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The Guard fared no better than other Iraqi units. Not only was allied air power unchallenged and decisive; U.S. M1A1 tanks proved superior in maneuverability and firepower to Iraq's best, the Soviet-built T-72s. One correspondent witnessed a duel between an M1A1 and a T-72. When they sighted each other, the American tank backed up, outside the T-72's range. The Iraqi tank fired a round that fell short. The M1A1 fired its longer-range cannon, scoring a direct hit that put the Iraqi tank out of action, then promptly swiveled and went looking for another victim.
By Wednesday evening Schwarzkopf, in a masterly briefing on the war about to end, began by saying that Iraq had lost more than 3,000 of the 4,700 tanks it had deployed in the Kuwait theater at the start of the war -- then added, "As a matter of fact, you can add 700 to that as a result of the battle that's going on right now with the Republican Guard." Saddam's forces lost similarly high proportions of their other armored vehicles, artillery and trucks. The result, said Schwarzkopf, was that Iraq was left with only an infantry army, no longer capable of offensive operations and therefore not a threat to other countries in the region. That fulfilled one of the two principal allied war aims; the other, clearing Iraq out of Kuwait, was just about accomplished as well. The war was as good as over.
THURSDAY: VICTORY
In a few more hours, the shooting officially ended. At 5 a.m. (9 p.m. Wednesday in Washington) Bush went on the air to announce that he was ordering a suspension of all offensive action, to take effect three hours later. Since it was a unilateral action rather than an agreement negotiated with the Iraqis, it was not officially a cease-fire, but it had the same result. Shooting in fact stopped at 8 a.m., and only sporadic incidents broke the silence as the weekend began. Some Iraqi units appeared not to get the word at first; allied troops set up loudspeakers blaring over and over again the message in Arabic that Iraqis would no longer be attacked if they held their fire. A warning to those that did not: on Saturday, a column of 140 Iraqi tanks and other armored vehicles ran into a U.S. force and began shooting. The Americans counterattacked with tank and helicopter fire, destroying 60 Iraqi vehicles and capturing the other 80.
The task of negotiating an official end to the battle was only beginning. Iraq designated a representative to meet with Schwarzkopf's officers and work out terms of a permanent cease-fire, but that was no simple task. The allies were pressing for a swift exchange of prisoners, but did that include the Kuwaiti civilians -- as many as 40,000 -- believed to have been carried into Iraq by Saddam's retreating forces? And what would the coalition do with the many Iraqi prisoners who feared, with reason, that they might be shot if they went home? Should Saddam's forces be allowed to take out of Kuwait what heavy equipment they had left, or must they leave it behind as spoils of war?