Preface
Acknowledgments
The challenge
Raising the shield
Iraqi "saber-rattling"
Building the forces: Operation Desert Shield
Intelligence preparation of the battlefield
Knowing the enemy
Defense-in-depth: Iraqi land-warfare capabilities
"Kari": Iraq's integrated air-defense system
Iraq's long-range strike capabilities
Cold warriors in the desert
Forging the sword
Initial planning
Role of air power in offensive planning
Audacious plan
Desert Storm
Strategic attack
Iraqi withholding of strategic air-defense efforts
Empty battlefield: Scud-hunting in 1991
Costs and benefits of broader strategic targeting
On balance: the strategic air campaign
Desert Saber
Air-land battle
Cluttered battlefield
"Plinking" tanks and other targets in the KTO
Bomb-damage assessment in Desert Storm
Assessing and controlling the preparation of the battlefield
Ground war begins
Failure to trap the Republican Guard
Postwar characterization of Desert Storm
The war between the wars
After the storm
U.S. responses to ongoing Iraqi resistance
Failure of the 1991 uprisings against Saddam
Postwar resistance to the cease-fire terms
Creation of a southern no-fly zone
Building to crisis
January 1993 strikes on Iraq
"Tomahawk diplomacy"
June 1993 cruise-missile strike
"Basra breakout"
Iraq's October 1994 feint toward Kuwait
Struggle to maintain containment
Saddam's invasion of Kurdistan
Operation Desert Strike
Fallout from the era of "tomahawk diplomacy"
"Cheat and retreat" Iraq's resistance to U.N. inspections
Protecting the U-2 flights over Iraq
Development of enlarged coercive options
"Cheat-and-retreat" crises
Disarming Iraq
Striking the concealment mechanism
Bulking out the target sets
On regime change
Last "cheat-and-retreat" episode
Operation Desert Fox
Reflections on Desert Fox
Prelude to war
The no-fly zones after Desert Fox
Centralized execution in Operation Southern Watch
Decentralized rollback in Operation Northern Watch
Putting the brakes on Northern Watch
Devolution and evolution of Iraqi air defenses by 2001
February 2001 strike
Trying to back off in Operation Southern Watch
Ending resistance
Transitioning to war
Planning operation Iraqi Freedom
Operation Southern Focus and the slide to war
Failure of "cheat and retreat" in 2003
Start of Operation Iraqi Freedom
Ground before air
Reordering Operation Iraqi Freedom
"Shock and awe?"
Neutering the strategic air campaign
March on Baghdad
Lunge northward
Running into quicksand
Failed deep strike against the Medina division
"Smackdown": bombing through the sandstorm
Entering the cities
Shaping the coming battle for Baghdad
End of Saddam Hussein's regime
Ending resistance
Challenge project
Broader insurgency
Defensive and offensive coalition responses
Calibrating force
"No-go" zones and Iraq's season of battles
Securing the elections
Epilog: America's fifteen-year war in Iraq
Analyzing Iraqi resistance
Exploitation of U.S. military weaknesses
Challenge of ending resistance
Endnotes
Bibliography
Index.
OBNB doesn't sell books, but you may be able to find a copy at one of these websites:
Cradle of conflict : Iraq and the birth of modern U.S. military power by Michael Knights. ISBN 1591144442. Published by Naval Institute in 2005. Publication and catalogue information, links to buy online and reader comments.
