04/15/2003 Entry: ""
Posted by Maynard @ 12:03 PM MST
The War Ends
Since CENTCOM has declared that the fighting is "essentially over", I've decided to remove the War Clock from the sidebar. This conflict, though not completely finished, has lasted approximately 25 days. That's less time than it took the Germans to invade France, and approximately how long the Poles held out against the Germans in World War 2. Even then, Germany took only half of Poland, leaving the rest for Stalin.
Furthermore, the U.S. has sustained fewer casualties than we did in the 1991 rout of the Iraqis. As of this writing, there are 118 KIA (all causes, accidents and combat included) and 2 MIAs. This is nothing short of miraculous. We invaded a country more than 24 times the size of Kuwait, taking half the casualties, in just over half the time.
This is also the first time since the Spanish-American War that there has been no air-to-air combat in a major U.S. Military excursion, and that was before the Wright Brothers started flying! In fact, air-to-ground forces saw more action that they had trained for than their fighter pilot bretheren. Furthermore, the force that did it is smaller.
Routs of this size are seen, typically, only in fiction involving time travellers bringing exotic weapons from the future. Even then, authors tend to create more action, since that is entertaining to their readers. It is difficult to underemphasize the magnitude of this victory, until you realize that the Iraqis did not really put up a cohesize, coordinated fight. If we are able, at some unfortunate point in the future, to repeat this action against a coordinated, agressive opponent, that war will be even more impressive. Let's hope and pray it does not come to that. But if we do go to war, let's hope we have another instant celebrity, like the Iraqi Information Minister.
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