General Order No. 1 (Gulf War)
It also restricted the possession of "sexually explicit" material, which was broadly defined and led to relatively innocuous documents such as underwear catalogues and bodybuilding magazines being banned.
A ban on the taking of war trophies from Iraqi prisoners was later amended to permit US troops to retain captured bayonets as souvenirs.
The United States and other nations rushed troops to defend Saudi Arabia from a potential attack as part of Operation Desert Shield.
[2] The order was the first of a series intended to guide US troops during the upcoming operations and Schwarzkopf considered them essential to preserve good relations with the Saudi government.
Subtitled "Prohibited Activities for US Personnel Serving in the USCENTCOM A[rea] O[f] R[esponsibility]", the order laid out the restriction in nine categories: firearms and ammunition, entry into mosques, alcoholic beverages, pornography, other "sexually explicit" imagery, gambling, archaeological artifacts, exchanging currency, and war trophies.
[12] The US Air Force General William R. Looney III disagreed with the broader application of alcohol bans and, when commanding in Puerto Rico after the war, successfully lobbied for permission for his troops to ignore a similar order.
[12][13] The future Secretaries of Defense Robert Gates and Leon Panetta inadvertently violated the order by bringing liquor with them on an August 2007 visit to Baghdad during the Iraq War.
[15] Soldiers were also ordered not to wear crucifix jewelry on show and chaplains instructed to remove their emblems of faith when outside of US-controlled sites.
[16] The order defined prohibited pornographic material as that which displayed human genitalia, uncovered women's breasts or any sexual act, including any works of art.
[17] This extended to material where the "human anatomy" was only implied and resulted in items such as bodybuilding magazines, swimsuit photographs and underwear catalogues being banned or censored.
[18] Although not part of the general order, female US personnel were required to wear "modest" dress and avoid walking with or sharing a car with a man other than their husband.
[19] The need for the order led some commentators to ask why American forces were being deployed to protect an undemocratic state which did not permit its people the civil liberties taken for granted in the US.
