|
CounterPunch
December
23, 2002
US v. Iraq the
Tale of the Tape:
The Road to Basra and Back
by WILLIAM A. COOK
As the US military sets up offices in Qatar and
prepares for war, I thought it might be an interesting exercise
to compare the combatants. As a kid, I'd come home from the last
days of elementary school in June ready to listen to the Lewis/Conn
fights on the radio. My Dad would set up a gambling pool of winner
rounds selected by chance from slips of paper taken from a hat.
He'd then show us the "Tale of the Tape." I remember
the importance of the comparison of the fighters as a measure
of the fairness of the fight. So what does the "Tale of
the Tape" tell us about the Iraq vs US combatants?
It was fairly easy to find figures on
the US forces from the Department of Defense. In addition, CNN.com
"In Depth Specials" provides Gulf War Facts for the
first war against Iraq and the Washington Post offers
a site that gives figures for US strength in the Persian Gulf
in 1998. The most recent 2002 figures are not readily available
since that might disclose current strength and positions to the
enemy. Statistics for Iraq are not quite so available although
I was able to find figures for Iraq's military through the International
Institute for Strategic Studies and supplementary material on
www.alertnet.org. In addition, Seattlepi.com has a special Iraq
facts report that provides demographic information and World
Factbook has alternative information on Iraq military power.
We have heard from the likes of Richard
Pearle (American Enterprise Institute) that Iraq's forces are
about a third of what they were in 1991 as a result of coalition
destruction of their military. We also know that the sanctions
have devastated the civilian population's health and wealth.
The UN has marked the estimated number of children dead as a
result of the sanctions, approximately one and one half million,
thus reducing the number of potential recruits reaching enlistment
age. But Iraq, we are told, still pose a threat and must be dealt
with immediately.
The CNN report tabulates the number of
Iraqi soldiers in the 1991 war in this way: 100,000 Iraqi soldiers
died (Human Rights groups tabulate more than that), 300,000 wounded,
150,000 deserted and 60,000 taken prisoner. Baghdad lists 35,000
civilians killed. Those figures are not easy to read. Do we subtract
the 150,000 deserters and the 60,000 prisoners from the 300,000
wounded? Would that mean that Iraq's military forces amounted
to 400,000 total? Let's assume that is so; we now must reduce
that number by two thirds to meet the estimate provided by Pearle
or roughly 130,000. One is tempted to hope they are from the
deserter pool!
Now as we draw the comparison with American
and coalition forces in that first war we find the following:
the US had more than 500,000 troops in the War while non-US forces
added up to an additional 160,000. US wounded tallied 467, British
24, French 2. US casualties were 148 battle deaths and 145 nonbattle
deaths and allied Arab casualties numbered 39. That means that
the US suffered 293 deaths to Iraq's 100,000, not counting the
35,000 civilians killed or 460 times as many Iraqi dead as US
forces.
Before and during the brief war, the
US flew more than 116,000 air sorties losing 75 aircraft. Iraq
on the other hand lost 36 fixed wing aircraft, 6 helicopters,
87 aircraft lost on the ground, 3,700 tanks, 2,400 assorted armored
vehicles, 19 naval ships sunk, 42 divisions made combat-ineffective,
and 2,600 artillery pieces destroyed. Aside from aircraft losses,
the US lists no other equipment losses. Since the Iraqi forces
consisted, at the time, of 4,280 tanks reduced to 580, and 2,870
assorted vehicles reduced to 471, and 3,110 artillery pieces
reduced to 510, the available hardware for this upcoming war
appears rather thin. However, Iraq does have the potential, perhaps,
to recover 137 aircraft flown to Iran although the reason they
left Iraq appears to be that they could not compete with US and
British aircraft. However one looks at it, Iraq has about 15%
of its former ordinance to hurl against the current US forces,
90% of its ordinance having been destroyed.
That update brings us to today. How do
these two Goliaths compare? IISS reports that the total armed
forces in active service in Iraq numbers 424,000. There are an
additional 650,000 reservists. The Army has 375,000 including
100,000 recalled reserves with, perhaps, 2200 main battle tanks.
The Navy has an overwhelming force of 2000 men overseeing a fleet
of 1 frigate, 5 patrol and coastal vessels, and 3 mine sweepers!
The Air Force has 30,000 men with about 6 bombers and about 316
fighter aircraft. The Airforce Command has an additional 17,000
personnel.
By contrast, if the US deployed the same
number of troops as it did in 1991, they would outnumber the
Iraqi forces by 236,000. Eleven years ago the US had 100 strike
aircraft equipped with precision-guided bombs and an unidentified
number of aircraft with conventional bombs. The Washington
Post reported on Tuesday, December 10, 2002 that the aircraft
carrier USS Harry Truman "left Virginia last week at the
head of a naval group. The Truman carries about 70 strike jets.
The group has a supplement of three other battle groups, each
with carriers holding 70 aircraft." That's a total of 210
aircraft on its way to Iraq not including the numbers that are
already stationed in the vicinity.
In a December 8, 2002 report the Post
provided some troop numbers available for service should
war come. "About 55,000 soldiers, sailors and Air Force
personnel are within striking distance of Iraq " But that
number does not include the forces on board the ships at sea;
each carrier carries about 5,000 sailors and personnel or an
additional 15,000. But the 5th fleet is currently deployed in
the Persian Gulf with a listing of sailors and marines that exceeds
20,000. These behemoths of the sea carry more than 4.6 million
pounds of air launched missiles, laser-guided bombs, general
purpose bombs, and ammunition (Washington Post, "US
Strength in the Persian Gulf"). That same report lists 8,000
Air Force personnel and over 100 aircraft based in Saudi Arabia,
two dozen fighter jets in Bahrain, 12 F-117 stealth fighter jets
in Kuwait, 3 bombers in Bahrain, and 14 B-52 bombers at the island
of Diego Garcia. These figures do not include support ordinance.
If we assume that the US intends to match
its numbers from 1991 to invade Iraq, it would not only deploy
236,000 more troops than its foe; it will have available from
the 5th fleet (in information reported in February of 1998 by
the Washington Post) the USS Washington, USS Independence,
USS Harry Truman, 2 Cruisers, 5 Destroyers, 3 Guided Missile
Frigates, 2 Attack Submarines, 3 Fast Combat Support Ships, 2
Mine Countermeasure Ships, the USS Guam Amphibious Ready Group
of 3 additional ships; it will have over 8,000 Air Force personnel
from Jabir Air Base in Kuwait with 36 aircraft, Incirlik Air
base in Turkey with 24, Sheik Isa Airfield in Bahrain with 40,
and about 100 aircraft in Saudi Arabia; it will also have Army
personnel, some 7,000 stationed at Kuwait plus the untold numbers
being deployed from bases around the world. That puts potential
US naval personnel at approximately 18,760. Enough personnel
to subdue the 2000 sailors that Saddam will deploy, one would
hope. Oh, in addition to the above, the US and Britain has pulverized
Iraqi air defense over the past year by attacking 80 installations,
a way of ensuring air superiority before we start a war.
Finally, a few figures on the relative
size of the combatants: Iraq land area amounts to 167,000 square
miles, its population approximately 22 million; the US by contrast
contains 3,537,438 square miles, or to put this point into greater
resolution, New York City has 119.6 square miles of area with
population density exceeding 25,000, and a 2000 population count
that approximates 280 million. Iraq's population is about 7.9%
the size of the US population, with a land mass just 4.7% of
the US. But that does not tell the whole story. US Armed Forces
strength as of September 30, 2002 totals 1,385,116 not including
the Coast Guard. The US has a larger Army than Iraq has total
forces, 480,801 to 400,000. Indeed, the US Navy has almost as
many forces, 377,810 and the Air Force is not far behind at 353,571
(DOD). The US has 3.27 times as many forces as Iraq.
That is the "Tale of the Tape."
Once again the US takes on the worst threats to America: Nicaragua,
Granada, Kadafi's Castle, and now Iraq. Considering how the US
and its allies defeated Iraq eleven years ago in 90 days with
a total death count of 293 (many killed by friendly fire), decimated
the Iraqi Air Force, wiped out its supply of tanks and armored
personnel carriers, and, in the process, effected one of the
worst slaughters ever recorded at the "Highway of Death,"
one would think that a wounded Iraq would be no match for the
new Empire of the World. What does the behemoth fear? Or is all
this practice for the future when some upstart nation decides
that it, too, would like more military toys and the President
has to kick in his International Strategy Policy Report to curb
their desires and we reduce that nation to rubble? Or is this
action against Iraq a showpiece of US might to demonstrate to
the world that no one had better "Mess with Texas"?
Whatever its purpose, it will inscribe for all the world, not
least the Iraqi people, how the US and its citizens comport themselves
against a helpless nation.
Let's consider how this nation comported
itself in 1991 and hope beyond all hope that we do not repeat
that behavior. Here is a passage from Jack Barnes' work "The
Opening Guns of World War III: Washington's Assault on Iraq."
"The most concentrated single bloodletting
was organized by the US command in the final forty-eight hours
of the invasion, as Iraqi soldiers fled Kuwait along the roads
to Basra Washington ordered that tens of thousands of fleeing
Iraqi soldiers be targeted for wave after wave of bombing, strafing,
and shelling. These were people who were putting up no resistance,
many with no weaponsleaving in cars, trucks, carts, and on foot.
Many civilians from Iraq, Kuwait, and immigrant workers from
other countries were killed at the same time as they tried to
flee.
"The US armed forces bombed one
end of the main highway from Kuwait city to Basra, sealing it
off. They bombed the other end of the highway and sealed it off.
They positioned mechanized artillery units on the hills overlooking
it. And then, from the air and from the land they simply massacred
every living thing on the road. Fighter bombers, helicopter gunships,
and armored battalions poured merciless firepower on traffic
jams backed up for as much as twenty miles. When the traffic
became grid locked, the B-52s were sent in for carpet bombing."
Our forces did not wait for the fleeing people to surrender,
they did not surround them and force them to surrender, they
just exterminated them. Americans never heard about the "Highway
of Death," they just paid for it, a slaughter that, in Barnes'
words "ranks among the great atrocities of modern warfare."
Given the forces being assembled to destroy
Iraq, the probability of our forces again using such devastating
tactics against the weakest of enemies is all too likely. That
possibility alone should deter us from allowing this President,
son of the man who made possible the "Highway of Death,"
to carry out his vengeance in our name.
William Cook
is a professor of English at the University of La Verne in southern
California. His new book, Psalms for the 21st Century,
will be published by Mellen Press in January. He can be reached
at: cookb@ULV.EDU
Yesterday's
Features
Sean Carter
The Bush
Rape Story
Why is the Media Ignoring Zippergate 2?
Francis Boyle
What Are
Bush's Intentions Toward Palestine?
David Vest
Meet the
New Southern Strategy
Same as the Old Southern Strategy
Sayed Moustafa Al-qazwini
Will Bush Betray Iraqis Once Again?
Mahbubul Karin (Sohel)
Is This
Really Happening?
Mass Arrests of Muslim and Jewish Immigrants
CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- CounterPunch Special:
The Persecution of Gershon Legman by Susan Davis: Smut, the Post Office, Commies
and the FBI;
- Reeling Democrats: Is Pelosi the Answer?
- Gandhi v. Hitler: the Secret Race for the Nobel
Prize;
- Sullying Mario Savio's
Memory;
- Lynching Then and Now;
- Earn While You Learn: Chris Whittle and Child Labor;
The Case of the Pompous
Professor;
- The Class Struggle in
Boston: All that
Effort, But What Did They Get?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
December 10,
2002
Carol Norris
Help Wanted:
US Government Looking for a Few Qualified Applicants
Tom Gorman
With Liberators
Like These, Who Needs Conquerors?
Linda Heard
Spies,
Snitches and Eyes in the Sky
Josh Ruebner
Striking
with Impunity
Joanne Mariner
You Have
No Right to Remain Silent
December 9,
2002
Adam Engel
Great Expectations:
an Immodest Proposal
Roldan Tomasz
Suárez
What Really
Happened in Altamira Plaza?
Robert Jensen
Bob Woodward's
Bush Hagiography
William Hughes
Berrigan's
Final Warning
Uri Avnery
Why Does
the Leopard Change His Spots?
Netanyahu and Likud
Gary Leupp
Religious
Intolerance Then and Now
Hammond Guthrie
In a
Moment's Time
(for Philip Berrigan)
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|