WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:03.660 The Highway of Death. It's a it's a phrase that 00:00:03.660 --> 00:00:06.620 even if you weren't, you know, glued to CNN in 00:00:06.620 --> 00:00:10.300 the early 90s, it probably conjures up a very 00:00:10.300 --> 00:00:13.199 specific, very grim mental image for you. Oh, 00:00:13.279 --> 00:00:15.619 absolutely. It's highly evocative and terrifying. 00:00:15.800 --> 00:00:18.620 Honestly, in Arabic, it's actually known as Eric 00:00:18.620 --> 00:00:22.250 Amalt. It is. Yeah. And for. For many people, 00:00:22.730 --> 00:00:24.789 the images that came out of this specific event, 00:00:24.989 --> 00:00:27.309 they didn't just document the war. They really 00:00:27.309 --> 00:00:29.929 defined the end of the Gulf War. Right. Like 00:00:29.929 --> 00:00:32.750 you're likely picturing miles of burned -out 00:00:32.750 --> 00:00:35.810 vehicles, twisted metal, and just this absolute 00:00:35.810 --> 00:00:38.450 devastation stretching out into the desert horizon. 00:00:38.689 --> 00:00:40.909 Exactly. I mean, it's basically the visual shorthand 00:00:40.909 --> 00:00:43.250 for total defeat. But today, on this deep dive, 00:00:43.310 --> 00:00:45.570 we're going to move past just the scary nickname 00:00:45.570 --> 00:00:47.429 and really look at what happened there. Because 00:00:47.429 --> 00:00:49.289 there's a lot more to it than just the photos. 00:00:49.469 --> 00:00:51.399 So much more. We're talking about the night of 00:00:51.399 --> 00:00:54.619 February 26th and 27th, 1991. And this was a 00:00:54.619 --> 00:00:56.859 massive attack by American, Canadian, British, 00:00:56.979 --> 00:01:00.000 and French forces on Iraqi personnel who were, 00:01:00.039 --> 00:01:02.079 well, they were retreating from Kuwait. And, 00:01:02.240 --> 00:01:04.719 you know, that word you just used, retreating, 00:01:05.439 --> 00:01:08.640 that is really the key to this entire discussion 00:01:08.640 --> 00:01:11.579 today. How so? Because our mission today isn't 00:01:11.579 --> 00:01:14.280 just to look at the military tactics, although... 00:01:14.000 --> 00:01:16.959 Frankly, they were devastatingly effective. Our 00:01:16.959 --> 00:01:19.239 goal is to understand the intersection of those 00:01:19.239 --> 00:01:22.099 tactics with international law and also media 00:01:22.099 --> 00:01:25.079 optics. Because this event sparked a huge debate, 00:01:25.579 --> 00:01:28.040 a debate that is literally still going on in 00:01:28.040 --> 00:01:31.439 military colleges today. Very much so. Was it 00:01:31.439 --> 00:01:34.560 a Turkey shoot? Was it a war crime? Or was it 00:01:34.560 --> 00:01:37.219 just a perfectly legitimate military victory? 00:01:37.500 --> 00:01:39.180 We've pulled a stack of sources here to look 00:01:39.180 --> 00:01:41.700 into this. We have historical records, witness 00:01:41.700 --> 00:01:43.579 accounts from journalists who actually walked 00:01:43.579 --> 00:01:45.959 the road, post -war studies. Yeah, we really 00:01:45.959 --> 00:01:47.840 want to unpack the details behind those famous 00:01:47.840 --> 00:01:49.859 photos for you. And I promise we will get to 00:01:49.859 --> 00:01:52.500 the why regarding the controversies that followed. 00:01:53.200 --> 00:01:55.599 But I think to understand the scale of this, 00:01:55.920 --> 00:01:58.239 we first need to understand the geography. Let's 00:01:58.239 --> 00:02:00.599 do it. We need to look at the trap itself. Because 00:02:00.599 --> 00:02:02.659 this wasn't just a battle. It was a bottleneck. 00:02:02.810 --> 00:02:06.129 OK, so let's set the scene for everyone. We are 00:02:06.129 --> 00:02:09.969 looking at Highway 80. This is a massive six 00:02:09.969 --> 00:02:12.409 -lane highway. A major piece of infrastructure. 00:02:12.530 --> 00:02:15.330 Yeah. Running from Kuwait city up to the border 00:02:15.330 --> 00:02:18.430 town of Safwan and then eventually on to Basra 00:02:18.430 --> 00:02:21.189 in Iraq. Correct. And during the August 1990 00:02:21.189 --> 00:02:24.110 invasion, this was the main artery the Iraqi 00:02:24.110 --> 00:02:26.770 armor divisions used to get into Kuwait. So it's 00:02:26.770 --> 00:02:29.870 their road of conquest. Exactly. Now, fast forward 00:02:29.870 --> 00:02:33.110 to February in 1991. And the tables have turned 00:02:33.110 --> 00:02:35.610 completely. The coalition air campaign has been 00:02:35.610 --> 00:02:37.849 just hammering them. The ground war has started, 00:02:37.889 --> 00:02:40.150 and now they're trying to get out. So it's the 00:02:40.150 --> 00:02:42.810 night of February 26. The Iraqis are leaving. 00:02:43.250 --> 00:02:45.490 And this is where the US Marine Corps' third 00:02:45.490 --> 00:02:48.250 Marine aircraft wing comes in. And honestly, 00:02:48.370 --> 00:02:50.389 looking at the sources, the tactic they used 00:02:50.389 --> 00:02:52.389 sounds like something out of a movie script. 00:02:52.530 --> 00:02:55.430 It does, but it's terrifyingly real when you 00:02:55.430 --> 00:02:57.610 think about the physics of it. It's a classic, 00:02:57.870 --> 00:03:00.889 if brutal, bottleneck maneuver. The Marines used 00:03:00.889 --> 00:03:04.229 A -6 intruder attack jets and their specific 00:03:04.229 --> 00:03:06.889 goal wasn't just to, you know, bomb the convoy 00:03:06.889 --> 00:03:08.310 randomly to cause damage. All right, they had 00:03:08.310 --> 00:03:11.050 a very specific target pattern. They intentionally 00:03:11.050 --> 00:03:13.030 targeted the head and the tail of the column. 00:03:13.409 --> 00:03:16.629 So they bombed the front vehicles to stop the 00:03:16.629 --> 00:03:19.009 forward movement and the back vehicles to stop 00:03:19.009 --> 00:03:21.449 the retreat. Exactly. They effectively put a 00:03:21.449 --> 00:03:23.430 cork in the bottle at both ends and they did 00:03:23.430 --> 00:03:27.750 this using Mk 20 Rock Eye 2nd cluster bombs. 00:03:28.240 --> 00:03:30.620 actually explain what those are because cluster 00:03:30.620 --> 00:03:33.139 bomb sounds bad on its own, but the mechanics 00:03:33.139 --> 00:03:35.560 are really specific. Yeah, it's an anti -armor 00:03:35.560 --> 00:03:39.699 weapon. The bomb casing opens up in midair and 00:03:39.699 --> 00:03:42.599 scatters hundreds of smaller bomblets. Like grenades. 00:03:42.780 --> 00:03:44.900 Think of them exactly like grenades. Yeah, scattered 00:03:44.900 --> 00:03:47.819 over a wide area. It is incredibly effective 00:03:47.819 --> 00:03:50.900 against soft targets like trucks, cars, and light 00:03:50.900 --> 00:03:53.610 armor. So by destroying the vehicles at the very 00:03:53.610 --> 00:03:55.610 front and the very back of this massive column 00:03:55.610 --> 00:03:59.150 on Highway 80, they created an enormous, inescapable 00:03:59.150 --> 00:04:01.569 traffic jam. They boxed the Iraqi forces in. 00:04:01.569 --> 00:04:03.909 They did. Which is just a nightmare scenario. 00:04:04.069 --> 00:04:06.150 You're on a highway, it's night, you can't move 00:04:06.150 --> 00:04:08.430 forward, you can't move back, and you're fully 00:04:08.430 --> 00:04:11.270 exposed on a massive six -lane road. And once 00:04:11.270 --> 00:04:14.620 that box was closed... The barrage really began. 00:04:14.840 --> 00:04:17.139 For the next 10 hours, you had a sustained attack. 00:04:17.339 --> 00:04:20.759 10 hours? Yes. We're talking U .S. Navy aircraft 00:04:20.759 --> 00:04:23.540 launching from the USS Ranger, the Air Force, 00:04:23.540 --> 00:04:26.839 and the Marines, all converging on this stuck 00:04:26.839 --> 00:04:30.240 column. It was a target -rich environment to 00:04:30.240 --> 00:04:32.699 use the military euphemism. And reading through 00:04:32.699 --> 00:04:34.800 the reports, it wasn't just air power either. 00:04:35.120 --> 00:04:38.439 Eventually, coalition ground units arrived and 00:04:38.439 --> 00:04:40.819 started engaging vehicles that had survived the 00:04:40.819 --> 00:04:43.040 airstrikes. That's right. And for the vehicles 00:04:43.040 --> 00:04:45.939 that did manage to evade the jam and somehow 00:04:45.939 --> 00:04:48.339 drive off -road into the desert to head north, 00:04:48.759 --> 00:04:51.420 they were targeted individually. Wow. But the 00:04:51.420 --> 00:04:53.639 focal point, you know, the image that everyone 00:04:53.639 --> 00:04:56.040 remembers, is near the Mutla Ridge Police Station. 00:04:56.279 --> 00:04:59.800 The Mile of Death. Yes. That specific bottleneck 00:04:59.800 --> 00:05:02.579 was reduced to a long uninterrupted line of more 00:05:02.579 --> 00:05:05.660 than 300 stuck and abandoned vehicles. Because 00:05:05.660 --> 00:05:07.540 of the ridge there, the vehicles physically couldn't 00:05:07.540 --> 00:05:09.680 get off the road. And when we look at the wreckage 00:05:09.680 --> 00:05:11.500 found there, it tells a really strange story 00:05:11.500 --> 00:05:14.220 about exactly who was in this convoy. It definitely 00:05:14.220 --> 00:05:15.779 complicates the narrative. Well, that's where 00:05:15.779 --> 00:05:17.360 it gets so interesting to me. It wasn't just 00:05:17.360 --> 00:05:19.180 military hardware. I mean, sure, there were at 00:05:19.180 --> 00:05:23.160 least 28 T -54s and T -55s, mostly. Right. And 00:05:23.160 --> 00:05:26.100 plenty of armored personnel carriers. But our 00:05:26.100 --> 00:05:28.339 sources say there were also commandeered civilian 00:05:28.339 --> 00:05:31.860 cars, limousines and literal city buses. And 00:05:31.860 --> 00:05:34.300 many of those civilian vehicles were filled with 00:05:34.300 --> 00:05:36.759 stolen Kuwaiti property. We're talking about 00:05:36.759 --> 00:05:39.839 washing machines, VCRs, expensive rugs, jewelry. 00:05:39.959 --> 00:05:42.319 I even read one report about a high -performance 00:05:42.319 --> 00:05:45.439 speedboat being towed on a trailer in the middle 00:05:45.439 --> 00:05:48.199 of a war zone retreat. I know. It paints a very 00:05:48.199 --> 00:05:50.660 chaotic picture. This wasn't just a disciplined 00:05:50.660 --> 00:05:53.620 military retreat. It was an occupation force 00:05:53.620 --> 00:05:56.639 fleeing with loot. Right. And that detail becomes 00:05:56.639 --> 00:05:59.259 very important later on when we discuss the justification 00:05:59.259 --> 00:06:01.800 for the attack. General Norman Schwarzkopf pointed 00:06:01.800 --> 00:06:03.939 to that loot specifically to argue that these 00:06:03.939 --> 00:06:06.180 weren't innocent conscripts. They were looters 00:06:06.180 --> 00:06:08.759 and criminals. OK, so that's Highway 80, the 00:06:08.759 --> 00:06:11.800 loot, the traffic jam, the sheer panic. But I 00:06:11.800 --> 00:06:13.420 was surprised to learn from our reading that 00:06:13.420 --> 00:06:15.279 there wasn't just one highway involved here. 00:06:15.639 --> 00:06:17.360 The Highway of Death label kind of gets applied 00:06:17.360 --> 00:06:20.160 to everything. But there's a second sector. Precisely. 00:06:20.500 --> 00:06:22.600 And this is a distinction that often gets lost 00:06:22.600 --> 00:06:25.240 in the general history. There is Highway 80, 00:06:25.439 --> 00:06:27.860 which we just discussed. But then there is Highway 00:06:27.860 --> 00:06:30.939 8. OK. This is the continuation of the road deep 00:06:30.939 --> 00:06:33.899 into Iraq. And the dynamic there was Quite different. 00:06:34.139 --> 00:06:36.740 Who was on Highway 8? Was it more looters? No, 00:06:36.740 --> 00:06:40.120 not at all. This was the elite force, the Iraqi 00:06:40.120 --> 00:06:42.899 Republican Guard's first armored division known 00:06:42.899 --> 00:06:45.160 as the Hammurabi Division. The heavy hitters. 00:06:45.459 --> 00:06:47.339 Exactly. They weren't dragging washing machines 00:06:47.339 --> 00:06:49.879 back to Baghdad. They were trying to redeploy 00:06:49.879 --> 00:06:52.899 their heavy armor to defend the regime. And the 00:06:52.899 --> 00:06:55.160 response to them was different than the traffic 00:06:55.160 --> 00:06:57.680 jam on Highway 80. It was. This was a much larger 00:06:57.680 --> 00:07:00.259 area of operation. They were engaged by U .S. 00:07:00.319 --> 00:07:03.290 artillery and a battalion of age 60. for Apache 00:07:03.290 --> 00:07:05.670 helicopters. This was under the command of General 00:07:05.670 --> 00:07:08.149 Barry McCaffrey. The source described it as a 00:07:08.149 --> 00:07:10.529 systematic destruction of vehicles over a 50 00:07:10.529 --> 00:07:12.449 -mile stretch. And this leads us to an incident 00:07:12.449 --> 00:07:14.790 that happened after the ceasefire, which I found 00:07:14.790 --> 00:07:17.810 really shocking, the Battle of Rumaila. Yes, 00:07:18.050 --> 00:07:20.310 and this is the event often referred to by critics 00:07:20.310 --> 00:07:23.730 as a turkey shoot. This took place on March 2nd. 00:07:23.930 --> 00:07:26.589 So days later. Right. The war had officially 00:07:26.589 --> 00:07:29.689 paused. A cessation of hostilities had been declared, 00:07:30.149 --> 00:07:32.810 but a large column of the remnants of that Hammurabi 00:07:32.810 --> 00:07:35.290 division was attempting to withdraw toward the 00:07:35.290 --> 00:07:38.050 Lake Hammer Causeway. So the war is technically 00:07:38.050 --> 00:07:40.569 over, or at least paused, and they are still 00:07:40.569 --> 00:07:42.769 fighting. Well, the U .S. forces argued that 00:07:42.769 --> 00:07:44.870 the Iraqis moved into a threatening formation. 00:07:45.570 --> 00:07:48.149 General McCaffrey's forces engaged them deep 00:07:48.149 --> 00:07:51.790 inside Iraqi territory and essentially obliterated 00:07:51.790 --> 00:07:54.569 the column. Obliterated is a strong word. It's 00:07:54.569 --> 00:07:57.050 the accurate one based on the sources. Hundreds 00:07:57.050 --> 00:07:59.610 of vehicles were destroyed. It was highly controversial 00:07:59.610 --> 00:08:01.149 because it happened when everyone thought the 00:08:01.149 --> 00:08:03.949 shooting had stopped. So we have these two massive 00:08:03.949 --> 00:08:06.949 scenes of destruction. Highway 80, the traffic 00:08:06.949 --> 00:08:09.389 jam near the border with the looters, and Highway 00:08:09.389 --> 00:08:11.990 8, the artillery and helicopter assault on the 00:08:11.990 --> 00:08:15.209 Republican Guard inside Iraq. Let's talk numbers 00:08:15.209 --> 00:08:17.230 now. Yes, let's look at the data. Because when 00:08:17.230 --> 00:08:20.250 you look at the photos, mile after mile of charred 00:08:20.250 --> 00:08:22.689 metal, you just assume thousands upon thousands 00:08:22.689 --> 00:08:25.810 of people died. And that is the aha moment for 00:08:25.810 --> 00:08:28.910 many people digging into this deep dive. The 00:08:28.910 --> 00:08:32.320 visuals. suggest a massacre of biblical proportions. 00:08:32.460 --> 00:08:35.779 If you see 2 ,000 burned cars, you naturally 00:08:35.779 --> 00:08:38.659 assume 2 ,000 to 5 ,000 bodies. Right. But when 00:08:38.659 --> 00:08:41.080 you look at the actual body counts, the story 00:08:41.080 --> 00:08:43.299 is much more complex. Let's break it down for 00:08:43.299 --> 00:08:46.139 everyone. In terms of hardware, the destruction 00:08:46.139 --> 00:08:49.519 was immense. We're talking between 1 ,400 and 00:08:49.519 --> 00:08:52.340 2 ,000 vehicles hit or abandoned just north of 00:08:52.340 --> 00:08:54.500 Al -Jarrah. The equipment loss was staggering. 00:08:54.779 --> 00:08:57.220 It effectively de -mechanized a huge chunk of 00:08:57.220 --> 00:08:59.960 the Iraqi army. Yeah. but the human toll. Yeah. 00:09:00.100 --> 00:09:02.200 That is where the huge discrepancy lies. Well, 00:09:02.259 --> 00:09:04.460 the British journalist Robert Fisk, who was one 00:09:04.460 --> 00:09:06.500 of the first on the scene, he describes seeing 00:09:06.500 --> 00:09:08.659 hundreds of corpses crammed into the wreckage 00:09:08.659 --> 00:09:11.480 or slumped in the sand. Yes. And then photojournalist 00:09:11.480 --> 00:09:14.480 Peter Turnley witnessed mass burials. He arrived 00:09:14.480 --> 00:09:16.960 the morning the war stopped and saw US military 00:09:16.960 --> 00:09:20.240 graves details burying bodies. He actually noted 00:09:20.240 --> 00:09:22.320 that he didn't see many photos of that aspect 00:09:22.320 --> 00:09:24.820 being published in the West. It's a grim picture. 00:09:25.480 --> 00:09:27.320 However, we have to balance those eyewitness 00:09:27.320 --> 00:09:29.460 accounts with the post -war forensic studies. 00:09:29.940 --> 00:09:33.100 A 2003 study by the Project on Defense Alternatives 00:09:33.100 --> 00:09:36.759 or PDA did a really deep dive into this data. 00:09:37.259 --> 00:09:39.620 They estimated that fewer than 10 ,000 people 00:09:39.850 --> 00:09:42.309 were actually in that main caravan on Highway 00:09:42.309 --> 00:09:44.789 80 to begin with. And their estimated death toll 00:09:44.789 --> 00:09:48.009 was surprisingly low compared to the visual destruction. 00:09:48.590 --> 00:09:51.750 They estimated between 200 and 1 ,000 deaths. 00:09:52.090 --> 00:09:54.090 Right. And some estimates are even lower than 00:09:54.090 --> 00:09:56.330 that. Journalist Michael Kelly wrote a famous 00:09:56.330 --> 00:09:58.549 piece where he essentially walked the length 00:09:58.549 --> 00:10:02.240 of the destruction. personally counted 37 bodies. 00:10:02.620 --> 00:10:05.600 Only 37. Yeah. Now, obviously, he couldn't see 00:10:05.600 --> 00:10:07.700 inside every tank or under every pile of debris, 00:10:07.700 --> 00:10:10.799 but it highlights the huge gap between perception 00:10:10.799 --> 00:10:14.559 and reality. The PDA suggests a minimum of 500 00:10:14.559 --> 00:10:17.720 to 600 deaths is a plausible baseline. So the 00:10:17.720 --> 00:10:20.059 big question you have to ask is, if 2000 vehicles 00:10:20.059 --> 00:10:22.200 were destroyed, where did the people go? Why 00:10:22.200 --> 00:10:24.789 weren't they in the cars? They ran. When the 00:10:24.789 --> 00:10:26.629 bombing started, and remember this attack lasted 00:10:26.629 --> 00:10:29.029 10 hours, most people didn't stay in their cars 00:10:29.029 --> 00:10:31.070 waiting to be hit. Yeah, that's just basic human 00:10:31.070 --> 00:10:33.950 instinct. Exactly. The moment the traffic stopped 00:10:33.950 --> 00:10:36.450 and the jets came in, they abandoned their vehicles 00:10:36.450 --> 00:10:39.370 and fled into the desert or into the nearby swamps. 00:10:39.669 --> 00:10:41.269 It makes total sense. If you're in a traffic 00:10:41.269 --> 00:10:43.429 jam and bombs start falling, you don't just stay 00:10:43.429 --> 00:10:45.809 sitting in the Honda Civic. No, you get out. 00:10:46.190 --> 00:10:48.690 And the sources say about 2000 of them were eventually 00:10:48.690 --> 00:10:51.549 captured by ground forces. Many surrendered later. 00:10:51.830 --> 00:10:53.850 Some died of wounds or exposure in the desert, 00:10:53.889 --> 00:10:56.909 unfortunately. But the vast majority of the occupants 00:10:56.909 --> 00:10:59.690 weren't vaporized in their seats. They scattered. 00:11:00.090 --> 00:11:02.470 Which brings us to the core tension of this deep 00:11:02.470 --> 00:11:06.789 dive, the controversy. We have a scene of absolute 00:11:06.789 --> 00:11:11.070 devastation. Was this a legitimate military victory 00:11:11.070 --> 00:11:13.549 or was it a war crime? This is a debate that 00:11:13.549 --> 00:11:15.950 started almost immediately. On one side, you 00:11:15.950 --> 00:11:18.389 had commentators and human rights organizations 00:11:18.389 --> 00:11:20.809 arguing that this was a disproportionate use 00:11:20.809 --> 00:11:23.269 of force. They pointed out that the Iraqis were 00:11:23.269 --> 00:11:24.990 retreating. And they argued that by retreating, 00:11:24.990 --> 00:11:28.029 they were complying with UN Resolution 660, which 00:11:28.029 --> 00:11:31.309 had demanded they leave Kuwait. Exactly. The 00:11:31.309 --> 00:11:34.029 argument essentially was, we told them to leave, 00:11:34.370 --> 00:11:36.149 they are leaving, and we are shooting them in 00:11:36.149 --> 00:11:39.570 the back. It felt to critics like a betrayal 00:11:39.570 --> 00:11:42.929 of the diplomatic offer. There are also allegations 00:11:42.929 --> 00:11:45.129 regarding the composition of the column itself. 00:11:45.269 --> 00:11:47.509 Right, the civilian vehicles? As we mentioned, 00:11:47.649 --> 00:11:49.889 there were civilian cars. Critics argued there 00:11:49.889 --> 00:11:52.529 were Kuwaiti hostages and civilian refugees mixed 00:11:52.529 --> 00:11:54.610 in there. I read something in the sources about 00:11:54.610 --> 00:11:57.029 Palestinian families being in the convoy too. 00:11:57.429 --> 00:12:00.190 Yes. Reports suggested the convoy included family 00:12:00.190 --> 00:12:03.250 members of PLO -Lion Palestinian militants and 00:12:03.250 --> 00:12:06.210 Kuwaiti collaborators. They were fleeing because 00:12:06.210 --> 00:12:08.769 they feared retribution from the returning Kuwaiti 00:12:08.769 --> 00:12:11.590 authorities. So the core argument against the 00:12:11.590 --> 00:12:14.129 attack was that you had women and children mixed 00:12:14.129 --> 00:12:16.110 in with the soldiers. And then you have the legal 00:12:16.110 --> 00:12:18.470 argument. Former U .S. Attorney General Ramsey 00:12:18.470 --> 00:12:21.190 Clark was very vocal about this. He argued it 00:12:21.190 --> 00:12:23.950 violated the Third Geneva Convention. Specifically 00:12:23.950 --> 00:12:27.049 Article 3. That prohibits killing soldiers who 00:12:27.049 --> 00:12:29.470 are owed to combat. which is a French term meaning 00:12:29.470 --> 00:12:32.230 out of combat. Okay. Clark argued that because 00:12:32.230 --> 00:12:33.990 they were running away, they were functionally 00:12:33.990 --> 00:12:36.110 out of the fight. But the military and other 00:12:36.110 --> 00:12:38.789 legal experts strongly disagree with that interpretation. 00:12:39.409 --> 00:12:41.090 This seems to be where the layman's view and 00:12:41.090 --> 00:12:43.929 the legal view really clash. They clash heavily. 00:12:44.330 --> 00:12:46.289 And this is a critical nuance in international 00:12:46.289 --> 00:12:49.710 law. Under the Geneva Protocol 1, being in a 00:12:49.710 --> 00:12:52.490 state of retreat is explicitly considered a military 00:12:52.490 --> 00:12:55.509 action. It is a tactical maneuver. So strictly 00:12:55.509 --> 00:12:57.889 speaking, running away doesn't mean you surrender. 00:12:58.289 --> 00:13:00.429 Exactly. Think about it strategically. An army 00:13:00.429 --> 00:13:03.990 retreats to regroup, to rearm, and to fight again 00:13:03.990 --> 00:13:06.350 on better ground. Right. To be considered hors 00:13:06.350 --> 00:13:09.009 de combat, you must be in the power of the adverse 00:13:09.009 --> 00:13:11.389 party, express a clear intention to surrender, 00:13:11.789 --> 00:13:14.950 or be incapacitated by wounds. Simply attempting 00:13:14.950 --> 00:13:17.509 to escape retreating to fight another day does 00:13:17.509 --> 00:13:20.100 not remove your status. as a legitimate target. 00:13:20.399 --> 00:13:22.240 General Norman Schwarzkopf was pretty blunt about 00:13:22.240 --> 00:13:24.539 this when he was asked about it later. Very blunt. 00:13:24.759 --> 00:13:27.740 In 1995, he defended the decision rigorously. 00:13:28.220 --> 00:13:31.200 He gave two main reasons. First, military necessity. 00:13:31.639 --> 00:13:33.379 He pointed out that there was a massive amount 00:13:33.379 --> 00:13:35.860 of military equipment on that highway. Tanks, 00:13:36.320 --> 00:13:38.940 artillery, things that win wars. Right. And his 00:13:38.940 --> 00:13:41.919 orders were to destroy every piece of Iraqi equipment 00:13:41.919 --> 00:13:44.740 possible so it couldn't be used to threaten Kuwait 00:13:44.740 --> 00:13:46.919 or Saudi Arabia again. Basically, if you let 00:13:46.919 --> 00:13:49.950 them go today, You have to fight those exact 00:13:49.950 --> 00:13:52.889 same tanks again in six months. Precisely. And 00:13:52.889 --> 00:13:55.649 the second reason he gave. He pushed back hard 00:13:55.649 --> 00:13:58.129 on the innocent victim narrative. He called them 00:13:58.129 --> 00:14:00.629 a bunch of rapists, murderers and thugs who had 00:14:00.629 --> 00:14:02.929 pillaged Kuwait city and were just trying to 00:14:02.929 --> 00:14:06.169 escape justice. He pointed to all that loot on 00:14:06.169 --> 00:14:09.049 the trucks as proof that this wasn't just a sad 00:14:09.049 --> 00:14:11.940 group of conscripts, but criminals. So on one 00:14:11.940 --> 00:14:14.179 hand, you have the compliance argument. They 00:14:14.179 --> 00:14:16.320 were leaving, as told. On the other, you have 00:14:16.320 --> 00:14:18.779 the military necessity argument. You simply don't 00:14:18.779 --> 00:14:21.360 let an enemy army escape with their tanks. It's 00:14:21.360 --> 00:14:24.500 a brutal logic, but is the logic of war. However, 00:14:24.960 --> 00:14:27.679 beyond the airstrikes themselves, There are darker 00:14:27.679 --> 00:14:29.820 allegations we have to mention, specifically 00:14:29.820 --> 00:14:32.059 the reporting by Seymour Hirsch. Right. I saw 00:14:32.059 --> 00:14:34.019 this in the notes. This was a specific incident 00:14:34.019 --> 00:14:36.379 involving a U .S. Bradley fighting vehicle platoon. 00:14:36.500 --> 00:14:38.019 So this wasn't about bombs from the sky. This 00:14:38.019 --> 00:14:41.580 was down at ground level. Yes. Hirsch alleged, 00:14:41.980 --> 00:14:45.299 citing American witnesses, that on February 27th, 00:14:45.240 --> 00:14:48.080 A platoon opened fire on a group of more than 00:14:48.080 --> 00:14:51.879 350 disarmed Iraqi soldiers who had actually 00:14:51.879 --> 00:14:54.460 surrendered at a makeshift checkpoint. Now, that 00:14:54.460 --> 00:14:57.700 would definitely be a war crime, if true. Shooting 00:14:57.700 --> 00:15:00.740 surrendered prisoners is a clear red line. If 00:15:00.740 --> 00:15:03.419 true, absolutely. But we have to clearly note 00:15:03.419 --> 00:15:06.730 that this was heavily disputed. The U .S. military 00:15:06.730 --> 00:15:08.990 intelligence personnel who were there claimed 00:15:08.990 --> 00:15:11.370 they were fired upon by the Iraqis first, and 00:15:11.370 --> 00:15:14.590 the Bradleys simply returned fire. And journalist 00:15:14.590 --> 00:15:17.289 Georgi Angeir heavily criticized Hirsch's article, 00:15:17.669 --> 00:15:19.629 stating there was no real proof and that official 00:15:19.629 --> 00:15:21.730 military investigations completely dismissed 00:15:21.730 --> 00:15:24.539 the charges. It really shows how the fog of war 00:15:24.539 --> 00:15:26.500 isn't just about what happens on the battlefield. 00:15:26.879 --> 00:15:29.100 It's about how history gets written afterwards. 00:15:29.720 --> 00:15:31.779 It's incredibly hard to know the absolute truth 00:15:31.779 --> 00:15:34.460 of a specific skirmish 30 years later. Speaking 00:15:34.460 --> 00:15:36.519 of how history is written, we really can't ignore 00:15:36.519 --> 00:15:38.860 the political impact of these images. We talked 00:15:38.860 --> 00:15:40.679 earlier about the highway of death becoming a 00:15:40.679 --> 00:15:43.419 powerful symbol. Yeah, sources suggest that those 00:15:43.419 --> 00:15:46.419 very scenes of devastation were a major factor 00:15:46.419 --> 00:15:49.379 in President George H .W. Bush's decision to 00:15:49.379 --> 00:15:52.539 declare a cessation of hostilities the very next 00:15:52.539 --> 00:15:54.960 day. It's what's often called the CNN effect. 00:15:55.559 --> 00:15:58.399 Time magazine noted that while polls showed American 00:15:58.399 --> 00:16:00.679 support for the war remained high, the pictures 00:16:00.679 --> 00:16:03.159 were sickening to many people. Right. There was 00:16:03.159 --> 00:16:05.700 a genuine fear in the White House that if the 00:16:05.700 --> 00:16:08.620 slaughter continued to be broadcast, public support 00:16:08.620 --> 00:16:10.629 would crumble. and the international coalition 00:16:10.629 --> 00:16:13.159 would fracture. It's fascinating to think that 00:16:13.159 --> 00:16:15.879 the appearance of the victory, the sheer visual 00:16:15.879 --> 00:16:18.639 brutality of it captured on film, might have 00:16:18.639 --> 00:16:21.019 actually stopped the war sooner than the tactical 00:16:21.019 --> 00:16:23.460 situation dictated. They easily could have kept 00:16:23.460 --> 00:16:25.820 going to Baghdad, but the optics were just too 00:16:25.820 --> 00:16:28.860 bad. Exactly. And that leads us to how this event 00:16:28.860 --> 00:16:31.519 has permeated pop culture. It's not just debated 00:16:31.519 --> 00:16:33.679 in history books. It's all over our media. Oh, 00:16:33.679 --> 00:16:36.460 totally. If you've seen the movie Jarhead, there's 00:16:36.460 --> 00:16:38.799 that incredibly haunting scene where the Marines 00:16:38.799 --> 00:16:42.000 are walking through the destruction. oil wells, 00:16:42.399 --> 00:16:45.360 the charred bodies in the cars. That is explicitly 00:16:45.360 --> 00:16:48.179 the highway of death. And in literature too, 00:16:48.460 --> 00:16:51.340 Ayn Banks's novel Complicity uses the imagery 00:16:51.340 --> 00:16:54.860 of the Basra Road. It became this touchstone 00:16:54.860 --> 00:16:58.139 for modern mechanized destruction, a stark look 00:16:58.139 --> 00:17:00.299 at what happens when advanced technology meets 00:17:00.299 --> 00:17:02.529 a trapped enemy. But here's where it gets really 00:17:02.529 --> 00:17:04.269 interesting and controversial in the gaming world. 00:17:04.549 --> 00:17:06.990 Did you hear about the Call of Duty controversy? 00:17:07.150 --> 00:17:10.190 The 2019 game Modern Warfare. Yes, this is a 00:17:10.190 --> 00:17:12.230 huge issue. So for you listening who might not 00:17:12.230 --> 00:17:15.230 be gamers in that game, there is a level literally 00:17:15.230 --> 00:17:18.349 called the Highway of Death. It depicts a strikingly 00:17:18.349 --> 00:17:21.009 similar event in a fictional Middle Eastern country. 00:17:21.609 --> 00:17:24.369 And the visual fidelity is incredible. It looks 00:17:24.369 --> 00:17:28.210 exactly like the 1991 photos. But and this is 00:17:28.210 --> 00:17:31.319 a huge. but the game attributes the attack to 00:17:31.319 --> 00:17:33.880 Russian forces. Right. They took a distinct historical 00:17:33.880 --> 00:17:36.579 event carried out by American and coalition forces 00:17:36.579 --> 00:17:39.460 and in the game's narrative pinned it on the 00:17:39.460 --> 00:17:41.680 Russians to make them the clear villains. That 00:17:41.680 --> 00:17:44.500 caused a massive backlash. Unsurprisingly so. 00:17:44.839 --> 00:17:47.440 It was widely accused of historical revisionism. 00:17:47.740 --> 00:17:50.059 You had players and critics pointing out that 00:17:50.059 --> 00:17:52.920 it was rewriting history to blame Russia for 00:17:52.920 --> 00:17:55.900 a highly controversial U .S. attack. Just goes 00:17:55.900 --> 00:17:58.680 to show how powerful the name and the imagery 00:17:58.680 --> 00:18:01.900 of the Highway of Death still are. Decades later, 00:18:01.940 --> 00:18:04.019 it's still an active battleground for narrative. 00:18:04.240 --> 00:18:06.420 It's wild. We've gone from a tactical traffic 00:18:06.420 --> 00:18:09.960 jam in 1991 to a political flash point all the 00:18:09.960 --> 00:18:13.140 way to a video game controversy almost 30 years 00:18:13.140 --> 00:18:15.160 later. It connects right back to what we established 00:18:15.160 --> 00:18:18.170 at the start. This event is entirely about the 00:18:18.170 --> 00:18:21.289 intersection of tactics, law, and optics. So 00:18:21.289 --> 00:18:23.170 let's wrap this up. Looking at all the sources, 00:18:23.549 --> 00:18:25.450 what are the key takeaways here? Well, tactically, 00:18:25.609 --> 00:18:28.490 it was a devastating success. The coalition forces 00:18:28.490 --> 00:18:31.369 effectively trapped and neutralized a significant 00:18:31.369 --> 00:18:33.970 portion of the Iraqi military's equipment. They 00:18:33.970 --> 00:18:35.690 stopped the Republican Guard from escaping with 00:18:35.690 --> 00:18:37.869 their heavy armor, which likely made the entire 00:18:37.869 --> 00:18:40.259 region safer in the short term. But visually 00:18:40.259 --> 00:18:42.720 and morally, it created a situation that looked 00:18:42.720 --> 00:18:45.579 indistinguishable from a massacre, raising serious 00:18:45.579 --> 00:18:47.980 questions about proportionality that we are still 00:18:47.980 --> 00:18:51.430 debating today. Exactly. It perfectly highlights 00:18:51.430 --> 00:18:54.890 the tension between the cold logic of war, which 00:18:54.890 --> 00:18:57.190 is destroying the enemy's capacity to fight, 00:18:57.569 --> 00:19:00.329 and the visceral horror of seeing the actual 00:19:00.329 --> 00:19:03.230 results of that logic piled up on a six -lane 00:19:03.230 --> 00:19:05.509 highway. And it serves as a stark reminder that 00:19:05.509 --> 00:19:08.029 retreat doesn't always mean safe. That is the 00:19:08.029 --> 00:19:11.069 hard lesson. In modern warfare, until you have 00:19:11.069 --> 00:19:13.569 formally and clearly surrendered, you are an 00:19:13.569 --> 00:19:15.809 active target. I want to leave you all with a 00:19:15.809 --> 00:19:18.269 thought to mull over. We live in an era where 00:19:18.269 --> 00:19:21.589 images of war are broadcast instantly, even faster 00:19:21.589 --> 00:19:24.609 than they were on CNN in 1991. The highway of 00:19:24.609 --> 00:19:26.190 death might have hastened the end of the Gulf 00:19:26.190 --> 00:19:28.230 War simply because the images were too much for 00:19:28.230 --> 00:19:30.109 the public to stomach. So the real question moving 00:19:30.109 --> 00:19:33.230 forward is this. In modern warfare, how much 00:19:33.230 --> 00:19:35.390 does the appearance of a victory matter compared 00:19:35.390 --> 00:19:38.279 to the military reality of it? If a tactic is 00:19:38.279 --> 00:19:40.700 entirely legal and highly effective, but looks 00:19:40.700 --> 00:19:43.480 horrific on Instagram or TikTok, can a modern 00:19:43.480 --> 00:19:46.599 military actually afford to use it? Or did the 00:19:46.599 --> 00:19:49.319 camera ultimately decide when the war ends? It's 00:19:49.319 --> 00:19:50.859 definitely something to think about next time 00:19:50.859 --> 00:19:53.359 you scroll through your news feed. Thanks for 00:19:53.359 --> 00:19:56.259 joining us on this deep dive into the real story 00:19:56.259 --> 00:19:58.480 behind the Highway of Death. We'll catch you 00:19:58.480 --> 00:19:59.059 on the next one.