Secondary Source
“Back in 1991, the Berlin Wall had fallen, the Soviet Union had vanished, and World War III no longer seemed so imminent. As a result, the United States could turn its entire vast conventional arsenal against Iraq. The absence of a Soviet Union, or any great power determined to back Iraq in the crisis, was more important to the outcome than the presence of GPS or JSTARS. Indeed, the fall of the Soviet Union made Desert Storm possible in the first place.
Desert Storm was not so much a technological marvel, then, as a lesson in the chance events that determine the course of history. Whatever the state of our technology, it will never obviate the need for strategy devised by human beings, clear thinking about goals, a rational balancing of means and ends, and a willingness to make hard choices about war and peace.”
- Robert Citino, Historian, “Technology in the Persian Gulf War of 1991,” 2012