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It would have been straightforward enough to seize the oilfields, staff them with Western engineers, patrol just the pipelines and leave the rest of the country
by hugh 18y ago
It would have been straightforward enough to seize the oilfields, staff them with Western engineers, patrol just the pipelines and leave the rest of the country completely alone.
Leaving the rest of the country completely alone? So you'd still have Saddam Hussein's 200,000-man army intact, and you'd be trying to defend the oil infrastructure against random attacks by it? That sounds much harder than just marching into Baghdad.
- gaius 18y agoWell, that's not difficult to do if you simply adopt the policy that anyone you don't know approaching within n miles of any asset you care about gets immediately hit from the air. The reason Gulf 1 went so well is that the Coalition played to its strengths: air and armour in open country. Gulf 2 is going badly because the Coalition is dancing to its enemies urban guerilla warfare tune..