Word: battlefield
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...invaded Afghanistan in 1979, the ensuing horror found expression in the most traditional Afghan art form?the Oriental rug. Two Afghan tribal groups, the Chahar Aimaq and the Baloch, expanded their color palette and changed their subject matter to reflect the jarring reality that their homeland had become a battlefield. Over the next decade, they produced carpets featuring rocket launchers, machine guns, bombs, and helicopter gunships. In lesser numbers, these carpets are still produced. Collectors describe them as a vital emotional response to the country's devastation, souvenirs for departing Soviet soldiers, and profit engines to raise cash for mujahedin...
...chemical agents at Israel or his Arab neighbors. Even if all these pre-emptive measures are taken, Saddam could still try a crude pre-emptive strike of his own, using chem or bio agents against U.S. forces as they gather. But chemical weapons are hard to control on the battlefield; shifting winds could blow them back on Iraqi soldiers. U.S. forces will go into battle in full protective gear. And the Administration says it plans to warn Iraqi generals and colonels who might order the use of bio-chem weapons that they will be arrested and tried for war crimes...
...strategy worked brilliantly on the battlefield, but its flaws became more glaring once the shooting stopped. And questions still remain about exactly what tactics America's Afghan allies might have used to defeat the Taliban so handily. Pentagon strategists insist that the Afghan battle plan won't serve as a template for any campaign to oust Saddam Hussein. But in Iraq, as in Afghanistan, U.S. forces will be tested on some of the same critical issues, and how well Washington learns the lessons of this war will help determine the outcome of the next one. Here...
...force and pinpoint precision of U.S. air power. The Pentagon's most celebrated tactic was its deployment of small groups of special-ops commandos to ride horseback with Northern Alliance forces and call in air strikes using handheld lasers and target-spotting binoculars. The combination of high-tech gadgetry, battlefield savvy and an increased use of precision-guided munitions made American power irresistible. "The bombs had a big effect," says Wahid Ahmed, 18, a Pakistani who fought with the Taliban in Kunduz and now languishes in a jail in Sheberghan, northern Afghanistan. "We couldn't gather in large groups because...
Commanders in urban environments can't survey the entire battlefield and instead see only bits and pieces; it's like playing chess while viewing only four squares on the board. This battlefield compression means that low-ranking corporals and sergeants--not colonels and captains--must often make life-and-death decisions. These choices come fast and furious when you're fighting downtown: 90% of the targets are less than 50 yards away and seen for only seconds. Killing innocent civilians--or your own men--is a risk that goes with the terrain. A quarter of all explosive rounds turn into...