Research Catalog

Cradle of conflict : Iraq and the birth of modern U.S. military power

Title: Cradle of conflict : Iraq and the birth of modern U.S. military power / Michael Andrew Knights.
Author: Knights, Michael.
Publication: Annapolis, Md. : Naval Institute Press, 2005.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Use in library	DS79.76 .K62 2005	Off-site

Details

Description

xxiii, 462 pages : maps; 24 cm

Summary

"Unlike other books about the war in Iraq, this study covers operations Desert Storm and Iraqi Freedom and all the smaller operations in between. The result is a detailed military narrative of America's struggle against Iraq's Baathists between 1990 and 2005. This unique perspective sets the scene for a new and constructive critique of U.S. military power and the asymmetric resistance capabilities of U.S. adversaries at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Threading together the political-military and military-technical aspects of the struggle, Michael Knights traces the evolution of the threat posed by Saddam Hussein's regime and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of the military approaches used by the United States to contain and finally roll back the threat." "A recognized authority on U.S. military operations in the Persian Gulf, the author was given insider access to American military and political decision makers who had hands-on experience of operations in Iraq. Drawing on twenty-seven months of interviews and research, he provides information that has never before been released, including the first unclassified accounts of such operations as Desert Strike, Desert Fox, Northern Watch, Southern Watch, and Southern Focus." "Arguing that operations in Iraq can be effectively analyzed only if considered as a continuum, Knights assesses how political objectives become military objectives and how military objectives guide military-technical operations. This thoughtful work is essential reading for anyone seeking to understand the factors and actions that limit U.S. military power in practice rather than in theory."--Jacket.

Subject

Genre/Form

Military history

Bibliography (note)

Includes bibliographical references (p. 417 - 441) and index.

Contents

Preface -- Acknowledgments -- The challenge -- Raising the shield -- Iraqi "saber-rattling" -- Building the forces: Operation Desert Shield -- Intelligence preparation of the battlefield -- Knowing the enemy -- Defense-in-depth: Iraqi land-warfare capabilities -- "Kari": Iraq's integrated air-defense system -- Iraq's long-range strike capabilities -- Cold warriors in the desert -- Forging the sword -- Initial planning -- Role of air power in offensive planning -- Audacious plan -- Desert Storm -- Strategic attack -- Iraqi withholding of strategic air-defense efforts -- Empty battlefield: Scud-hunting in 1991 -- Costs and benefits of broader strategic targeting -- On balance: the strategic air campaign -- Desert Saber -- Air-land battle -- Cluttered battlefield -- "Plinking" tanks and other targets in the KTO -- Bomb-damage assessment in Desert Storm -- Assessing and controlling the preparation of the battlefield -- Ground war begins -- Failure to trap the Republican Guard -- Postwar characterization of Desert Storm -- The war between the wars -- After the storm -- U.S. responses to ongoing Iraqi resistance -- Failure of the 1991 uprisings against Saddam -- Postwar resistance to the cease-fire terms -- Creation of a southern no-fly zone -- Building to crisis -- January 1993 strikes on Iraq -- "Tomahawk diplomacy" -- June 1993 cruise-missile strike -- "Basra breakout" -- Iraq's October 1994 feint toward Kuwait -- Struggle to maintain containment -- Saddam's invasion of Kurdistan -- Operation Desert Strike -- Fallout from the era of "tomahawk diplomacy" -- "Cheat and retreat" Iraq's resistance to U.N. inspections -- Protecting the U-2 flights over Iraq -- Development of enlarged coercive options -- "Cheat-and-retreat" crises -- Disarming Iraq -- Striking the concealment mechanism -- Bulking out the target sets -- On regime change -- Last "cheat-and-retreat" episode -- Operation Desert Fox -- Reflections on Desert Fox -- Prelude to war -- The no-fly zones after Desert Fox -- Centralized execution in Operation Southern Watch -- Decentralized rollback in Operation Northern Watch -- Putting the brakes on Northern Watch -- Devolution and evolution of Iraqi air defenses by 2001 -- February 2001 strike -- Trying to back off in Operation Southern Watch -- Ending resistance -- Transitioning to war -- Planning operation Iraqi Freedom -- Operation Southern Focus and the slide to war -- Failure of "cheat and retreat" in 2003 -- Start of Operation Iraqi Freedom -- Ground before air -- Reordering Operation Iraqi Freedom -- "Shock and awe?" -- Neutering the strategic air campaign -- March on Baghdad -- Lunge northward -- Running into quicksand -- Failed deep strike against the Medina division -- "Smackdown": bombing through the sandstorm -- Entering the cities -- Shaping the coming battle for Baghdad -- End of Saddam Hussein's regime -- Ending resistance -- Challenge project -- Broader insurgency -- Defensive and offensive coalition responses -- Calibrating force -- "No-go" zones and Iraq's season of battles -- Securing the elections -- Epilog: America's fifteen-year war in Iraq -- Analyzing Iraqi resistance -- Exploitation of U.S. military weaknesses -- Challenge of ending resistance -- Endnotes -- Bibliography -- Index.

ISBN

1591144442
9781591144441

LCCN

2005021002

OCLC

ocm61151539
61151539
SCSB-14401797

Owning Institutions

Princeton University Library