Word: desertic
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...hardest part of any war is moving fighting forces into the field and supplying their gargantuan needs. When the U.S. decided last week to draw "a line in the sand" of the Arabian Peninsula, it took on an immense logistical task. Keeping troops supplied with water in the desert's 120 degrees heat will be as vital as keeping them supplied with ammunition...
...occurs, it will be a match of U.S. planes against Iraqi brawn. The major role of American ground forces would be to protect air bases from Iraqi tanks. As long as infantrymen are in contact with base installations, they are assured of adequate water, fuel and munitions. In the desert a soldier normally consumes 6 gal. of water a day. For 50,000 men, that adds up to 2.1 million gal. a week. If ground troops were to storm off into the desert, the blistering temperatures and swirling sand would be as dangerous an enemy as the Iraqis...
With his brief romp through the desert, the imperious Iraqi President doubled the oil under his control to some 20% of the world's known reserves; only Saudi Arabia, with 25%, has more. He strengthened his claim to the position he has long coveted: overlord of the Arab world. And he made the entire world quake, weak-kneed, at his raw power. Not since the brilliant military leader Nebuchadnezzar ruled the Babylonian Empire more than two millenniums ago had Baghdad exercised such sway...
...bullet in his left leg. In the glorified words of his own hagiography -- the truth is less dramatic -- he carved out the bullet himself with a razor dipped in iodine, then disguised himself as a Bedouin tribesman, swam across the Tigris River, stole a donkey and fled across the desert to Syria. He was captured and jailed, but supposedly word of his adventures reached Egypt's President Gamal Abdel Nasser, who was then a charismatic exponent of pan-Arabism. Nasser got Saddam transferred to Cairo, and became another hero...
...Pentagon sources revealed that the U.S. might station as many as 250,000 ground troops in Saudi Arabia, the dangerous standoff in the desert continued to rattle nerves across the Middle East...