corplinx
17th March 2003, 11:51 PM
Its the near the eve of the resuming of a war that that never officially ended. A lot of the faces are the same (Powell, Cheney) but one face is notably missing. So you might be wondering why Stormin' Norman is not a big player or advisor this time around.
I read an analysis of the Gulf war's early years in Tom Clancy's Shadow Warriors. When you get through reading it, you are left with the impression that the early military wins were quick and decisive _in spite_ of Schwartzkoph. The book paints him as someone whose mindset was stuck in 1950 when it came to military force. You bomb the hell out of someone and send in the infantry. Anything special forces or psyops did was with his consent only after being drug tooth and nail (sometimes by Powell and Cheney) to accept. For instance, the very successful leaflet psyops drops during the early years of this war nearly never made it off the ground.
After reading the chapters on Iraq, I can't help but wonder how much of the rhetoric coming out of the oval office is more psyops than it is "Bush the divine conqueror". If it is just psyops, then it is certainly working on a lot of people.
Particularly striking was how psyops encouraged moderate clerics in the mideast to write articles condemning Saddam. They felt this way anyway but psyops people encourage them to make their voices heard. This rung a bell in my head when I saw the news yesterday that Shiite clerics were declaring a war to remove Saddam a just war.
I think that with the lessons learned from the beginning of this war about the use of psyops and special forces, we will have a much easier time with the current mopup operation we are about to begin on to finally finish this war after nearly a decade.
No, special forces are not rambos. They are the guys who are probably helping villages in remote regions of Iraq now get food, medical supplies, and even teaching english to subvert the masses before the ousting.
I highly recommend reading this part of the book to help you understand what will be going on behind the scenes. Proper use of psyops and special forces seems to be the key to reducing civillian casualties and military losses.
I read an analysis of the Gulf war's early years in Tom Clancy's Shadow Warriors. When you get through reading it, you are left with the impression that the early military wins were quick and decisive _in spite_ of Schwartzkoph. The book paints him as someone whose mindset was stuck in 1950 when it came to military force. You bomb the hell out of someone and send in the infantry. Anything special forces or psyops did was with his consent only after being drug tooth and nail (sometimes by Powell and Cheney) to accept. For instance, the very successful leaflet psyops drops during the early years of this war nearly never made it off the ground.
After reading the chapters on Iraq, I can't help but wonder how much of the rhetoric coming out of the oval office is more psyops than it is "Bush the divine conqueror". If it is just psyops, then it is certainly working on a lot of people.
Particularly striking was how psyops encouraged moderate clerics in the mideast to write articles condemning Saddam. They felt this way anyway but psyops people encourage them to make their voices heard. This rung a bell in my head when I saw the news yesterday that Shiite clerics were declaring a war to remove Saddam a just war.
I think that with the lessons learned from the beginning of this war about the use of psyops and special forces, we will have a much easier time with the current mopup operation we are about to begin on to finally finish this war after nearly a decade.
No, special forces are not rambos. They are the guys who are probably helping villages in remote regions of Iraq now get food, medical supplies, and even teaching english to subvert the masses before the ousting.
I highly recommend reading this part of the book to help you understand what will be going on behind the scenes. Proper use of psyops and special forces seems to be the key to reducing civillian casualties and military losses.