Operation Russian Storm

I was wondering about a different war in the middle east sometime in the 1990's. I had an Idea of instead of Invading Kuwait, Saddam invaded Syria. They did have some close relations, but I don't think war would be impossible between them. This kind of war might be popular with the Iraqi people, considering the culturals ties between them. As long as Saddam had called this a war of Unifications between the two of them, this might have been possible.
How would this kind of war effect the rest of the world? Kuwait was one of the U.S. oil buddies in the middle east, Syria not so much. So would this conflict prompt the U.S. to take action? I had thought that there might be a Russian intervention. This Russian proposed action would not be extremely popular with the U.S., France, or UK. So it would not pass the security council. This may possibly lead to a war between the Russian Federation, and Iraq. This would definitely effect our world today.

How probable is this scenario?
 

CalBear

Moderator
Donor
Monthly Donor
What would be reason behind attacking Syria? Saddam went after Kuwait over oil, and a LOT of it. Syria had nothing of any value. The Soviets wasn't in any position to intervene, no basing to speak of in '91, probably the worst military posture Moscow had been in since the USSR was purging Rad Army officer ranks, and no hope of getting anyone to throw in with them. There was also the little matter of the near civil war that Ivan was throwing at the time.

Short of nukes (or at the other extreme, a Vypmel/Spetznaz assassination team) the USSR had no way to decisively engage Iraq and/or Saddam.
 
Ignoring the lack of any plausible reason for Iraq to wage war on Syria, any such attack would automatically draw Iran in to the conflict, although perhaps not directly militarily.

Also, apart from the fact that the Soviet Union's/Russian Federation's economy and military was in absolutely no state to wage a foreign in the 1990's, what possible reason or circumstance could lead to direct military engagement with Iraq?
 
Both countries were ruled by the Baath party at the time (just compare their flags), but both parties really hated eachother. Syria for example provided its 9th armoured division for Desert Storm.

Ironically, at the time, Iraq was a predominantly Shi'ite country ruled by a Sunni minority and Syria was (and still is) a mostly Sunni country ruled by a Shi'ite (Alawi) minority. Maybe this can cause some tensions between the two sides?

Another consideration: with the war in Afghanistan just over, any new war in another muslim country won't be popular in the Soviet Union. At this time (1991) the country is also too unstable to engage in an operation of this size.
 
Top