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Baz: There are currently 125,000 soldiers in the Gulf, which is still only half what the Joint Chiefs originally asked for. The Pentagon argued against atempting ground war in Iraq with anything less than 250,000 soldiers: Rumsfeld, who was counting on (a) the clear technological superiority of the American forces giving them a huge advantage, and (b) massive Iraqi surrenders and defections, initially wanted to do it with only 60,000.
Rumsfeld and the Chiefs, as you may have guessed, do not see eye to eye on a great many things. He's a civilian, of course, and his relationship with the military seems toi be one of mutual contempt: he derided the idea of a return to the draft by calling draftees "useless." His faith is in machines, not manpower: he sees the deployment of large numbers of troops as outmoded, Cold-War-mentality warmaking, preferring to fight the battles with a lot of gear and as few highly-trained specialists as possible.
All well and good: but in block-by-block fighting, in taking and holding a city of two million people, you need warm bodies, and lots of 'em. The Pentagon knows this, but Rumsfeld's turning the thing into a dick-measuring contest, and, lo and behold, he is the biggest dick. |
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