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

To: JohnM who wrote (84410)	3/21/2003 12:09:07 AM
From: stockman_scott	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 281500

Analysis: Calibrated War Makes Comeback By Thomas E. Ricks Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, March 21, 2003; Page A01 washingtonpost.com <<...The war that the U.S. military has launched in Iraq isn't the kind it has been told by Colin Powell and his peers that it should be ready to fight. Since the American policy of gradual "escalation" of military force ended in failure in Vietnam, a generation of officers has been shaped by the notion that when the nation goes to war, it must use its overwhelming power to decisively defeat enemies. But the opening phase of the latest Persian Gulf war has been marked instead by a few sharp, narrowly focused blows aimed at bringing down the government of Saddam Hussein without having to resort to a conventional, all-out attack. Over the last two days, U.S. and British forces launched about 60 cruise missiles at a few key "leadership" targets, dropped a handful of bombs, and sent Special Operations forces to reconnoiter key targets. Then they accelerated the timing of the ground war, sending several thousand troops across the border from Kuwait. Perhaps most importantly, the United States intensified a months-long psychological operations campaign aimed at turning the loyalties of the Iraqi army, or at least persuading it that resistance is futile. According to a senior Bush administration official, surrender negotiations were underway yesterday between U.S. officials and a number of Iraqi unit commanders...>> <<...Meanwhile, the war strategy now unfolding in Iraq, which Rumsfeld played a major role in shaping, begins with a restrained use of force, followed by the escalation of bombing as needed, and eventually, after the combat ends, the occupation of another country for an indeterminate time. If the plan works, the Powell Doctrine effectively will have been discarded...>>