On Its 25th Anniversary, Why the First Gulf War Is Britain’s Forgotten Conflict

There’s something of a tendency in Britain to want to remember modern conflicts that can be presented as triumphs, disasters, or both.

British soldiers from the First Stafford, also known as the "Desert Rats," stand in a trench somewhere in Saudi desert, ready to attack during a live ammunition exercise, featuring the capture of an Iraqi positions, on Jan. 6, 1991. Patrick Baz/AFP/Getty Images

There’s something of a tendency in Britain to want to remember modern conflicts that—whatever else they may also be—can be presented as triumphs (such as World War II and the Falklands), disasters (which would certainly include Suez and Iraq), or conflicts so profound as to be both (World War I, pre-eminently).

It’s 25 years since Operation Granby, Britain’s contribution to Operation Desert Storm: the removal of Saddam Hussein’s Iraqi forces and the restoration of Jaber al-Ahmad al-Sabah as Emir. For many in this country at least—and despite its scale—the Gulf War is a “forgotten war.”

The Gulf War remains a war in which Britain played a role, but a war which has played less of a role in Britain.