The mother of all press conferences

I thought this was a JBE thread on phase 2.3

If you've never seen it, his most Brutal line of the whole thing...

What is your impression of Sadam Hussein as a military strategist?

we shouldn't have stopped at the border back then, maybe we wouldn't have had to go back and start that crap all over again.

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Why did you break down?

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Well, if reading comprehension was a thing for you, you'd realize that I didn't break down, we analyzed not only the information presented in the press conference, but it's delivery. How much information do you give to answerer the public's questions, but to also protect operations security. General Schwarzkopf did a masterful job of controlling the flow of information presented. You've heard the saying in sports "Win the press conference." This is the original example of winning the press conference.

Operation Desert Shield and Desert Storm was a textbox study in logistics, planning. tactics and execution. It gave all of our military commanders at the time, who'd spent their whole careers strategizing on how to beat the Russians in maneuver warfare in open country, a chance to implement the lessons learned.

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we shouldn't have stopped at the border back then, maybe we wouldn't have had to go back and start that crap all over again.

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While this is the truth, you have to look at it with the lens of the geo-political situation at the time. We had a VERY tenuous alliance with our Arab partners. The only way we got them to participate was to reiterate that we were not there for regime change we were there to liberate a sovereign country. Ironically, it was our presence in the region in the aftermath of the war that led to the establishment of Al Qaeda and the terror attack that led to the second gulf war.

At the time, we also had to work really hard to keep Israel from retaliating against Iraq after the scud missile attacks. Had Israel retaliated it would have destroyed to coalition and it would have been us, the Israelis, Brits and the French (NATO) vs the Arab countries in the region. It would have been a bloodbath for both sides.

Stormin' Norman

That guy embodies a general. He is competent, measured, and just oozes leadership. Hell of an American.

For those that are interested, here's a video on the Battle of 73 Easting which was the major engagement between US forces and the vaunted Republican Guard.

LINK

Spoiler alter: It was a slaughter.

frick it