MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency
Falklands Echoes in Gulf War
The 45,000 British soldiers, airmen and sailors fighting in the Gulf War include many who liberated the Falkland Islands in 1982. Now, as then, elite troops include the Royal Marines, paratroops and the SAS. There are similar warships and aircraft, including the Harrier, which was so successful in 1982.
The chiefs of two of the armed services ? the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force ? were front line officers in the Falklands War, Admiral Sir Alan West, commander of the sunken frigate HMS Ardent, and Air Chief Marshal Sir Peter Squire, a Harrier pilot in 1982.
Two former senior SAS commanders involved in the Falklands War are writing regular commentaries in the media ? General Sir Peter de la Billiere, overall head of the SAS in 1982, and later the 1991 Gulf War Commander; and General Sir Michael Rose, who led the SAS attack on Pebble Island destroying Argentine aircraft and was later Commander of British forces in Kosovo.
General Rose takes the view that the invasion of Iraq has diverted concentration and resources away from the priority task of conducting the war on terrorism.
General de la Billiere has been giving regular assessments of the campaign and the character and strategies of the Iraqi leader, Saddam Hussein, whom he studied as his adversary in the first Gulf War. He describes the Iraqi leader as a paranoid control freak who does not even trust his own generals. This inhibits good, flexible military decision-making. By contrast, British commanders are encouraged to use their own initiative. They can even violate their rules of engagement, as he did in 1991 in one incident when he authorised Royal Navy ships to shoot down Iraqi aircraft.
Far heavier bombardment my be needed General de la Billiere argues that to maintain momentum the allied coalition forces may have to use more robust methods, causing higher casualties on both sides. His experience, in driving Iraqi forces out of Kuwait, was that Saddam does not respond to the threat of force ? only force itself.
It may therefore prove essential to subject Baghdad to far heavier aerial bombardment than it has so far suffered, and then launch an overwhelming assault by ground troops to bring the war to a rapid end.
"Unless we act decisively now and proceed with a balanced onslaught between air and land forces", General de la Billiere says, "Saddam's regime will limp on and threaten to drag the allied troops into a prolonged guerrilla campaign, something none of us wants".
Whatever happens, there is no escape this time for Saddam Hussein.
Falklands journalists report war Other regular commentators include journalists who became famous in the Falklands War ? the BBC's Brian Hanrahan, ITN's Michael Nicholson, and the newspaper journalist, Sir Max Hastings.
Referring to deaths by so-called friendly fire in the Gulf War, Max Hastings says it was known that several soldiers died in the Falklands from friendly fire, but he did not report the details. He believed the parents would prefer to believe their sons had died by enemy action ? not from British bullets or missiles. A helicopter crash in the Gulf, he says, reminds him of a Sea King helicopter which hit an albatross and fell into the South Atlantic just before the San Carlos landings in 1982, killing 22 men, including 20 SAS. No member of the SAS he knew ever resented those deaths. They all knew this was the price of war.
"The spectacle of men dying on the battlefield is always a terrible one". But, Max Hastings writes, "We must cherish the hope that their sacrifice can yield some small gain for generations yet unborn. It is only through such belief that virtuous men throughout history have been able to reconcile themselves to the tragic price of conflict".
Harold Briley, (MP) London
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