force to resolve the conflict was surprisingly quick to develop and unprecedentedly large. Rarely if ever has the peace movement been able to mount a campaign as coordinated and well informed, and embracing so many groups, as readily as it did during the summer of 1990–1991. During the weeks between early December 1990 and late February 1991, when the Gulf crisis became the Gulf War and Operation Desert Shield became Operation Desert Storm, the peace movement aroused tens of thousands of people to demonstrate their opposition to the war and posed the threat that hundreds of thousands of Australians would declare themselves against the conflict if it continued much longer.