Schwarzkopf, H. Norman

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Schwarzkopf, H. Norman

Excerpt from a press briefing in which he explained coalition military strategy

Held in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, on February 27, 1991

U.S. Army General H. Norman Schwarzkopf was the commander of the coalition military forces from more than thirty-five countries during the 1991 Persian Gulf War. He was primarily responsible for directing the coalition's successful attack strategy, which received the code name Operation Desert Storm. This military operation achieved its objective, forcing Iraqi troops to withdraw from neighboring Kuwait, after only six weeks of fighting. The coalition forces suffered remarkably light casualties, with around one thousand soldiers killed or wounded. Some historians have called Operation Desert Storm the most successful military operation in history.

On February 27, 1991, Schwarzkopf gave a briefing (a type of speech intended to update or inform) in the ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. His one-hour speech was attended by two hundred journalists and military officials, and it was broadcast live on television in the United States and thirty other countries around the world. During his speech, which is excerpted here, Schwarzkopf described the coalition's military strategy in great detail. He explained exactly how the forces under his command managed to defeat the Iraqi army.

Often referring to charts, the general showed reporters how the Iraqi defenses had been positioned in Kuwait. He told them how coalition planes and missiles had hit the enemy with nearly constant bombing attacks over a period of nearly six weeks. One goal of this air war was to destroy the Iraqi army's ability to see where coalition troops were positioned. Once this goal was accomplished, Schwarzkopf explained, it allowed a large coalition attack force called VII Corps to secretly circle around behind the Iraqis and attack them from the rear. The coalition strategy completely fooled the Iraqi army, which expected the attack to come from the front. Thousands of Iraqi soldiers surrendered shortly after the ground war began, while thousands of others retreated to Iraq. Coalition forces succeeded in liberating, or freeing, kuwait after just four days of ground combat.

Things to remember while reading the excerpt from General Schwarzkopf's press briefing:

On February 22 U.S. President George H. W. Bush gave Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein until noon the following day to begin withdrawing his troops from Kuwait. Since there was an eight-hour time difference between Washington, D.C., and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, the deadline was 8:00 PM on February 23 according to Saudi time. Saddam failed to withdraw by this deadline, so at 4:00 AM Saudi time on February 24, Schwarzkopf launched the coalition ground attack. He says in his speech that he pushed the launch of the ground attack forward because of forecasts of approaching bad weather, reports of Iraqi mistreatment of Kuwaiti citizens, and widespread burning of Kuwaiti oil wells by Iraqi soldiers.
Although some fighting was still going on when Schwarzkopf gave his briefing, it was clear that the coalition was on the verge of winning the war.

Excerpt from General Schwarzkopf's press briefing

I promised some of you a few days ago that as soon as the opportunity presented itself, I would give you a complete rundown on what we were doing, and more important, why we were doing it—the strategy behind what we were doing. I've been asked bySecretary Cheney to do that this evening, so ... we're going to go through a complete briefing of [Operation Desert Storm]....

[Schwarzkopf explains that coalition ground forces initially lined up along the Saudi border facing north into Kuwait, directly across from Iraqi defensive positions.] Basically, the problem we faced was this: When you looked at the troop numbers, they really outnumbered us about three-to-two, and when you consider the number of combat service support people we have—that'slogisticians and that sort of thing in our armed forces—we were really outnumbered two-to-one. In addition to that, they had 4,700 tanks versus our 3,500 when the buildup was complete, and they had a great deal more artillery than we do.

I think any student of military strategy would tell you that in order to attack a position you should have a ratio of approximately three-to-one in favor of the attacker. In order to attack a position that is heavily dug in andbarricaded such as the one we had here, you should have a ratio of five-to-one. So you can see basically what our problem was at that time. We were outnumbered, and ... we had to come up with some way to make the difference....

Secretary Cheney

Secretary Cheney: U.S. Secretary of Defense Richard Cheney.

Logisticians

Logisticians: Soldiers who collect and transport supplies for the military.

Barricaded

Barricaded: Hidden behind barriers.

Theater of operations

Theater of operations: An area where military combat takes place.

What we did, of course, was start an extensive air campaign. One of its purposes, I told you at the time, was to isolate the Kuwaititheater of operations by taking out all the bridges and supply lines that ran between [Baghdad to] the north and the [Iraqi troops in the] southern part of Iraq and Kuwait. We also conducted a veryheavy bombing campaign, and many people questioned why. The reason is that it was necessary to reduce these forces down to strength that made them weaker, particularly along the front-line barrier that we had to go through.

Amphibious

Amphibious: Combining land and sea operations.

We continued our heavy operations out in the sea because we wanted the Iraqis to continue to believe that we were going to conduct a massiveamphibious operation in this area....

As you know, very early on we took out the Iraqi air force. We knew that he [the enemy] had very, very limitedreconnaissance means. And therefore we took out his air force, for all intents and purposes we took out his ability to see what we were doing down here in Saudi Arabia. Once we had taken out his eyes, we did what could best be described as a "Hail Mary" play in football. I think you recall when the quarterback is desperate for a touchdown at the very end [of a game] what he does is, he steps up behind the center and all of a sudden every single one of his receivers goes way out to one flank, and they all run down the field as fast as they possibly can and into the end-zone, and he lobs the ball. In essence, that's what we did.

When we knew that he couldn't see us anymore, we did a massive movement of troops all the way out to the extreme west, because at that time we knew that he was stillfixed in this area [Kuwait] with the vast majority of his forces, and once the air campaign started he would be incapable of moving out tocounter this move, even if he knew we made it. There were some additions to Iraqi troops out in this [northern] area. But they did not have the capability nor the time to put in the barrier that had been described by Saddam Hussein as an absolutelyimpenetrable tank barrier that no one would ever get through, I believe those were his words.

So this was an extraordinary move. I must tell you, I can't recall any time in theannals of military history when this number of forces have moved over this distance to put themselves in a position to be able to attack. But what's more important, not only did we move troops out there, but we literally moved thousands and thousands of tons of fuel, of ammunition, of spare parts, of water, and of food out here into this area, because we wanted to have enough supplies on hand so that if we launched this and got into a slugfest battle, which we very easily could have gotten into, we'd have enough supplies to last for 60 days. It was a gigantic accomplishment....

By February 23, the [Iraqi] front lines had beenattritted down to a point where all of these [Iraqi] units were at 50 percent [strength] or below. Thesecond level —and these were really tough fighters that we were worried about—were attritted to someplace between 50 and 75 percent, although we still had theRepublican Guard, and parts of the Republican Guard were very strong. We continued tohit the bridges all across this area, to make absolutely sure that no morereinforcements came into battle....

Reconnaissance

Reconnaissance: The act of gathering information to use in military operations.

Fixed

Fixed: Dug into defensive positions.

Counter

Counter: Defend against or block.

Impenetrable

Impenetrable: Impossible to break through.

Annals

Annals: Historical records.

Attritted

Attritted: Reduced in numbers or weakened.

Second level

Second level: The next layer of Iraqi defenses behind the front lines.

Republican Guard

Republican Guard: An elite, one hundred thousand-man force that was the best-trained and best-equipped part of Iraq's army.

Hit

Hit: Bomb or destroy.

Reinforcements

Reinforcements: Additional troops and supplies.

This then was the morning of February 24. Our plan initially had been to do exactly what the Iraqis thought we were going todo, and that's take them on head-on into their most heavily defended area. Also, at the same time, we launched amphibiousfeints and naval gunfire, so that they continued to think that we were going to be attacking along the coast, and therefore fixed their forces in this position. They wouldn't know what was going on. I believe we succeeded in that very well.

At four in the morning, the Marines ... launched attacks through the barrier system.... At the same time, two Saudi task forces also launched apenetrator through the barrier. But while they were doing that, [a French armored division] launched an overland attack to their objective—Salman airfield [in southwestern Iraq]. We were held up a little bit by the weather, but by eight in the morning, the 101st Airborne launched an air assault deep in the enemy territory to establish a forward operating base.... What we found was as soon as webreached these obstacles and started bringing pressure, we started getting a large number of surrenders.

Feints

Feints: Mock attacks designed to distract the enemy's attention away from the true area of attack.

Penetrator

Penetrator: A military operation intended to break through a barrier.

Breached

Breached: Broke through.

We were worried about the weather. The weather, it turned out, was going to get pretty bad the next day and we were worriedabout launching this air assault, and we also started to have a huge number ofatrocities —of really the most unspeakable types—committed in downtown Kuwait City, to include reports that thedesalination plant had been destroyed. And when we heard that, we were quite concerned about what might be going on. Based upon that, and the situation as it was developing, we made the decision that, rather than wait until the following morning to launch the remainder of those forces, we would go ahead and launch those forces [VII Corps] that afternoon.

This was the situation you saw the afternoon of the 24th. The Marines continued to make great progress going through the breach in this area—and we were moving rapidly north. The task force on the east coast was also moving rapidly to the north and making very, very good progress. We launched another Egyptian-Arab force, and another Saudi force, again to make the enemy continue to think that we were doing exactly what he wanted us to do, and that was to make a headlong assault into a very, very tough barrier system. At the same time, we continued to attack with the French. We also launched an attack on the part of the entire VII Corps....

At the same time—and because of our deception plan and the way it worked, we didn't even have to worry about a barrier—the 3rd Armored Division just went right around the enemy and were behind him in no time at all. And the 1st Armored Cavalry. The 24th Mechanized Division also launched out in the far west. Once the 101st had their forward operating base established there, they went ahead and launched into theTigris andEuphrates valleys.

Atrocities

Atrocities: Extremely cruel or brutal acts.

Desalination plant

Desalination plant: A facility that converts salty seawater into drinking water.

Tigris

Tigris: A major river that runs through Iraq, just east of Baghdad.

Euphrates

Euphrates: A major river that runs through Iraq, just west of Baghdad.

Unopposed

Unopposed: Without meeting any enemy resistance.

Eject

Eject: Remove by force.

There are a lot of people who are still saying that the object of the U.S. was to capture Iraq and cause the downfall of the entire country of Iraq. Ladies and gentlemen, we were 150 miles away from Baghdad and there was nobody between us and Baghdad. If it had been our intention to take Iraq, if it had been our intention to destroy the country, if it had been our intention to overrun the country, we could have done itunopposed, for all intents and purposes. But that was not our intention. Our intention was purely toeject the Iraqis out of Kuwait and destroy the military power that had come in.

What happened next...

The U.S.-led coalition declared a cease-fire a few hours after Schwarzkopf gave his briefing. Although this meant that coalition forces would stop offensive military action, the cease-fire would not be official until Iraq agreed to its terms. On March 3 General Schwarzkopf and a number of other coalition military leaders (including Major General Jabir al-Sabah, commander of the Kuwaiti forces; Lieutenant General Khalid bin-Sultan, commander of the Saudi forces; Lieutenant General Michel Rocquejeoffre, commander of the French forces; and Lieutenant General Sir Peter de la Billiere, commander of the British forces) met with eight Iraqi military officers in Safwan, Iraq. The Iraqi representatives agreed to all coalition terms for a permanent cease-fire, effectively ending the Persian Gulf War.

Did you know...

During a question-and-answer period following his briefing, General Schwarzkopf made it clear that he did not hold a high opinion of Saddam Hussein as a military leader. "As far as Saddam Hussein being a great military strategist, he is neither a strategist, nor is he schooled in the operational arts, nor is he a tactician, nor is he a general, nor is he a soldier," he stated. "Other than that, he's a great military man."
Another reporter asked Schwarzkopf to analyze the performance of Iraq's troops. "A great deal of the capability of an army is its dedication to its cause and its will to fight. You can have the best equipment in the world, the largest numbers in the world, but if you're not dedicated to your cause, then you're not going to have a very good army," he replied. "So I attribute a great deal of the failure of the Iraqi army to their own leadership. They committed [their troops] to a cause they did not believe in. [Captured Iraqi soldiers] are all saying they didn't want to be there, they didn't want to fight their fellow Arabs, they were lied to when they went into Kuwait. And then after they got there, they had a leadership that was so uncaring that they didn't properly feed them, didn't properly give them water, and in the end, kept them there only at the point of a gun."