Quote:
Originally posted by Superbelt
Ustwo, what is special about 1998 is Operation Desert Fox.
Most accounts say we destroyed 95% or greater of all wmd's in Iraq. Plus we destroyed all the programs.
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Where are you getting these numbers?
The account from the commander who directed Desert Fox, Marine General Anthony Zinni, says Desert Fox was 74% successful.
Quote:
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Refuting earlier suggestions from the Pentagon that the attack was a mixed success, Zinni called the airstrikes perhaps the most accurate in U.S. military history. U.S. and British bombs and missiles, he said, had struck 85 of the nearly 100 targets attacked. About 74 percent of the total number of strikes were "fully successful," a number that contrasts somewhat with preliminary figures given by the U.S. Joint Staff in the past two days.
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(
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...tary122298.htm)
Also at
http://www.cnn.com/US/9812/21/iraq.us.forces/ and
http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Dec1...t1221fox.html.
These numbers were also correlated with Air Marshall John Day's statements, at
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/events/cr...ws/238605.stm.
Quote:
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British Deputy Chief of the Defence Staff, Air Marshal Sir John Day, said 85% of the targets attacked were hit, and 74% of them suffered significant damage.
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And from
http://www.fas.org/news/iraq/2000/02..._t0201asd.htm, regarding WMD targets:
Quote:
QBack on Iraq. As I recall, the things that were targeted in Desert Fox were basically aeronautical infrastructure, potential delivery systems for weapons of mass destruction. To what extent do you think they've rebuilt that kind of thing? And am I right in recalling you didn't actually target any weapons of mass destruction or places where such things could be stored or made?
MR. BACON: You're generally correct in that we targeted missile repair and production facilities. And a number of those buildings have been reconstructed. We don't know what's happening inside the buildings.
QBut in the -- I'm sorry. If I could just follow on that, isn't it true or wasn't it said from this podium after Desert Fox that the target list didn't really include WMD production or storage sites, because of a variety of concerns, and that it was focused on delivery systems?
MR. BACON: It is true that we never announced targeting a WMD storage site. That's correct.
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Here is the list of WMD targets (all defined as "hit"):
- Biological Research Center (Baghdad University)
- Ibn al Haytham missile R&D center
- Karama electronics plant
- Al Kindi missile R&D facility (Mosul)
- Shahiyat liquid engine R&D, T&E facility
- Zaafaraniyah fabrication facility (Nidda)
and WMD-related (defined as "WMD Security" and all hit as well)
- Directorate of General Security headquarters
- Special Security Organization (SS0) headquarters
- Special Republican Guards (SRG) headquarters
- SSO Communications/Computer Center
- SSO/SRG barracks (Abu Ghraib, Radwinyah, Baghdad, Tikrit)
The same source quotes General Zinni again,
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Some have criticized the Desert Fox campaign for not going after suspected production sites of biological or chemical agents. The common refrain is that the United States avoided such targets because of the potential for collateral damage, but this is not true. The targeters could not identify actual weapons sites with enough specificity to comply with Zinni's directive.
At a Pentagon briefing on Jan. 7, Zinni said the ease with which chemical and biological agents can be manufactured, particularly for terrorist type use, made bombing of potential dual-use facilities (such as pharmaceutical plants) futile. "There isn't going to be anything militarily" to eliminate or signficantly degrade those capabilities, he said, "if they're that easy to . . . establish."
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(
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv...q/analysis.htm)
From the above information I am not sure how it is possible that we know that Desert Fox destroyed 95% or greater of all WMDs in Iraq as well as the programs. We know we didn't hit everything, and we know we weren't even close to hitting everything. But, in my opinion, the political pressure on Clinton (the "Wag the Dog" nonsense) caused severely limited Desert Fox. Though, one wonders, why Clinton ordered the attack on such short notice. With all he had been through, surely he could have endured the political pressure for just a short while longer.
To the best of my knowledge, the 95% of WMD destroyed claim comes from Scott Ritter,
Quote:
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From 1991 to 1998, U.N. weapons inspectors, among whom I played an integral part, were able to verifiably ascertain a 90 percent to 95 percent level of disarmament inside Iraq. This included all of the production facilities involved with WMD, together with their associated production equipment and the great majority of what was produced by these facilities.
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(
http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0901-02.htm)
-- Alvin