This chapter will focus on the U.S. military’s shift from deploying large conventional fighting forces to Special Operations Forces due to America fighting a different type of enemy, radical insurgencies. America is not fighting a large conventional army like the Iraqi Army again; they are fighting insurgencies. The best way to eliminate these insurgencies is to send in SOF because they have the ability to train local militant groups behind enemy lines and perform direct action missions to eliminate these insurgencies before they spread any further. In short, this chapter focuses on the rise of terrorist backed insurgencies in Afghanistan and Iraq, which is causing the U.S. military to shift away from conventional fighting forces to SOF. Additionally,
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The air campaign was meant to weaken Iraq’s military before U.S. ground forces were sent in to remove and eliminate Iraqi forces in Kuwait. After little over a month the air campaign went on with “coalition air forces [flying] over 112,000 sorties, delivering almost 87,000 tons of munitions on the enemy.” The second phase was an attack by air to cut off and eliminate all possible escape routes from the Iraqi Army around Kuwait. The third phase artillery and air attacks were used to make the Iraqi Army less effective before the large ground campaign. On February 24th phase four initiated the large ground war when the U.S. and allied forces attacked the Iraqi Army from the western side of Kuwait’s border. At the same time ground troops were also attacking the southern part of Iraq. The attack was against the Iraqi Army’s Republican Guards, who were the elite of Saddam’s Army. The Republican Guards were defeated in a quick period of time and the conventional U.S. Army funneled into Kuwait and Iraq. The U.S. ground forces were attacking Iraq and heading to Baghdad but stopped because President George H.W. Bush declared a ceasefire once Saddam agreed to peace and would recognize Kuwait as an independent
The air campaign was meant to weaken Iraq’s military before U.S. ground forces were sent in to remove and eliminate Iraqi forces in Kuwait. After little over a month the air campaign went on with “coalition air forces [flying] over 112,000 sorties, delivering almost 87,000 tons of munitions on the enemy.” The second phase was an attack by air to cut off and eliminate all possible escape routes from the Iraqi Army around Kuwait. The third phase artillery and air attacks were used to make the Iraqi Army less effective before the large ground campaign. On February 24th phase four initiated the large ground war when the U.S. and allied forces attacked the Iraqi Army from the western side of Kuwait’s border. At the same time ground troops were also attacking the southern part of Iraq. The attack was against the Iraqi Army’s Republican Guards, who were the elite of Saddam’s Army. The Republican Guards were defeated in a quick period of time and the conventional U.S. Army funneled into Kuwait and Iraq. The U.S. ground forces were attacking Iraq and heading to Baghdad but stopped because President George H.W. Bush declared a ceasefire once Saddam agreed to peace and would recognize Kuwait as an independent