2dogs
April 10, 2003, 09:59 AM
http://www.nypost.com/postopinion/opedcolumnists/73109.htm
WE OWN THE SKY
April 10, 2003 -- I'M no general, armchair or otherwise, but it wasn't hard to see where this war was headed as early as Day 7.
That is, toward an utter, unequivocal, beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt rout of Saddam Hussein - elite Republican Guard armored divisions and all.
The tip-off came on March 25, a week into the war, spread full across Page 3 of The Post: A platoon of U.S. Marines, hunkered shoulder-to-shoulder in a roadside drainage ditch, utterly unconcerned about threats from above.
That is, no worries about an Iraqi air force.
None about Iraqi heavy artillery.
Nor even about mortars.
Had any such dangers been even remotely present, the Marines would have been spread out - perhaps six feet between them - to minimize the effects of a single artillery shell or bomb blast.
They learn that in boot camp.
Similar images moved from the front day after day - ratifying the obvious: Iraq was fighting a two-dimensional war.
Saddam's troops could see only as far as the horizon, and could only occasionally project a threat beyond the skyline.
But America and its allies were fighting in three dimensions - observing the enemy across the entire electromagnetic spectrum from as distant as high orbit to as close to the battlefield as a Predator drone could carry sensors.
A Republican Guard armored officer didn't have to move his tanks to be detected. All he had to do was order their engines started - and the heat signature would bring down upon them the hounds of Hell.
Yes, Iraqi artillery got off occasional rounds - but they were instantly tracked by aerial and ground radars linked to Coalition computers, which, in turn, directed utterly obliterating return fire.
No wonder, then, that Baghdad fell almost as quickly as the 1st Marines and 3rd Infantry Division could cover the distance in their tens of thousands of tracked vehicles.
No wonder, moreover, that coalition casualties have been so modest (knock on wood).
The drive to Tikrit, where Saddam's Ba'athists may - or may not - make a last stand should be similarly swift, given the distances involved.
Whatever else is to be learned from this war, it is that there is no conventional military power on Earth capable of resisting the United States as it pursues its legitimate security interests.
This is not to say that the other side is incapable of doing grave harm; 9/11, after all, was an attack from the third - aerial - dimension.
And then there is what military strategists call "the Boyd Cycle."
Named after a maverick, albeit hugely influential, Air Force officer named John Boyd, it holds basically that asymetric advantages of the sort employed in Iraq are fleeting.
Bring gunpowder to a bow-and-arrow battle, and you'll prosper - but presently, the other side will figure out how to get back in the fight.
For the moment, however, Saddam's armored forces - indeed, his regime - are in smoldering, twisted ruins.
And those states that sponsor terrorism - either directly (Syria and Iran) or through acquiesence and moral support (Saudi Arabia) - are watching the smoke rise.
Shock and awe?
Damn straight.
WE OWN THE SKY
April 10, 2003 -- I'M no general, armchair or otherwise, but it wasn't hard to see where this war was headed as early as Day 7.
That is, toward an utter, unequivocal, beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt rout of Saddam Hussein - elite Republican Guard armored divisions and all.
The tip-off came on March 25, a week into the war, spread full across Page 3 of The Post: A platoon of U.S. Marines, hunkered shoulder-to-shoulder in a roadside drainage ditch, utterly unconcerned about threats from above.
That is, no worries about an Iraqi air force.
None about Iraqi heavy artillery.
Nor even about mortars.
Had any such dangers been even remotely present, the Marines would have been spread out - perhaps six feet between them - to minimize the effects of a single artillery shell or bomb blast.
They learn that in boot camp.
Similar images moved from the front day after day - ratifying the obvious: Iraq was fighting a two-dimensional war.
Saddam's troops could see only as far as the horizon, and could only occasionally project a threat beyond the skyline.
But America and its allies were fighting in three dimensions - observing the enemy across the entire electromagnetic spectrum from as distant as high orbit to as close to the battlefield as a Predator drone could carry sensors.
A Republican Guard armored officer didn't have to move his tanks to be detected. All he had to do was order their engines started - and the heat signature would bring down upon them the hounds of Hell.
Yes, Iraqi artillery got off occasional rounds - but they were instantly tracked by aerial and ground radars linked to Coalition computers, which, in turn, directed utterly obliterating return fire.
No wonder, then, that Baghdad fell almost as quickly as the 1st Marines and 3rd Infantry Division could cover the distance in their tens of thousands of tracked vehicles.
No wonder, moreover, that coalition casualties have been so modest (knock on wood).
The drive to Tikrit, where Saddam's Ba'athists may - or may not - make a last stand should be similarly swift, given the distances involved.
Whatever else is to be learned from this war, it is that there is no conventional military power on Earth capable of resisting the United States as it pursues its legitimate security interests.
This is not to say that the other side is incapable of doing grave harm; 9/11, after all, was an attack from the third - aerial - dimension.
And then there is what military strategists call "the Boyd Cycle."
Named after a maverick, albeit hugely influential, Air Force officer named John Boyd, it holds basically that asymetric advantages of the sort employed in Iraq are fleeting.
Bring gunpowder to a bow-and-arrow battle, and you'll prosper - but presently, the other side will figure out how to get back in the fight.
For the moment, however, Saddam's armored forces - indeed, his regime - are in smoldering, twisted ruins.
And those states that sponsor terrorism - either directly (Syria and Iran) or through acquiesence and moral support (Saudi Arabia) - are watching the smoke rise.
Shock and awe?
Damn straight.