How Desert Storm Destroyed the US Military
By Ray Starmann

The US military that won Desert Storm or Gulf War I in 1991 was a spectacular military, a gargantuan industrial age military with high tech weaponry and well trained personnel, that when called upon, achieved victory with the speed of Patton and the elan of Teddy Roosevelt.\

Overlooking the vast eight mile carnage on the Highway of Death in Kuwait, destruction that was caused by a US Air Force and Navy that bore almost no resemblance to the two services now, a sergeant in the 7th US Cavalry remarked, “America sure got its money’s worth from those Joes.”

In 44 days, the largest military force assembled by the US and its allies since Normandy destroyed the world’s fourth largest army in a brilliantly led, fabulously executed air and ground war in the sands of the Middle East.

The ghosts of Vietnam were vanquished by men who had experienced the horrors and strategic errors of that war and who inculcated those lessons to the personnel they led.

Both General Colin Powell and the late General Norman Schwarzkopf had both served multiple tours in Vietnam and their experiences there made them highly skeptical of the press and its intentions.Therefore, no reporters were embedded with combat units during the war.The world was given a Nintendo video game, sanitized version of a war; while albeit short, had many elements of the nastiness of wars past, but appeared to be nothing more than a high tech cake walk.

Because there were no journalists in the field, the world never saw H.R McMaster, the President’s National Security Adviser, who was then a captain in the 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment, fighting the Tawakalna Division of the Republican Guard at a now famous grid line dubbed the 73 Easting.

On McMaster’s left flank, the scouts from the 4th Squadron, 7th Cavalry were also battling the Tawakalna and the ghosts of the Little Big Horn, at a nameless speck of desert landscape known as Phase Line Bullet.Later that night, grunts and tankers from the 1st Infantry Division, the Big Red One, hit the Guard at Objective Norfolk and before the night was over, found themselves engaged in close quarters fighting with fanatical Guardsmen in a place most of them want to forget, but can’t. Two days before, the Big Red One had spent the opening hours of the war burying Iraqis in the trenches alive with bulldozers.

On G Day +3, the US 1st Armored Division hammered the Iraqi Al-Medina Division of the Republican Guard at a place now known as Medina Ridge. The Battle of Medina Ridge was to date the largest tank battle since Kursk in 1943.

On the left flank of Lieutenant General Fred Franks’ VII Corps was the XVIIIth Airborne Corps, which included the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division. The 24th Mech was led by the extremely aggressive, highly competent and definitely non-PC, Major General Barry McCaffrey. The first two days of the ground war, the 24th Mech raced across the Iraqi desert, heading towards its objectives in the Tigris-Euphrates Valley.On February 26, 1991, the 24th Mech advanced through the valley and captured Iraqi airfields at Jabbah and Tallil. At the airfields, it encountered entrenched resistance from the Iraqi 37th and 49th Infantry Divisions, as well as the 6th Nebuchadnezzar Mechanized Division of the Iraqi Republican Guard. The 24th;s Task Force Tusker attacked entrenched Iraqi forces on February 26th to seize battle position 143, effectively severing the Iraqi Euphrates River Valley line of communication to the Kuwait Theater of operation and destroying the major combat elements of the Iraqi Republican Guard Forces Command’s elite 26th Commando Brigade.[Despite some of the most fierce resistance of the war, the 24th Mechanized Infantry Division destroyed the Iraqi formations and captured the two airfields the next day. The 24th then moved east with VII Corps and engaged several Iraqi Republican Guard divisions on the last day of the conflict.

Two days after the Gulf War ended, on March 2, 1991, elements of the 24th Mech were fired on by the Iraqi Hammurabi Division of the Republican Guard, which was retreating north in a five mile long convoy. McCaffrey ordered his division to destroy the Hammurabi and by the end of the day, the 24th Mech had annihilated the division, destroying 187 armored vehicles, 43 artillery pieces, and over 400 trucks. The Battle of Rumaila Oilfield was a classic showcase of the kind of warrior aggression the US military’s senior leaders used to display, but which, in the era of the perfumed prince with stars has all but disappeared. Barry McCaffrey would last about five minutes on active duty today, as would Norman Schwarzkopf.McCaffrey and Schwarzkopf are the type of generals who win wars. What do the the generals do now?

Yet, the world saw none of those battles being fought as they saw no Marines storming through Kuwait. There were no journalists; hence no video, no film, no photos; nothing to show the world except a few shots of B Roll of the Iraqi Army surrendering to Marines on the border. To the American public, the Iraqis were surrendering en masse, when in actuality the Republican Guard was going down with the ship. For example, the 10,000 man Tawakalna Division was virtually annihilated, including the division commander who died in an artillery barrage on the night of February 26, 1991.

While General Schwarkopf’s power point presentations enlightened the world, the soldiers and Marines found themselves in a Dante’s Inferno, with smoldering vehicles, dead Iraqi soldiers strewn over tank turrets in a man-made darkness of oil fires that smothered any sunlight and the vast remnants of an army, which littered the battlefield: rifles, helmets, sundry equipment and arms and legs that were picked at by packs of roving wild dogs.

War is hell…but the American public never knew.

The day Desert Storm ended, the death of the US military commenced.The Pentagon, basking in glory and bowing to pressure from the public and crackpot feminists like Patricia Schroeder, started drinking the Kool Aid and they’ve never stopped. The war was a video game, a clean, quick rout. Modern war was now sanitized, where the bad guys would die at stand-off ranges of a mile or two and explode in little black and white pixels on Pentagon TV screens. In fact, war was now so quick and so easy that women should be allowed to serve in the combat arms and Special Forces.

Our victory in Desert Storm became the catalyst for every left wing wacko to hack at the military with a meat cleaver.

Since, 1991, the US military has been slowly coming apart at the seams. Stress cards, open homosexuality, transgenders on active duty, sensitivity training, pregnancy simulators for male troopers, lactation stations in the field, babies born on US ships of war, female graduates of Ranger School, including a 37 year old mother (it’s funny how the women looked so well fed), women in the SEALs, women in Marine infantry units and females in the field artillery (even though most cannot carry a 155mm round) are just some of the insanity that has taken place in the last 26 years, but which snowballed into hell under the Obama administration.

A social revolution engulfed the military, starting with Tailhook and continuing to this day. Warriors were forced out and feather merchants and PC flag bearers were promoted. Girl power was in and masculinity was out. The warrior culture was buried and a new culture was reborn that resembles corporate America, not the US military of yesteryear.

No, General Kennedy, it’s not your father’s army and that’s a problem, a big, festering problem.

And, now, with the world in flames, with ISIS blowing up Europe, with Putin pumping weights in the Arctic while he watches his BMP’s on skis roll by, with Kim Jong-Loon on the loose with a toy chest of nukes and missiles and with Iran figuring out that Trump ain’t Barney Fife, the US military needs to be rougher and tougher and more ready for a fight than ever.And, we ain’t. And, that’s the fact, Jack.

Many are waiting for Mad Dog Mattis to stick a pike in the heart of the military’s social engineering forever.We are still waiting…Perhaps, Secretary Mattis is so busy dealing with the thugs on the planet, that he has forgotten that the armed forces that will be engaging the thugs is still in trouble.

Secretary Mattis must once and for all shut down the feminist fantasy of women in the combat arms. There are thousands of jobs for women in the military where they can serve honorably and be promoted, without, in Mattis’ own words, ‘setting themselves up for failure in combat.’

Mattis also needs to get rid of the perfumed princes, and the feckless duds who have infested the senior ranks of the armed forces. I would rather have a sergeant with guts running a division than a two star coward who is more worried about his pension and future job on cable news than the mission and the troops.

The US military is still being led by people who believe that the military is nothing different than working for Google, except that the military has uniforms and weapons. When you eschew the glorious traditions of the military and combine that with ludicrous social engineering, you are setting yourself up for massive failure.

While the US military interpreted the results of Desert Storm incorrectly, the real lessons from that conflict are crystal clear. The US military functioned well in an environment that focused on the mission, not on political correctness, LGBT rights, day care centers on submarines and breastfeeding Rangers.

With our enemies stacking up against us, time is running out to fix the problems which were initially caused by a victory 26 years ago, in a war that has largely been forgotten.

Article source and comments found at:
http://usdefensewatch.com/2017...yed-the-us-military/

Pretty much. Now we just play patty cake while getting our men and women killed for no reason.

WTF. Article makes no sense.

Did this guy get paid to write this?

----------------------------------------------

That article makes perfect sense. That is exactly what is wrong with the military today. I was in 40 plus years and saw this coming over 30 years ago. The first thing that caught my attention was the switch from manual transmissions to automatics in the trucks. This was to accommodate the women and soda jerks. It was downhill from then on.
SSG Ret.
TN & TX ARNG
66-06
SCV

quote:

Originally posted by Sig209:
WTF. Article makes no sense.

Did this guy get paid to write this?

----------------------------------------------

What exactly is your beef with the article?

Seems to be dead on in my opinion.

The strategy they used to win the war is classified but the article does give some hints.

It is all about technology.

I personally think that leaving the press back on bases was a good idea. War is hell and not necessarily made for prime time consumption although those that have not served must never forget that.

Sounds a lot like our post WW2 hangover. We were so badass and no conventional war would ever happen again thanks to nukes. Got a disturbing number of our guys killed in Korea.

I would say it was clinton's two terms of social experimentation that did it. . .

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
I would say it was clinton's two terms of social experimentation that did it. . .

Bingo.

The problems weren't "caused by a victory 26 years ago", they were caused by liberalism.

quote:

Originally posted by Gustofer:

quote:

Originally posted by Hound Dog:
I would say it was clinton's two terms of social experimentation that did it. . .

Bingo.

The problems weren't "caused by a victory 26 years ago", they were caused by liberalism.

+1

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

What exactly is your beef with the article?

Seems to be dead on in my opinion.

The points about the victory in the Gulf War and the situation today are correct, but he fails to establish a connection between them. The former didn't cause the latter.

While there are solid points in this article, most of them are dulled by the accompanying idiocy from the author.

The majority of troops don't give a fuck about the race, gender, sexuality, etc. of the uniformed fuck next to them. Are you qualified? Can you fight enough to save my ass? Done, enemies that way.

Sure, be pissed that social engineering is lowering standards to achieve a more "representative force," but don't discard the folks that can meet or exceed the standards just because their tackle box has a different load out. Yes, women getting knocked up in the middle of a deployment activation weakens the team, but don't through away the ones that know how to keep their legs together.

The Israeli Defense force seems to do well with women in combat roles, as well as other nations. If you're building an all volunteer force, why discard half of the population when looking at your resource pool?

Are there problems? Yes. Are they as bad as this asshat would have you think? No.

That guy is full of shit. Yes our military has its problems mostly inflicted by the past national command authority and political charlatans. And it could be better. But anyone who has looked inside an American warfighting unit of today will find some of the best trained, best educated, most lethal, and best led warriors we have ever produced. They are trying their best with what they have, in the manner of all our warriors since Washington's time. We have to remember that some elements of our military have been continuously at war since 1991. The people and their equipment are war weary, but they are also the most experienced in combat in US military history. The guy who wrote this drivel cannot have spent much time recently with professional warriors.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

What exactly is your beef with the article?

Seems to be dead on in my opinion.

The points about the victory in the Gulf War and the situation today are correct, but he fails to establish a connection between them. The former didn't cause the latter.

The way I read it is that the author is saying that the sanitized coverage did not convey the real fighting and carnage that occurred and that gave cover to the social tinkerers who said "See, modern warfare is all electronic and done from a distance, no need for any of that 'toxic masculinity' in the ranks or leadership".

I knew about using bulldozers to bury the Guard alive from my high school friend that did it.

He ain't been right since. Never had a career, marriage or stable home.

He was one of the smartest people I knew.

He also told me they shot shoulder fired missiles into surrendering guards bunkers.

Here is what got you the Military of today:
The replacement of CONUS billets for technical rates by government contractors. Instead of building human capital by having sea-returnees working in industrial shops rebuilding valves, pumps, etc, these jobs were replaced with contractors.

Acquisition Process and Political Favors: There are military programs that continue solely because it gets politicians elected. (F-22, LCS, Abrams, etc.s).

quote:

Originally posted by BamaJeepster:

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

What exactly is your beef with the article?

Seems to be dead on in my opinion.

The points about the victory in the Gulf War and the situation today are correct, but he fails to establish a connection between them. The former didn't cause the latter.

The way I read it is that the author is saying that the sanitized coverage did not convey the real fighting and carnage that occurred and that gave cover to the social tinkerers who said "See, modern warfare is all electronic and done from a distance, no need for any of that 'toxic masculinity' in the ranks or leadership".

That's right, and he's also saying that the social engineering in the military has wreaked havoc. I've been waiting for "Mad Dog" Mattis to turn that around, but it hasn't happened yet.

Desert Storm was about 1/2 way through my Naval career, and I was there attached to VF-2.

The degradation of the Navy was indicative of the subject within the article.

Desert Storm: grab someone by the floatcoat and forcibly pull them out of the landing area because they were fouling the flightdeck - get high fives all around.

2005: grab someone by the floatcoat and forcibly pull them out of the landing area because they were fouling the flightdeck - get sent to medical for a psych eval (followed by the threat of CO's mast for assault) and anger management classes once cruise is finished.

Those both did occur to the same person with the only delta where the "grabber" was a SCPO vs PO2 (same person). As luck would have it, I witnessed both instances and was told "this is not how the navy is now. The SCPO should have found other methods to get the airman out of imminent danger."

Also on the final cruise - how about the PO3 getting snippy with the mess crank because she (the PO3) wanted chicken breast, not the thighs the mess crank was trying to serve her. Telling the PO3 to "get the fuck out of the line, people from the flightdeck are hungry" earned that PO1 an attempted chastising by a freshly frocked CPO because the PO3 "thought her boyfriend was going to propose when the ship returned to San Diego and she is trying to lose weight."

That is what the navy turned into.

quote:

Originally posted by egregore:

quote:

Originally posted by Balzé Halzé:

What exactly is your beef with the article?

Seems to be dead on in my opinion.

The points about the victory in the Gulf War and the situation today are correct, but he fails to establish a connection between them. The former didn't cause the latter.

This - big-time. Grasping at straws.

I agree with the current problems he mentions. And they are problems. But linking them to Desert Shield / Desert Storm is weak. Did he eat paint chips as a child? It's like he had a bag of 10 possible 'causes' and put them in a bag, shook it up and out came 'Desert Storm' to pin the blame on.

Is this guy 25 years old? I recall DS being massively covered by the media. It was not sanitized.

Maybe my standards are too exacting but his argument is weak.


-------------------------------------------