Word: saudi
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1990-1999
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Since the Arab armies are positioned between the Kuwaiti border and the more than 200,000 American, British and French troops in Saudi Arabia, their commitment to an offensive would be no small matter. "The Arab forces complicate Saddam's problems if he chooses to go south," says retired U.S. Army Lieut. General William Odom, now an analyst with the Hudson Institute in Washington. "They complicate ours if we choose to go north...
...Islamic forces do enter the fray, there are doubts about how well they might fare. In a major battle, only those units equipped with large numbers of tanks could play a significant role: the Saudis, Egyptians and Syrians. While the Saudi air force is modern and well trained, the army is not. According to Anthony Cordesman, an expert on Middle East military issues, the Saudi army is at least 30% under strength. Most army units are commanded by members of the Saudi royal family selected for loyalty rather than military prowess. Exercises involving more than 6,000 men are rare...
Syria has pledged an armored division -- 15,000 men, 300 Soviet-made T-72 tanks -- but they too are trickling in, with only 3,000 troops deployed so far in Saudi Arabia, though more were expected last weekend. Coordination between the Syrian and Western forces would face another serious obstacle: the Syrians are armed mostly with Soviet hardware. As a radical Arab state standing shoulder to shoulder with the conservative royalty of Saudi Arabia and Kuwait, Syria's greatest value is political. "If they never fire a shot," says Jeffrey Record, a Washington military analyst, "they are worth their weight...
...fighting starts, the biggest problem of all will be command and control, forging the various forces into a cohesive military whole. The Islamic troops are officially under the command of the Saudi chief of staff, General Khalid bin Sultan. But the Saudis use American weapons and tactics, while the Syrians operate like the Soviet army. Even talking to one another is difficult. The Saudis and Moroccans speak different Arabic dialects, while the Arabs have to use English to communicate with the Pakistanis and Bangladeshis...
...postwar Iraq might look like. In their view, an independent Kurdistan could be carved out of Iraqi territory, and a good bit of the northern part of the country could be ceded to Turkey. There could also be significant "border adjustments" between Iraq and its neighbors Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, none of them in Iraq's favor...