Super Bowl Monday_ From the Persian Gulf to the Shores of West Florida - Adam Lazarus [36]
“We simply came out and executed,” Thomas said. “We felt as a team that a lot of people thought we were going to come out flat. We wanted to show everyone that even with the week layoff, we were still going to come out and do the things we’ve been doing all season.”
This time, following the crucial win over Miami, Bills fans didn’t even think about storming the field. To avoid another incident, the Bills’ front office chose not to sell beer and brought in hundreds of police officers and security guards. Upon the game’s end, mounted officers and a pack of twenty-four Doberman pinschers, rottweilers, and German shepherds surrounded the playing surface. There was good reason to keep fans from toppling the goalposts: eight days later, Rich Stadium would be the site of the AFC Championship Game.
“Nobody was going to storm the field today,” said Orchard Park resident Tom Wolff. “But if we win next week and the Bills are going to their first Super Bowl ever . . . that could be different.”
Bills fans, like Town of Tonawanda resident Doug Pagano, were rightfully ecstatic following their team’s triumph: “I’ve been watching the Bills since I was a kid and for me, this year’s team is burying a lot of bad ghosts from losing teams in the past.”
Despite the optimism and excitement that flowed throughout western New York, few Americans—even the die-hard, long-suffering Bills fans who had just witnessed their team’s great victory—would rejoice in unbridled celebration that evening.
While the Bills were busy churning out their victory over Miami, 533 U.S. senators and members of the House of Representatives sat in the Capitol building in Washington, D.C. Before them was House Joint Resolution 77, a bill authorizing the use of military force against Iraq. In the narrowest such vote since the War of 1812, the bill passed, first in the Senate, 52-47, then in the House, 250-183.
“We have now closed ranks behind a clear signal of our resolve to implement the United Nations resolutions,” President George H. W. Bush told the American people. “Those who may have mistaken our democratic process as a sign of weakness now see the strength of democracy. . . . Throughout history, we have been resolute in our support of justice, freedom, and human dignity.”
For months, Americans were aware of, but not overly concerned with, a bubbling conflict in the Persian Gulf. Iraq had invaded its neighbor Kuwait on August 2, 1990. Since that date, U.S. naval groups had been in the area, while the president and his foreign allies condemned Iraq’s dictator, Saddam Hussein. At least officially, this was not yet a war.
“This will not stand, this aggression against Kuwait,” Bush declared in August, just before he launched Operation Desert Shield.
Over the ensuing months, Hussein remained defiant. His troops refused to let approximately one thousand Americans in Iraq and Kuwait—and hundreds more from other nations—evacuate. (Some of those hostages were used by Iraqi military personnel as human shields. A handful of them were eventually freed when Muhammad Ali, the famous boxer, met with Hussein in Baghdad. Hussein said he released them out of respect for Ali, a hero to many Islamic Arabs.) Hussein also openly boasted about his country’s nuclear aspirations.
“We don’t underestimate the military might of the United States, but we belittle its evil intentions,” Hussein declared to his people during a speech in late November. “If Allah wills that war should take place, the Americans will find that their Stealth plane is seen even by the shepherd in the desert, and is also seen by Iraqi technology.”
That same day, the United Nations Security Council voted to impose upon Iraq a January 15 deadline: either Hussein withdrew his troops from Kuwait or the Unites States and