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War that was The Iraq War: A Military History The March 2003 invasion of Iraq had its roots
in the 1991 war to liberate Kuwait from the illegal occupation of Iraqi
forces and preempt any further adventure into Saudi Arabia. The
Americans and their numerous allies had spectacularly routed the Iraqi
forces and infrastructure in 1991 using air power in a way never seen
before in the history of warfare. The whole campaign was meticulously planned and
brilliantly executed. Such was the dominance of the invading forces that
a US general described hitting Iraqi targets as easy hitting a
"tethered sheep". The Iraqi army was strong only on paper and
its equipment was obsolete owing to the sanctions in place for more than
a decade. As the authors have aptly put, an army (Iraqi) whose main task
is to prosecute its citizens can never defend the country from outside
invasion because its focus is on regime defending and this has ill
effect on the training and morale of the troops —an earlier prime
example being the 1991 war and the 1982 Falklands conflict in which the
Argentinian armed forces were outclassed by the British in spite of
having better equipment. Even the famed Republican Guard divisions—
the elite of the Iraqi army— were unable to play any part in stopping
the invading army. Primarily because their command and control structure
was decimated and secondly they were, realistically, no more effective
than the regular conscripts. Air power once again played a major part
in this war too. The allies had more precision guided ammunition in 2003
and used unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) more extensively to gather
intelligence, both strategically and tactically. Special forces were
deployed—small teams of British, American and Australian special
forces were plying their trade much before the war started, unlike the
previous Gulf war—and they were the eyes and ears of the commanders
and played a stellar role in identifying the targets and assessing the
strength and morale of the Iraqi forces. On the whole what won the war
was the quality of the material, both human and equipment, on the
winning side. From the generals down to the foot soldier or marine,
competency was the key, and they had it in ample supply. The generals
gave the soldiers on the ground a plan and they implemented it. No
questions asked. There were no retreats or setbacks as the Iraqis were
hardly given any space to manoeuvre, regroup or counter-attack as they
were constantly on the run. They could not even hide either as day or
night, in rain or sandstorm their movement and positions were constantly
monitored by the surveillance platforms ranging from the humble UAV to
satellites in space and special forces deployed much ahead of the
advancing troops. The Iraq war is a very good read and easily the one
of the best accounts of the 2003 invasion of Iraq and the subsequent
downfall of Saddam. Its a superlative account of what a superpower
backed by political willpower, first rate soldiery, state of art weapon
systems can inflict upon a nation which does not toe its line, though
now the Americans are in a quagmire in Iraq but that is a completely
different story.
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The Iraq War is an historic account
of the 2003 invasion of Iraq. It contains a brief account of the 1991
war; of how Saddam Hussein came to power and what is the Baathist
ideology and a brief history of how Iraq came into being. But the prime
focus of the book is on what brought about this war—Saddam’s weapons
of mass destruction and his supposed proximity to Al Qaida—and the
strategy employed by the US and British armed forces to overwhelm the
Iraqi army and remove Saddam from power. The authors also throw light on
the order of battle on both the sides and the tactics and weapon systems
deployed by the opposing sides and how they were used or not usedin the
case of the Iraqis.