Israeli Military Amazed, "Jealous" At U.S. War Against Iraq

World Tribune.com ^ | 04/14/2003 | Special to World Tribune

[Dirk McQuickly]

TEL AVIV — Israeli defense officials and military commanders have expressed amazement over the capture of one of the largest and most powerful Arab countries by what they say amounted to fewer than three U.S. Army divisions.

The officials said the U.S. strategy of avoiding enemy troop concentrations as well as exploiting combat air supremacy comprises methods far more advanced than those employed by the Israeli military.

"This has been a very strange and unprecedented war and it will take us awhile to learn what took place," Yuval Steinetz, chairman of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, said. "We will have to learn from this war and draw the conclusions."

"I am jealous of them [U.S. military]," Maj. Gen. Dan Harel, head of the Israel military's C4 directorate, said. "They have advanced in areas that we were leading in only a few years ago. They have the ability to put everything together in command and control. Our navy and air force have systems. but we have to integrate them."

Officials and military commanders agreed that the U.S. war in Iraq overshadowed the 1967 Israeli victory over four Arab countries, including Iraq. They said the United States sustained about 100 casualties in three weeks of fighting that resulted in the capture of Baghdad and most Iraqi cities. In contrast, about 600 Israeli soldiers were killed in the six days of the 1967 war, most of them in the ground battle with Egypt in the Sinai Peninsula.

[Dirk McQuickly]

World military academies will be dissecting this for years to come. Once a little distance is put between April 9th and the coming years, the words "shock and awe" will have a much different meaning. One-sixth of out military overran Iraq. The only counter seems to be an effective anti-air system, and that will require a serious leap in technology to challenge our air superiority.

Bravo, Bush, Franks, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, et al.

[Beck_isright]

Now that IS a compliment. Kudos to W's team.

V

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[week 71]

Israel is no stanger to shock and awe. They shocked and awe'ed the Arab world in six days, just 25 yrs ago.

[biblewonk]

Bravo, Bush, Franks, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, et al.

Amen!

[Hodar]

"This has been a very strange and unprecedented war and it will take us awhile to learn what took place,"

Simple, we played a game of 'Cowboys and Arabs'.

[JeeperFreeper]

Dear Despot( insert name here): If you are going to f*** with eagles, you'd better learn to fly.

[SBprone]

They are pretty darn good themselves and a lot better than they will admit.

[tomahawk]

The whole world is amazed and jealous!

[js1138]

The only counter seems to be an effective anti-air system, and that will require a serious leap in technology to challenge our air superiority.

We didn't even break a sweat in the air campaign. No use of EMPs, no tactical nukes. This is how we wage war against people we like, in full view of the press. Imagine if we were ticked off, or felt that out survival was in danger.

[eBelasco]

Key components of the strategy: pick a country that
1)is 20+ years behind you technologically
2)wants you to liberate them
3)has an army that will drop their guns at the first whiff of gunpowder
4)has no air defense capability beyond a few AAAs Meet those conditions, and execute your plan with complete excellence, and success will follow.

[Centurion2000]

The War College is going to have a field day with this one for the next couple of decades.

Never thought about it before but America has THE most battle hardened military in the world.

[kevao]

"We will have to learn from this war and draw the conclusions."

And then take out Syria, saving us the trouble.

[bedolido]

amazing article... thanks for posting

[IvanT]

I wonder if the same tactic of shock and awe would work on N. Korea?

[Centurion2000]

1)is 20+ years behind you technologically

I don't think there's a country out there that holds a candle to our troops.

Israel and Britain are close at the man to man level but we still could crush everything else.

[kevao]

I wonder if the same tactic of shock and awe would work on N. Korea?

Depends on whether N. Korea really has nukes, and how many.

[epluribus_2]

I thought the rackies got a hold of some great anti-tank missles. And I thought they had silkworms. Were they overhyped duds? Anyone? I think a silkworm did actually hit a mall in kuwait. US Navy not exactly scared.

[eBelasco]

That's true. Try wargming this strategy against a hypothetical UK or Israel-like opponent. The mismatch in resources would eventually lead to an end with the same result as in Iraq.

[Blueflag]

We did not fully disclose the munitions we employed.

Don't be surprised to find out we did employ conductive fibre element ("graphite bomb) and EMP munitions to disable certain elements of Iraqi infrastructure without physically destroying it.

Our SOFs don't just involve guys with camo paint and whisper mikes.