The Safwan Airfield Standoff was a post-ceasefire standoff between the Iraqi and U.S. forces at the end of the 1991 Gulf War. After the ground offensive, General Herbert Norman Schwarzkopf, Jr. of the coalition forces wanted a spot deep in Iraq to discuss the capitulation terms. He chose Safwan Airfield in southern Iraq to hold a formal cease-fire ceremony, as a demonstration that the coalition was in control of the war. The airfield had been supposedly seized by VII Corps some hours earlier. However Safwan had not been taken by US troops as he had assumed. This caused General Schwarzkopf to become enraged at General Frederick M. Franks, Jr., and ordered him to take the town immediately, as he was determined to use it for the incoming...
