Shock and Awe — Achieving Rapid DominanceUllman, Harlan
History
Shock and Awe — Achieving Rapid Dominance
Ullman, Harlan
Rapid dominance (Military science)
One obvious tactical objective was to eliminate Saddam Hussein's
command and control. This was accomplished by simultaneous and massive
attacks. Once command and control was destroyed, Iraqi forces in the
Kuwait Theater of Operations (KTO) would be destroyed as quickly as
possible with overwhelming force and with minimum casualties. As
General Colin Powell simply stated, "My plan is to cut off Saddam's
army and then kill it."
There was no sanctuary for Iraqi forces in the KTO. They were
completely vulnerable to unrelenting and devastating attack. Outside
the KTO, targeting was more selective, not because the means were
unavailable for imposing sufficient damage but because our military
objectives were purposely limited. Given the effectiveness of the air
campaign and the overwhelming superiority on the ground, coalition
land forces required only 4 of the 41 days of the war to defeat and to
eject Iraq's forces from Kuwait.
Suppose a _Desert Storm_-type campaign were fought 20 years from now
based on a plan that exploited the concept of Rapid Dominance. Further
assume that Iraq has improved (and rebuilt) its military and that, in
a series of simultaneous and nearly instantaneous actions, our primary
objective was still to shut Iraq down, threaten or destroy its
leadership, and isolate and destroy its military forces as we did in
1991. However, two decades hence, Rapid Dominance might conceivably
achieve this objective in a matter of days (or perhaps hours) and not
after the 6 months or the 500,000 troops that were required in 1990 to
1991. Rapid Dominance may even offer the prospect of stopping an
invasion in its tracks.
Shutting the country down would entail both the physical destruction
of appropriate infrastructure and the shutdown and control of the flow
of all vital information and associated commerce so rapidly as to
achieve a level of national shock akin to the effect that dropping
nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki had on the Japanese.
Simultaneously, Iraq's armed forces would be paralyzed with the
neutralization or destruction of its capabilities. Deception,
disinformation, and misinformation would be applied massively.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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