Do you know what it says in the Midrash? It says that in the year in which Moshiach will be revealed, a war will take place, and this is how it’s going to happen: The leader of Iraq will start up with an Arabian country. The leader of the Arabian country will then ask for help from the world's most powerful country. Then all the nations in the world will be in a great uproar. The Jewish People too will be in a great uproar, saying to each other "What are we going to do, what are we going to do?" Then Hashem will tell his nation that they have nothing to fear for the entire war will turn out to have been for their good and a sign that the time of Redemption has arrived. Moshiach will then be revealed and He will declare to the Jewish People, "Humble ones, the time for your Redemption has arrived!"

Indeed, it was on August 2nd, 1991 that Saddam Hussein (may his name be erased), the President of Iraq, invaded the rich Arabian country called Kuwait. The world’s most power­ful country, namely, the United States of America, joined Britain, France, Canada and many other countries to get Iraq out of Kuwait.

This team called themselves the “Allied Forces" or "Allies" for short. The Allies warned Saddam Hussein that if he didn't get out of Kuwait soon, then they would get him out; his deadline was January 15. Of course, evil Saddam did not pay any attention to the warnings, and so on January 16 the war began.

It was in the middle of the night when the Allies attacked, shooting missiles from their war-jets, and causing the city of Basra (one of the main cities of Iraq) to look like a fireball. The very next night Iraq attacked Israel with huge, powerful missiles called Scuds. (One Scud can smash an entire building to the ground). The Jews in Eretz Yisrael were scared. Many yeshiva students from around the world who had gone there to learn Torah along with many tourists who were there at the time, quickly packed their suitcases and took the first flight out of the Holy Land. The United States government even warned its people that travel­ling to Israel at such a time was not a good idea.

Meanwhile, more than half a million soldiers were sent to the Persian Gulf, along with the latest and most powerful weapons, (like the new F-17 Stealth Fighter — a special jet that is able to avoid radar and do all kinds of other tricks — and the new B-52 Bomber, aircraft-carriers, battleships and more). Special experts predicted that the war would take many months, especially since Iraq supposedly had close to a million soldiers. It was a situation that would have easily turned into a 3rd World War if not for the wondrous miracles of Hashem.

Inside Eretz Yisrael whenever a siren would go off, indicating that a Scud had just been fired at them, everyone would quickly put on a special mask to protect themselves from deadly chemicals and gases that might have been put into the scud. After this they would go into a protective room called a "sealed room". Many people even went into bomb shelters.

Just as the Midrash tells us however, Hashem was with the Jewish People and amaz­ing miracles took place. Many missiles were way off target, landing in places where nobody lived, while the ones which did hit their target usually did so just at the moment when there was nobody there. Even when it happened that there was someone there, the person somehow ended up without any serious injuries. A few Scuds landed in the Dead Sea while one particular scud landed in a crowded area in Tel-Aviv, missed everybody and just lay on the ground without exploding. Another scud hit the main gas pipe of a certain town – Gush Dan – and instead of causing the entire town to burn down – nothing happened! Why not? Because the day before, a problem had been discovered in the gas pipe and therefore all the gas had been taken out and the pipe had been shut off. All these miracles were a tremendous Kiddush Hashem and the entire world saw clearly how Hashem defends His people. In fact at one point during the war, Iraq fired a Scud at Saudi Arabia and it hit its target right on the nose, killing many people. Yet with the help of Hashem the thirty-nine missiles fired at Israel all messed up in one way or another.

Only a hundred days later, as most of the Jews of the world were about to begin reading the Megillah, the miracle of Purim happened once again — the Gulf War came to an end with the surrender of Iraq!

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I’m sure you'll think it's strange, but the fact is that Saddam Hussein thought was Nevuchadnetzar! He constantly spoke about this wicked man who destroyed the 1st Beis Hamikdash - and he tried to convince people that he's just like him. In fact Saddam Hussein once called himself "Nevuchadnetzar the 2nd"! And you know something? He's right! He was Nevuchadneztar!

The holy Zohar predicted that right before Moshiach's arrival Nevuchadnetzar would be born again. Once again he would try to destroy the Jewish people, Heaven forbid, but this time he would be totally unsuccessful. In fact this time, says the Zohar, Hashem is going to put him to shame in front of the entire world. And that is exactly what happened through the Gulf War. Thirty-nine nations — including some Arab countries whom Saddam Hussein thought would be on his side — united against him and gave him a real beating. But that's not all. Upon losing the war after only one hundred days (which was in itself very embarrassing for him), the Allies shamed him even more by forcing him to publicly agree to pay for the damage that he did to Kuwait and to let a team of special inspectors check up on him every so often to make sure he destroys his deadly chemicals and gases. And so the fact that Saddam Hussein thought that he's another Nevuchadnetzar is not so strange after all; rather it is another sign of the special times that we are living in now.