Iraq had become a well equipped and battle-hardened side for a country of its size and even across the pan-Islamic bloc in 1991. When Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the entire GCC bloc was in panic mode and could not hope to liberate Kuwait on its own. Even countries like Egypt and Pakistan could not help liberate Kuwait at the time, not even together. Comparison of Pakistani and Iraqi military capability in 1990 is in following link:
Saddam at the time had the strongest Arab army, no other Arab army came even close, but his army wasn't a match for Pakistan. Saddam had the 4th most powerful military in the world. It's the other way around. Pakistan's military was no match for Saddam's military.
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Iraqi Army had established an integrated Air Defense system, which set it apart from any other across the pan-Islamic bloc in 1990. This system is credited for downing dozens of aircraft of the US-led coalition in 1991. This was the case in spite of the fact that US-led coalition was using heliborne special forces, cruise missiles, and stealthy aircraft to degrade Iraq's Air Defense system in a remarkable combination of military technologies and tactics that had no peer around the world at the time.
US had fought a lengthy war in Vietnam and learned valuable lessons from it. These lessons spurred a complete revisit to the American military capability with a shift from conscript model to volunteer model and development of a new generation of weapon systems. US is the pioneer of Digitalization and it had created the world's first Digitalized military force with the capacity to conduct network-centric operations in line with the AirLand Battle warfighting doctrine that was pitched in the 1980s. These improvements in conjunction with a Deception Plan to mislead Iraqi intelligence paid off in 1991.
Political leadership counts as well. Johnson and Nixon did not had the mindset to commit to war and allow US military to do its best in Vietnam. Bush was different and allowed US military to do whatever it takes to liberate Kuwait.
But Cold War was a dark time for the pan-Islamic bloc with Islamic countries embracing camp politics and fighting each other. Saddam Hussein was an egotistical misfit and brought ruin to his country.
I shan't be making a comment on Pakistan, however a lack of vision and inability to accept changes decimated French armies during ww1 and ww2. When the Iraqis thought that they could hold back American armies during the first gulf War, the USA's newer and more advanced tactics decimated Iraqi...
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