The Gulf War of 1991 was similar in some respects in that its aims were to evict Saddam Hussein's troops from Kuwait and damage their capability so much that they would cease to be a threat to the region.
While the Fed believes that it still has the capability to manage its portfolio and potentially expand its balance sheet without distorting and doing damage to securities markets, the use of nontraditional means like quantitative easing makes for a precarious balancing act.