Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 1, 1991 TAG: 9102010544
SECTION: NATL/INTL PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: The Baltimore Sun
DATELINE: DHAHRAN, SAUDI ARABIA LENGTH: Medium
Their frustration is due in part to Iraq's willingness to portray apparent weakness as strength. Iraq unabashedly claims the propaganda value of a victory even when results in the field add up to a defeat, as appears to be the case with the battle in and around the Saudi border town of Khafji.
According to Saudi and U.S. officers, fighting ended there Thursday with the last Iraqi forces being captured, killed or driven back into Iraqi-occupied Kuwait. But well before the guns stopped firing Iraq was announcing a military success.
In Baghdad, the newspaper of the ruling Baath party declared that the clash changed "the direction and course of the showdown" and demonstrated Iraq's "superiority on the ground." Events at Khafji, the paper said, were "the omen of the thundering storm that will blow over the Arabian desert."
While many details about the clash remain unclear, Saudi officers insist that with U.S. air support their ground forces regained control over the entire town.
Iraq's version of events is simpler and more dramatic: Iraqi troops invaded, captured a town and killed Marines. It is a potentially powerful story for home consumption and for the effort to mobilize Arab and Muslim support for the Iraqi side.
It also adds to what U.S. officers call "the fog of war" - the inevitable confusion generated on a battlefield.
The "fog" can affect both foot soldiers and heads of state. A false account of victory, if believed, can motivate soldiers who might otherwise be dejected, or convince a national leader to press on with a lost cause.
Commanders trying to coordinate ground and air forces, as used at Khafji, acknowledge that actions rarely go according to plan and can be followed only with difficulty even by officers who know the script.
"You can sketch it all out on a piece of paper or open a field manual to get a concept of how it's supposed to work," said Army Lt. Col. Bill Reese, commander of a combined helicopter and infantry squadron. "But this is mounted warfare, and it happens very quickly and everything gets mixed up."
A clash can raise more questions than it answers. Did the attacking Iraqi column at Khafji carefully plan its actions? Or did it stumble into battle? Were its soldiers the best the Iraqi side has to offer? Or the dregs of the much larger force remaining in Kuwait? And which side learned more for use in clashes to come?
Because of the closed, authoritarian nature of Iraq, outsiders find it difficult to interpret actions there, even those that can be observed, as with the flight of more than 80 Iraqi aircraft to Iran.
It is not clear whether the pilots acted according to the orders of Saddam Hussein, or contrary to them. Nor is it clear whether their action helps or hinders the U.S.-led coalition. While the Air Force maintains that allied planes can operate at will over Kuwait and Iraq, officers concede that Iraq may have found a way to preserve its warplanes for later use.
One of the largest uncertainties is the readiness of the Republican Guards, the elite Iraqi units deployed in Kuwait and southern Iraq. Despite the assurances from senior commanders that everything is going well, U.S. pilots say they remain unsure of the bombing's effects.
"They're very well dug in," said a Marine pilot. "We're hurting them but it's hard to quantify how much we're hurting them."
"Who knows what type of game plan he has?" a second pilot said. "We've looked at all kinds of scenarios. Is he hunkering down and getting ready for this ground campaign? We don't know. But we've been attacking his capability to wage a ground campaign."
Pilots say that as their missions show them the immensity of the desert, they become more certain that at least some Iraqi units remain well-protected. "There are still a lot of areas that have not been bombed," a Marine colonel said. "It's a large force and it's a big desert."
by CNB