Gulf War Strategic Planning

One way of approaching this decision making process is through Bob Woodward's book, The Commanders. As a formal source for study of Gulf War strategic planning, it must be acknowledged that this book has significant disadvantages. It is a journalistic rather than analytical study; Woodward's concern is with the men who made the decisions and their interaction, not with the decisions themselves, or the strategic thought surrounding them.

On the other hand, Woodward is an acute and experienced observer of Washington and its "players." In the real world, decisions are not made in a world of abstract analysis, but in a world of policymakers interacting with one another and with their political environment. As Clausewitz said, war is an extension of politics by other methods. Woodward thus provides a unique window into the environment in which the key Gulf War decisions were made. In fact, what his account is revealed is that the most

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h higher than that of the defensive operation originally contemplated in Plan 91-1002. Bush had not, however, committed the US to the destruction of the Saddam regime, an action which would have had yet further costs, uncertainties, and ramifications. What lessons may be drawn from this episode? It demonstrates that, at crucial junctures, the policies even of democratic, constitutional states are shaped far more by the private decisions of their leaders than by either a public deliberative process or a staff consultative process. By a few words spoken to reporters, television cameras--and thus, the world--US policy in the Gulf crisis was set on a course that US military planners had not recommended or even contemplated. Endnotes Bibliography Woodward, Bob. The Commanders. New York: Pocket Books, 1991. In the third quarter of the eighteenth century, the art of war in the Western world had reached a high state of development, a development based on system and formalism. In organization, armies of the eighteenth century were fundamentally not unlike those of today, with a regularized system of ranks, and a table of organization ascending from companies through regiments, divisions, and corps. Enli
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Continental Line, Pocket Books, Gulf War, Kuwait Abandonment, President Bush, King Prussia, Saudi Arabia, Ottoman Turkey, White House, American Revolution--and, gulf war, continental line, president bush, plan 91-1002, george washington, invasion kuwait, eighteenth century, saudi arabia, able stand, iraqi invasion,
Approximate Word count = 1700
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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