Word: deserts
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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With their troops poised to attack, allied commanders were haunted by last- minute doubts. Had General Schwarzkopf correctly assessed the all-important center of gravity? Would chemical weapons disrupt the delicate timing of the attack? Could U.S. forces outpace the Republican Guard in a desert the Iraqis know well? And is the troops' equipment -- particularly the portable antitank weaponry...
Attacking a tank in the desert is far less ambiguous than picking out one building in a crowded neighborhood for demolition. The campaign against Iraq's dug-in divisions is a textbook exercise in air warfare: hundreds of planes are in the sky every day, with F-15s flying a protective patrol high above, while attack planes blast away at tanks, artillery pieces and ammunition dumps below...
Fighter-bomber pilots have divided the battlefield into small, lettered squares on the map called "killing zones." Working their way across the desert, sector by sector, spotters direct strike planes onto specific targets on the ground. Electronic-warfare planes black out ground-based Iraqi radar, as airborne tankers circle lazily to refuel the fighters that line up behind them. The whole armada is choreographed by controllers in AWACs radar planes, who see everything in the air for more than 200 miles in any direction. The Iraqis in Kuwait, says Captain Jessie Morimoto, a U.S. Air Force intelligence officer, have "stopped...
...timing seemed almost as significant as the wording. The offer, broadcast by Baghdad Radio last Friday, came just as allied correspondents in the Saudi desert were making book on how soon the long-awaited U.S.-led ground offensive would begin. Most were guessing a day or two; a week was about the longest wait anyone expected. The journalists were reading signs of an imminent attack that must have been just as obvious to Saddam's generals. Among them: American bombing was moving closer and closer to the Iraqi front lines; the allies were using new weapons, including fuel-air bombs...
...fact, Bush made the decision to fight on the ground back in November when he doubled the desert forces, surprising even some of his generals. He wanted "an offensive option" and understood that, barring some miraculous collapse or an Iraqi withdrawal, such an option would necessarily involve ground assaults. When the ground war is joined, Bush's generals have told him, it must be with full power and fury to assure victory. That will mean mounting casualties, which might diminish his political base. The military men insist that at such a point casualties must be ignored. Bush is fundamentally...