US-led Allied Bomb Strategy Fails in Iraq War: Times

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Friday, March 28, 2003

US-led Allied Bomb Strategy Fails in Iraq War: Times

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"Shock and Awe" bombing tactics have failed in its original purpose to force Iraqi President Saddam Hussein's regime into early submission at the start of the ongoing US-led war against Iraq, The Times reported on Thursday.

After a week of bombing, the "best-case" scenario, openly espoused by senior US and British officials, that shock-and-awe air strikes would frighten the Iraqi military either to surrender or turn against Saddam, has failed to materialize, the newspaper said.

"There is no doubt that the bombing has taken out a lot of Saddam's command-and-control network. But, psychologically, it's possible that the bombing has had the opposite effect to what we wanted to achieve," one British defense source was quoted as saying. "Those loyal to Saddam appear to be resolved to fight even harder."

Although Pentagon chiefs have been at pains to explain that the idea of "Shock and Awe" was not to flatten Iraq but to demonstratethe ability to select targets at will, the aim was clear -- to bring the war to a close as quickly as possible, the paper said.

Several thousand bombs, missiles and Tomahawks later, no one in the US-led coalition is suggesting that air power is going to topple Saddam, the paper concluded.

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