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You most certainly did say that:

Didn't the US forces have night vision goggles and radar jamming equipment, too? Why shouldn't the Iraqis have them? It still wouldn't have been even close to an equal fight.

28 posted on 01/10/2004 3:47:26 PM EST by CalKat
I also feel that the Iraqis never had a chance -- they were going up against Abrams tanks on foot. They had nothing but a gun and they were fighting our soldiers who were carrying 80 lbs. of the most advanced war material ever seen on earth. I'm not saying I wished they had a chance. But so many people I know who've been over there feel even sorry for the army they fought, because they were so outmatched.

In my town we are close to a lot of marine installations and they make no bones about the fact that they thought it was a slaugherhouse, and that wasn't what they wanted. Many people are a little torn up about it.

34 posted on 01/10/2004 8:25:46 PM EST by CalKat

When you kick in a door and move room to room a lot of the High tech don't matter.

What made us win is not one so dramatically is not one factor but several.

As stated before. Imagine going against a all volunteer force. It wasn't even really that difficult to get out of deploying (piss hot on a urinalysis). Imagine in a battalion with over 670 people, you have a whopping 2 go AWOL while on leave!!! It was so easy to just not go. But they all do.

Training. Who can train at a Brigade level and even higher like we can? A place like NTC or the warfighters (Hood) where at an organizational level the systems are debugged, tested and synchronized at even Corps levels. Where whole Brigades manuever and higher HQ get trained is very seldom in most other militaries. A formal training system for basic trainees through COL. A system that attempts to objectivly select and train people. A normal SFC in the US Army may have over 2 years of nothing but formal training in TRADOC. Besides 4 years of ROTC a 2LT in the Infantry will get another year of formal training at Benning.

Selective. Without a high school degree you're not even concidered. No College degree- forget officer. Medical and criminal background checks are conducted and the standards are higher than most. Most MAJs and above have a masters or better.

Equipment. Absolutly the finest in the world. No one can match it. In some areas the capabilities so far exceed that of even our allies that it causes ineroperability problems. In a normal US Infantry unit you will see stuff that other countries use and reserve for a small cadre of Special Forces. NVGs for 100%, Interceptor body armor 100%, Combat optics...... Unparalelled

Experience. Look at the US involvement in Liberia, Somalia, Desert Storm, Panama, Haiti, Columbia, Afgah., Bosnia, Kosovo, Iraq........ A very high percentage has seen action before. Some many times over. Do you realize that Franks and Wallace were still Vietnam vets?

Diversity! Yes, the politically correct but true point. Imagine going against someone who has native speakers in every language known within its ranks. People who could conduct strategic intelligence from within you country and blend right in. People who may be very helpful when interogating someone. Someone who may even know the area. Sound crazy huh?

Size. The AF and Navy is the biggest in the world. But even the Army is number 6 in sheer volume. That's out of 191 countries or so.

Industrial complex. Backed by the most technologically advanced and largest industrial power in the world (25% of the global economy by itself) the US can simply build whatever it needs quickly and well. Need more armored HMMWV? How many thousand you want? Oh, we went over on Tomahawk use this month? No problem. No one nation has the equipment to meet every foreseeable threat in any terrrain and equip it's forces for ALL contingencies. The US can build it though. QUICKLY!

Stable obvective and selective systems within. Promotion, retirement and so fourth. There are formal systems to promote the best qualified (not always 100%, but better than most). Concider the Saudis where you're an officer because you come from a certain family. Or Iraq, where idiots becam high ranking officers because the were loyal, not good. Even in some of our allied countries you have systems where people get promoted because of tenure (basically). In the US Army, at 10 years you might be a E-7, or an E-5. All depending on job performance.

Combine all of this and you end up with a discusting overmatch in power. Truth is, the US is just now realizing its power. The US has been isolationist in the past and not even interested in the outside world. Americans are just now realizing their countries might. People think this is new right? Fact is, during the civil war (1860s) the US had the worlds first and second most powerful forces fighting each other. Even then, it was observers from Europe who noticed the first use of trench warfare, submarine, balloons, machine gun (gatling) and more. America never thought itself a superpower. There is no Dr. Evil sceeming world domination like some think. It just kind of evolved that way. It's not one thing that makes the US armed forces great.

Red6