If there were ever a lesson to be learned from the West's history of egging on and abandoning military commitments, it would be in the city of Nasiriyah, Iraq. In the leadup to the First Gulf War, George H.W. Bush publicly told the citizens of Iraq to form militias and fight against Sadaam Hussein, and the US military would support them. That's just what a large force of Shi'ite militants did. The Ba'ath Party violently suppressed this force while the US military used the revolt as cover for their evacuation to Kuwait after Gulf War hostilities had ended. Estimates for deaths during the revolt and subsequent suppressions range in the hundreds of thousands.
This would come back to bite the US when Marines approached Nasiriyah during the Iraq War(2003), expecting light Ba'ath Party resistance. Instead, they found a population of angry Shi'ites willing to fight the Americans in retribution for their military abandonment a decade prior.
Another prime Lucy-with-the-football moment from western military powers.
If there were ever a lesson to be learned from the West's history of egging on and abandoning military commitments, it would be in the city of Nasiriyah, Iraq. In the leadup to the First Gulf War, George H.W. Bush publicly told the citizens of Iraq to form militias and fight against Sadaam Hussein, and the US military would support them. That's just what a large force of Shi'ite militants did. The Ba'ath Party violently suppressed this force while the US military used the revolt as cover for their evacuation to Kuwait after Gulf War hostilities had ended. Estimates for deaths during the revolt and subsequent suppressions range in the hundreds of thousands.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Iraqi_uprisings#U.S._radio_broadcasts
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1991_Iraqi_uprisings#U.S._non-intervention_controversy
This would come back to bite the US when Marines approached Nasiriyah during the Iraq War(2003), expecting light Ba'ath Party resistance. Instead, they found a population of angry Shi'ites willing to fight the Americans in retribution for their military abandonment a decade prior.
Another prime Lucy-with-the-football moment from western military powers.