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Politics : Foreign Affairs Discussion Group -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neocon who wrote (55212)	10/28/2002 3:49:12 PM
From: carranza2	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

The first topic shall be: does precision weaponry alter the modern battlefield irrevocably, and make most predictions based on military action prior to the Gulf War futile? Absolutely not. Pollack goes into the point in considerable detail, comparing Kosovo, the Gulf War and Afghanistan in a manner which makes it clear that, while Precison Guided Munitions ("PGMs") are very helpful, they are not a panacea. The PGMs we used in Afghanistan were effective for a variety of reasons including the facts that they were used in open terrain where shrubbery and trees did not obscure aim and the enemy soldiers were a rag tag bunch of pistoleros whose loyalty was for sale and who defected to the Northern Alliance when they saw the effectiveness of modern PMGs and other weapons. However, Pollack description of the Gulf War experience, where constant bombing was the norm with some PGMs being used, is instructive. This type of air war resulted in demoralization of certain portions of Saddam's army but did not have the same effect on the highly trained Republican Guards. Modern PGMs are best suited for the destruction of open fixed targets and moving targets such as tanks that are difficult to hide. They are probably useless in urban situations where the targets can conceal themselves well. And they will have little or no effect on highly motivated, well dug-in troops. Don't get me wrong, I think they're great, but they are not the be-all and end-all some would have us think they are.