Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!cbnews!military
From: bakken@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Bakken)
Newsgroups: sci.military
Subject: Re: Questionable value of air superiority
Summary: desert != jungle, Iraq != Vietnam, Iraq != Afghanistan
Message-ID: <1990Aug31.030902.24447@cbnews.att.com>
Date: 31 Aug 90 03:09:02 GMT
References: <1990Aug28.042628.28858@cbnews.att.com>
Sender: military@cbnews.att.com (William B. Thacker)
Organization: U of Arizona CS Dept, Tucson
Lines: 20
Approved: military@att.att.com



From: bakken@cs.arizona.edu (Dave Bakken)

In article <1990Aug28.042628.28858@cbnews.att.com> HARPER%ccvax.ucd.ie@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU writes:
>From: HARPER%ccvax.ucd.ie@pucc.PRINCETON.EDU
>                          The land war in Vietnam demonstrated that if a
>nation was willing to endure tremendous casualties caused by air warfare
>and continually bolster the land army that a winnable war could be fought.

There are a lot of places to hide in the jungle, and the Ho Chi Minh trail
was a faithful supply line.  There are no places to hide from air
power in the desert, and Iraq will have almost no external supply lines,
and internal ones would get hammered by air.   A potential war against
Iraq has very few valid comparisons to those in Vietnam or Afghanistan.
-- 
Dave Bakken                     Internet: bakken@cs.arizona.edu 
Dept. of Comp. Sci.; U.of Ariz. UUCP:     uunet!arizona!bakken
Tucson, AZ 85721; USA           Bitnet:   bakken%cs.arizona.edu@Arizrvax
AT&T: +1 602 621 4976           FAX:      +1 602 621 4246