- "The US armed forces bombed one end of the main
highway from Kuwait city to Basra, sealing it off. They bombed the other
end of the highway and sealed it off. They positioned mechanized artillery
units on the hills overlooking it. And then, from the air and from the
land they simply massacred every living thing on the road. Fighter bombers,
helicopter gunships, and armored battalions poured merciless firepower
on traffic jams backed up for as much as twenty miles. When the traffic
became grid locked, the B-52s were sent in for carpet bombing." Our
forces did not wait for the fleeing people to surrender, they did not surround
them and force them to surrender, they just exterminated them. Americans
never heard about the "Highway of Death," they just paid for
it, a slaughter that, in Barnes' words "ranks among the great atrocities
of modern warfare."
-
-
-
- As the US military sets up offices in Qatar and prepares
for war, I thought it might be an interesting exercise to compare the combatants.
As a kid, I'd come home from the last days of elementary school in June
ready to listen to the Lewis/Conn fights on the radio. My Dad would set
up a gambling pool of winner rounds selected by chance from slips of paper
taken from a hat. He'd then show us the "Tale of the Tape." I
remember the importance of the comparison of the fighters as a measure
of the fairness of the fight. So what does the "Tale of the Tape"
tell us about the Iraq vs US combatants?
-
- It was fairly easy to find figures on the US forces from
the Department of Defense. In addition, CNN.com "In Depth Specials"
provides Gulf War Facts for the first war against Iraq and the Washington
Post offers a site that gives figures for US strength in the Persian Gulf
in 1998. The most recent 2002 figures are not readily available since that
might disclose current strength and positions to the enemy. Statistics
for Iraq are not quite so available although I was able to find figures
for Iraq's military through the International Institute for Strategic Studies
and supplementary material on www.alertnet.org. In addition, Seattlepi.com
has a special Iraq facts report that provides demographic information and
World Factbook has alternative information on Iraq military power.
-
- We have heard from the likes of Richard Pearle (American
Enterprise Institute) that Iraq's forces are about a third of what they
were in 1991 as a result of coalition destruction of their military. We
also know that the sanctions have devastated the civilian population's
health and wealth. The UN has marked the estimated number of children dead
as a result of the sanctions, approximately one and one half million, thus
reducing the number of potential recruits reaching enlistment age. But
Iraq, we are told, still pose a threat and must be dealt with immediately.
-
- The CNN report tabulates the number of Iraqi soldiers
in the 1991 war in this way: 100,000 Iraqi soldiers died (Human Rights
groups tabulate more than that), 300,000 wounded, 150,000 deserted and
60,000 taken prisoner. Baghdad lists 35,000 civilians killed. Those figures
are not easy to read. Do we subtract the 150,000 deserters and the 60,000
prisoners from the 300,000 wounded? Would that mean that Iraq's military
forces amounted to 400,000 total? Let's assume that is so; we now must
reduce that number by two thirds to meet the estimate provided by Pearle
or roughly 130,000. One is tempted to hope they are from the deserter pool!
-
- Now as we draw the comparison with American and coalition
forces in that first war we find the following: the US had more than 500,000
troops in the War while non-US forces added up to an additional 160,000.
US wounded tallied 467, British 24, French 2. US casualties were 148 battle
deaths and 145 nonbattle deaths and allied Arab casualties numbered 39.
That means that the US suffered 293 deaths to Iraq's 100,000, not counting
the 35,000 civilians killed or 460 times as many Iraqi dead as US forces.
-
- Before and during the brief war, the US flew more than
116,000 air sorties losing 75 aircraft. Iraq on the other hand lost 36
fixed wing aircraft, 6 helicopters, 87 aircraft lost on the ground, 3,700
tanks, 2,400 assorted armored vehicles, 19 naval ships sunk, 42 divisions
made combat-ineffective, and 2,600 artillery pieces destroyed. Aside from
aircraft losses, the US lists no other equipment losses. Since the Iraqi
forces consisted, at the time, of 4,280 tanks reduced to 580, and 2,870
assorted vehicles reduced to 471, and 3,110 artillery pieces reduced to
510, the available hardware for this upcoming war appears rather thin.
However, Iraq does have the potential, perhaps, to recover 137 aircraft
flown to Iran although the reason they left Iraq appears to be that they
could not compete with US and British aircraft. However one looks at it,
Iraq has about 15% of its former ordinance to hurl against the current
US forces, 90% of its ordinance having been destroyed.
-
- That update brings us to today. How do these two Goliaths
compare? IISS reports that the total armed forces in active service in
Iraq numbers 424,000. There are an additional 650,000 reservists. The Army
has 375,000 including 100,000 recalled reserves with, perhaps, 2200 main
battle tanks. The Navy has an overwhelming force of 2000 men overseeing
a fleet of 1 frigate, 5 patrol and coastal vessels, and 3 mine sweepers!
The Air Force has 30,000 men with about 6 bombers and about 316 fighter
aircraft. The Airforce Command has an additional 17,000 personnel.
-
- By contrast, if the US deployed the same number of troops
as it did in 1991, they would outnumber the Iraqi forces by 236,000. Eleven
years ago the US had 100 strike aircraft equipped with precision-guided
bombs and an unidentified number of aircraft with conventional bombs. The
Washington Post reported on Tuesday, December 10, 2002 that the aircraft
carrier USS Harry Truman "left Virginia last week at the head of a
naval group. The Truman carries about 70 strike jets. The group has a supplement
of three other battle groups, each with carriers holding 70 aircraft."
That's a total of 210 aircraft on its way to Iraq not including the numbers
that are already stationed in the vicinity.
-
- In a December 8, 2002 report the Post provided some troop
numbers available for service should war come. "About 55,000 soldiers,
sailors and Air Force personnel are within striking distance of Iraq "
But that number does not include the forces on board the ships at sea;
each carrier carries about 5,000 sailors and personnel or an additional
15,000. But the 5th fleet is currently deployed in the Persian Gulf with
a listing of sailors and marines that exceeds 20,000. These behemoths of
the sea carry more than 4.6 million pounds of air launched missiles, laser-guided
bombs, general purpose bombs, and ammunition (Washington Post, "US
Strength in the Persian Gulf"). That same report lists 8,000 Air Force
personnel and over 100 aircraft based in Saudi Arabia, two dozen fighter
jets in Bahrain, 12 F-117 stealth fighter jets in Kuwait, 3 bombers in
Bahrain, and 14 B-52 bombers at the island of Diego Garcia. These figures
do not include support ordinance.
-
- If we assume that the US intends to match its numbers
from 1991 to invade Iraq, it would not only deploy 236,000 more troops
than its foe; it will have available from the 5th fleet (in information
reported in February of 1998 by the Washington Post) the USS Washington,
USS Independence, USS Harry Truman, 2 Cruisers, 5 Destroyers, 3 Guided
Missile Frigates, 2 Attack Submarines, 3 Fast Combat Support Ships, 2 Mine
Countermeasure Ships, the USS Guam Amphibious Ready Group of 3 additional
ships; it will have over 8,000 Air Force personnel from Jabir Air Base
in Kuwait with 36 aircraft, Incirlik Air base in Turkey with 24, Sheik
Isa Airfield in Bahrain with 40, and about 100 aircraft in Saudi Arabia;
it will also have Army personnel, some 7,000 stationed at Kuwait plus the
untold numbers being deployed from bases around the world. That puts potential
US naval personnel at approximately 18,760. Enough personnel to subdue
the 2000 sailors that Saddam will deploy, one would hope.
-
- Finally, a few figures on the relative size of the combatants:
Iraq land area amounts to 167,000 square miles, its population approximately
22 million; the US by contrast contains 3,537,438 square miles, or to put
this point into greater resolution, New York City has 119.6 square miles
of area with population density exceeding 25,000, and a 2000 population
count that approximates 280 million. Iraq's population is about 7.9% the
size of the US population, with a land mass just 4.7% of the US. But that
does not tell the whole story. US Armed Forces strength as of September
30, 2002 totals
- 1,385,116 not including the Coast Guard. The US has a
larger Army than Iraq has total forces,
- 480,801 to 400,000. Indeed, the US Navy has almost as
many forces, 377,810 and the Air Force is not far behind at 353,571 (DOD).
The US has 3.27 times as many forces as Iraq.
-
- That is the "Tale of the Tape." Once again
the US takes on the worst threats to America: Nicaragua, Granada, Kadafi's
Castle, and now Iraq. Considering how the US and its allies defeated Iraq
eleven years ago in 90 days with a total death count of 293 (many killed
by friendly fire), decimated the Iraqi Air Force, wiped out its supply
of tanks and armored personnel carriers, and, in the process, effected
one of the worst slaughters ever recorded at the "Highway of Death,"
one would think that a wounded Iraq would be no match for the new Empire
of the World. What does the behemoth fear? Or is all this practice for
the future when some upstart nation decides that it, too, would like more
military toys and the President has to kick in his International Strategy
Policy Report to curb their desires and we reduce that nation to rubble?
Or is this action against Iraq a showpiece of US might to demonstrate to
the world that no one had better "Mess with Texas"?
-
- Let's consider how this nation comported itself in 1991
and hope beyond all hope that we do not repeat that behavior. Here is a
passage from Jack Barnes' work "The Opening Guns of World War III:
Washington's Assault on Iraq."
-
- "The most concentrated single bloodletting was organized
by the US command in the final forty-eight hours of the invasion, as Iraqi
soldiers fled Kuwait along the roads to Basra Washington ordered that tens
of thousands of fleeing Iraqi soldiers be targeted for wave after wave
of bombing, strafing, and shelling. These were people who were putting
up no resistance, many with no weaponsleaving in cars, trucks, carts, and
on foot. Many civilians from Iraq, Kuwait, and immigrant workers from other
countries were killed at the same time as they tried to flee.
-
- "The US armed forces bombed one end of the main
highway from Kuwait city to Basra, sealing it off. They bombed the other
end of the highway and sealed it off. They positioned mechanized artillery
units on the hills overlooking it. And then, from the air and from the
land they simply massacred every living thing on the road. Fighter bombers,
helicopter gunships, and armored battalions poured merciless firepower
on traffic jams backed up for as much as twenty miles. When the traffic
became grid locked, the B-52s were sent in for carpet bombing." Our
forces did not wait for the fleeing people to surrender, they did not surround
them and force them to surrender, they just exterminated them. Americans
never heard about the "Highway of Death," they just paid for
it, a slaughter that, in Barnes' words "ranks among the great atrocities
of modern warfare."
-
- Given the forces being assembled to destroy Iraq, the
probability of our forces again using such devastating tactics against
the weakest of enemies is all too likely. That possibility alone should
deter us from allowing this President, son of the man who made possible
the "Highway of Death," to carry out his vengeance in our name.
-
- William Cook is a professor of English at the University
of La Verne in southern California. His new book, Psalms for the 21st Century,
will be published by Mellen Press in January. He can be reached at: <mailto:cookb@ULV.EDU>cookb@ULV.EDU
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