Voices: A war that restored confidence in military
Jim Michaels, USA TODAY 2:16 p.m. EST February 1, 2016
Bouncing along the open Saudi desert heading toward the first line of Iraqi troops, Marine Capt. Ray Sturm was aware of how exposed his unit was.
“I'd do anything for a tree to hide behind," he said to me before turning back to peer ahead as his unit raced forward.
American tanks and armored vehicles stretched for miles on either side of us, kicking up plumes of dust as they headed toward the border. No one knew what to expect when we got there.
As Task Force Ripper breached Iraq’s defensive lines, Iraq’s military, its will to fight largely broken after weeks of coalition bombing, offered little resistance. The Marines raced past hundreds of Iraqi soldiers who dropped their weapons and offered to surrender. Others had already withdrawn back to Iraq.
Iraq capitulated, Saudi Arabia was protected and Iraqi troops were driven from Kuwait.
But no matter how decisive it appeared to the American public at the time, there is no way to look back at the Persian Gulf War without marveling at how little it settled.
The United States has almost continuously been involved in the country since Iraqi forces agreed to a ceasefire on March 3, 1991.
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The war didn't solve the broader political issues that have continued to draw Americans into the oil-rich region, including long-simmering sectarian tensions, unstable governments and the growth of radical Islam.
But what gets overlooked is that the Gulf War was a watershed for America’s military, which emerged from the long shadow of Vietnam.
Reporters converging in the region starting in August 1990 when Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait concluded that morale among the U.S. military was low. They heard soldiers and Marines complaining about sitting around the desert and interpreted that through a Vietnam lens.
At the time, most of the public’s view of the military had been shaped by what they knew about the Vietnam war. The draft military during Vietnam was grappling with problems stemming from drugs and racism. Discipline was poor and the military’s leadership faced a credibility problem in Vietnam.
What many reporters and the public at the time of the Gulf War didn’t understand was how much the military had changed in the nearly two decades between Vietnam and the Gulf War. The generation of officers after Vietnam emerged from that war determined to rebuild the military and restore integrity among the officer corps, which had been tarnished by the war.
The press and the public were still fighting the Vietnam War even if the military had left it behind. Carlton Fulford, who commanded Task Force Ripper during the Persian Gulf War before retiring as a four-star Marine general, had served as a young officer in Vietnam.
“Marine Corps leaders learned a lot from Vietnam,” Fulford told me recently. “They took the time between the wars to correct a lot of shortcomings.”
Standards for recruits were increased, training improved and money was invested in arms and equipment.
That new U.S. military had its debut during the Gulf War, when the American public watched pilots on television drop precision bombs on targets and a well-trained and well-equipped military that made quick work of Saddam’s forces.
The low morale headlines began to fade and a different picture of the military began to emerge by the time U.S. forces crossed the border into Kuwait.
The generation that leads the U.S. military now has mostly grown up in the years since the Gulf War. They only know an American public that respects and admires the military, even if only a tiny percentage of the public serve in the armed forces.
But the generation that served in Vietnam knows how valuable that American support is — and how easily it can be lost.
“That can turn on a dime if you’re not careful,” Fulford said.
To maintain that trust, the U.S. military has to keep standards high and hold its leaders to account, he said. Its officers can't be seen as political.
"The military can never take the support of the American people for granted," said Andrew Krepinevich, a retired Army officer and president of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a think tank.
Maybe that’s the most important lesson from the Persian Gulf War.
http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/voices/2016/02/01/persian-gulf-war-marines-saddam/79523372/
