Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Air considerations in Iraq
Message-ID: <1990Aug14.034148.9836@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 14 Aug 90 03:41:48 GMT
References: <1990Aug8.030420.25701@cbnews.att.com>
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From: smb@ulysses.att.com (Steven Bellovin)

In article <1990Aug8.030420.25701@cbnews.att.com>, wb9omc@ea.ecn.purdue.edu (Duane P Mantick) writes:
> The F117a can be air-refueled by KC135's and KC10's based nearby
> (I'd bet there are said critters in Saudi Arabia, Incirclik Turkey
> if that's spelled right, and possibly in Israel) and could fly
> from Israel, as the Israelis do a pretty good job at security for
> their military.

We may be straying a bit far afield from sci.military on this one (call
it strategy rather than the usual focus here on hardware and tactics),
but it's extremely unlikely that the Israelis will be involved except
on a very covert level (i.e., intelligence support).  Apart from the
obvious -- the Saudis would *not* co-operate on any joint action involving
Israel -- Saddam Hussein's entire strategy is based on linking the U.S.
and Saudi efforts to Israel.  In particular, he's trying to portray the
whole opposition as a ``Zionist-American''plot, and is couching his
speeches to the Arab world accordingly, and with some success.  Arafat
and the PLO, and most of the ``radical'' wing of the Arab world (except
for Syria, which has been feuding with Iraq for a long time), have
already lined up behind Saddam Hussein.

It is possible, of course, that Iraq will make offensive moves that Israel
can't ignore, precisely to shift the world's focus.  I would imagine that
there are a lot of people losing sleep over that possibility in Jerusalem,
Washington, and even Riyadh.