Word: deserts
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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Training. The U.S. military is an all-volunteer force with the highest levels of education and training in history. As a result, American soldiers have proved remarkably adaptable, quickly solving many of the unique problems posed by desert warfare. Helicopter-maintenance crews, for example, have learned to prevent the dustlike Saudi sands from damaging their choppers by cleaning filters more often and applying a new epoxy to rotor blades to stanch erosion...
Last fall the CIA warned the White House that Operation Desert Shield could, if it continued too long, worsen underlying tensions between mosque and palace in Saudi Arabia. It was largely with that danger in mind that General Norman Schwarzkopf, the U.S. commander, told his officers, "Let's be careful we don't win the war but lose the peace." There's no way nearly 400,000 troops can be invisible, but there are plenty of ways they can respect local customs. That's why quite a few women in the U.S. contingent bought abayyas before they did any other...
Still, before the Baker-Aziz meeting, several senior members of the royal family had privately told President Bush that they feared "strains in our % society" if Desert Shield continues indefinitely and inconclusively. A top Administration Arabist has predicted that if American forces are still camped in the desert during the holy month of Ramadan, which begins in mid-March, the result could be "an increase in clandestine opposition from religious extremists, with possible destabilizing results." Many Saudis reacted with something like relief to the apparent breakdown of diplomacy last week. If there is to be a military moment of truth...
...that the shriveling of the defense budget is little affected by such immediate emergencies as a potential war in the Persian Gulf. For contractors, the long- and short-term trends are contradictory. As the developers of new weapons systems face increasingly tough times, suppliers who meet the needs of Desert Shield with such items as boots, camouflage netting and gas masks are enjoying an unexpected -- but presumably brief -- bonanza...
...over the crash of the Avenger, McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics have other military projects going to keep them in business. The two companies expect to benefit marginally by selling arms to Saudi Arabia as part of a $7.1 billion package approved by the Administration last fall in a Desert Shield trade-off. McDonnell Douglas will sell 12 Apache helicopters to the Saudis for $144 million, and General Dynamics will provide 150 M-1A2 tanks costing $480 million...