West had to stop Saddam but 1991 was start of a messy time

It has been a particularly messy quarter century in the often troubled Middle East since the commencement of that military operation.

And yet there was international support, including among some Arab nations, for the notion that Saddam Hussein had to be repelled from the tiny state that he had seized in 1990.

In a 1980 act of madness, the Iraqi president had launched the Iran-Iraq war, which led to up to a million deaths.

Some cynics opposed the 1991 conflict as being “all about oil”. Kuwait’s oil rich status did give a pragmatic urgency to defeating Saddam (it would have been folly to allow so much global production to fall into the hands of an unstable dictator), but the invasion was a clear case of unmitigated aggression.

The war itself was straightforward and Kuwait was easily liberated. The Americans were later criticised for failing to go on into Baghdad to Saddam, who survived another 12 years.

It was the right decision because it demonstrated that the war was proportionate and not about changing regimes to suit Washington’s tastes. It has also been retrospectively vindicated – toppling strong men in Iraq, Libya and Egypt led to something worse (as may yet be the outcome in Syria).

The 2003 and 2011 western interventions in Iraq and Libya ended unhappily. The complexity of the region was laid bare.

Future western involvement in the Middle East will likely involve a mix of intervention and diplomacy, perhaps unsavoury at times. But the terror threat shows we cannot divorce ourselves from the area, given its impact on the wider world.

Since 1991 numerous servicemen and women from Northern Ireland have been among the Britons who have died fighting in the region. Many more have been afflicted by so-called Gulf War Syndrome.

The anniversary of the 1991 operation is a fitting time to pay tribute to their bravery and remember their sacrifice.