Match List - I with List - II.

Choose the correct answer from the options given below:

(A)-(IV), (B)-(III), (C)-(II), (D)-(I)

The correct answer is option (2) - (A)-(IV), (B)-(III), (C)-(II), (D)-(I)

Correct Match:

Explanation:

Operation Infinite Reach:

Operation Infinite Reach was the codename for American cruise missile strikes on al-Qaeda bases in Afghanistan & Sudan, in August 1998. This operation was ordered by President Bill Clinton in response to the U.S. embassy bombings. (Another significant US military action during the Clinton years was in response to the bombing of the US embassies in Nairobi, Kenya and Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania in 1998. These bombings were attributed to Al-Qaeda, a terrorist organisation strongly influenced by extremist Islamist ideas. Within a few days of this bombing, President Clinton ordered Operation Infinite Reach, a series of cruise missile strikes on Al-Qaeda terrorist targets in Sudan and Afghanistan.

First Gulf War:

In August 1990, Iraq invaded Kuwait, rapidly occupying and subsequently annexing it. After a series of diplomatic attempts failed at convincing Iraq to quit its aggression, the United Nations mandated the liberation of Kuwait by force. For the UN, this was a dramatic decision after years of deadlock during the Cold War. US President George H.W. Bush hailed the emergence of a ‘new world order’. A massive coalition force of 660,000 troops from 34 countries fought against Iraq and defeated it in what came to be known as the First Gulf War. However, the UN operation, which was called ‘Operation Desert Storm’, was overwhelmingly American. An American general, Norman Schwarzkopf, led the UN coalition and nearly 75 per cent of the coalition forces were from the US. Although the Iraqi President, Saddam Hussein, had promised “the mother of all battles”, the Iraqi forces were quickly defeated and forced to withdraw from Kuwait. The First Gulf War revealed the vast technological gap that had opened up between the US military capability and that of other states. The highly publicised use of so-called ‘smart bombs’ by the US-led some observers to call this a ‘computer war’. Widespread television coverage also made it a ‘video game war’, with viewers around the world watching the destruction of Iraqi forces live on TV in the comfort of their living rooms.

Operation Iraqi Freedom:

On 19 March 2003, the US launched its invasion of Iraq under the codename ‘Operation Iraqi Freedom’. More than forty other countries joined in the US-led ‘coalition of the willing’ after the UN refused to give its mandate to the invasion. The ostensible purpose of the invasion was to prevent Iraq from developing weapons of mass destruction (WMD). Since no evidence of WMD has been unearthed in Iraq, it is speculated that the invasion was motivated by other objectives, such as controlling Iraqi oilfields and installing a regime friendly to the US.

Operation Enduring Freedom:

Operation Enduring Freedom was the official name used by the U.S. government for the War in Afghanistan, together with three smaller military actions, under the umbrella of the Global War on Terror, and was initiated by President George W. Bush after the September 11 attacks in 2001. As a part of its ‘Global War on Terror’, the US launched ‘Operation Enduring Freedom’ against all those suspected to be behind this attack, mainly Al-Qaeda and the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The Taliban regime was easily overthrown, but remnants of the Taliban and Al Qaeda have remained potent, as is clear from the number of terrorist attacks launched by them against Western targets since.