What type of failure was 'Operation Desert Storm' in Kuwait during the Gulf War?

The Gulf War was a war waged by coalition forces from 35 nations led by the United States against Iraq in response to Iraq's invasion and annexation of Kuwait. 'Operation Desert Storm' was the first truly integrated air and land battle in this gulf war. The flat, open and mostly barren battlefield was the perfect template for exercising AirLand Battle doctrine, the operational game plan for combining air and ground forces to achieve a single operational objective. The “Great Wheel” maneuver was Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr.’s plan of moving hundreds of miles across the desert to attack the Iraqi army flank.

The great failure of 'Operation Desert Storm', of course, was strategic, not operational or tactical, and it was this failure in future wars that would cost the armies and nations dearly. The armies failed to translate their superb and hard-won operational brilliance into lasting strategic success. It was clear from subsequent events that while the Great Wheel was a piece of operational genius, the strategic consequences of the maneuver were a failure.

At the operational level, the success of the "Great Wheel" could have resolved debate within the Army and Marine Corps about the viability of heavy ground forces after the end of the Cold War, but some within the Marine Corps thought the flanking maneuver went in too heavy. They believed Schwarzkopf could have broken the Iraqi military sooner with a high-tech force supported by airpower, using many fewer soldiers.