![]() ![]() ![]() Hastings records it was no better during World War Two. ![]() Why? Because coalition air commanders did not know what constituted the sources and strength of Saddam’s (Hussein) will.” In Desert Storm, coalition air forces attempted to destroy the will of Iraq by bombing leadership targets in Baghdad, but these attacks failed miserably to degrade Iraq`s determination to resist. Bombing cities into dust sometimes works, as does targeting his military capabilities, but both are costly and have many drawbacks so the theorists can debate in their ivory towers until they run out of words. “Attacking an enemy’s will can pay big dividends, but it is hard to know exactly how to do it. The extremists on both sides hold that if you do one, then you don`t need to do the other. “There is a further debate among airpower intelligentsia about whether the attack should be aimed at destroying an enemy’s means (his military forces and the various facilities that allow him to make war) or his will (his determination to resist). The reality does not so much lie in between as it varies with the demands of the situation,” Clancy writes. The doctrinaire advocates of land power conceive of air only as flexible longer-range artillery, really useful only against those same enemy forces in the field. “The doctrinaire advocates of airpower believe, as an article of faith that destroying the “controlling centres” of an enemy nation will render the enemy impotent and helpless, no matter how powerful his forces in the field. ![]()
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