The Mother of All Battles: Saddam Hussein's Strategic Plan for the Persian Gulf War

by Woods, Kevin M.

• ISBN13: 9781591149422
• ISBN10: 1591149428
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-08-01
• Publisher: Naval Inst Pr

Summary

Events in this story of the "Mother of All Battles," as Saddam Hussein designated the Persian Gulf War, are drawn from primary Iraqi sources including government documents, video, audiotapes, maps, and photographs captured by U.S. forces in 2003 from the regime's archives and never intended for outsiders' eyes. Book jacket.

Author Biography

Kevin M. Woods is an analyst with the Institute for Defense Analyses

Table of Contents

List of Figures and Tables	p. ix
Foreword	p. xi
Preface	p. xiii
A Note on Sources	p. xv
Notes	p. xvii
Introduction	p. xix
Purposes of This Study	p. xxi
Notes	p. xxiv
An Overview of the GulfWar from the U.S. Perspective	p. 1
The Diplomatic Background	p. 1
The Air War	p. 3
The Ground War	p. 5
Notes	p. 11
The "Victory" at al-Khafji	p. 14
Notes	p. 27
The Beginning: Saddam's Narrative	p. 31
A Long View	p. 31
The Iran-Iraq War as Precursor	p. 36
The Coming War of the Elephant	p. 40
Notes	p. 43
Saddam's Strategic Calculations	p. 47
Kuwait	p. 47
Notes	p. 57
Restoring the Branch to the Tree	p. 60
Planning an Invasion	p. 60
Yum al-Nida (Day of the Great Call)-The Invasion	p. 73
The Republican Guard's Blitzkrieg	p. 81
Notes	p. 88
Occupation and Consolidation	p. 93
A New Historical Juncture	p. 93
Extending Ba'ath Control	p. 96
Reaction and Iraqi Counteraction	p. 103
The Americans	p. 114
Notes	p. 118
The Iraqi Plan for the Defense of Kuwait	p. 124
Assessing the Coalition Threat	p. 126
Preparing a Naval Defense	p. 134
Notes	p. 163
Um Al-Ma'arik (The Mother of All Battles)	p. 172
The End-of-the-Epic Duel	p. 227
Notes	p. 250
Iraqi Lessons Learned	p. 262
Selected Iraqi Military Lessons	p. 268
Notes	p. 293
Saddam's Strategic Lessons of the War	p. 299
Saddam's Analysis of His Adversary	p. 304
Notes	p. 305
Epilogue: Insights from the Iraqi Perspective	p. 307
Notes	p. 309
Timeline	p. 311
Key Personalities	p. 319
Acronyms and Abbreviations	p. 323
References	p. 325
Books, Periodicals, Reports, Web sites	p. 325
U.S. Government Publications	p. 331
Harmony Media Files	p. 332
Harmony Document Folders	p. 336
Index	p. 345
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.